As I am a bit of a gym rat (too), I read quite a bit about training. It turns out that the latest research shows that the best way to build muscle is to push yourself to failure in every set. So, do as many repetitions until you simply know that the next rep is not in the cards. By doing that, you force the muscle to grow and you increase your capacity. I notice this in many parts of my life. When I return from a solid, relaxing vacation and go back to work, I get irritated or stressed about things that would not even register before I went on vacation. I would just deal with them without getting upset or even noticing any irritation. Research shows that our brains simply take the status quo as the normal and anything outside of it becomes a source of frustration, stress and annoyance. There is a wonderful study where people are asked to rank human faces as threatening or friendly. As the study goes on, fewer and fewer angry, threatening faces are shown, but the study participants start to rate more of the friendly faces as threatening as we recalibrate. So, as a reflection for today: if there is something in your life you are really upset or stressed about, is it because it is a genuine problem or do you simply have to increase your capacity?