Not Everything Responds to Force
MAY 18, 2026
I wrote a book called Hunting Discomfort. My whole philosophy is: Go. Move. Do the thing. No Matter What. And right now I am waiting for a permit. There is no threshold to cross. There is a city office that will get to my paperwork when they get to it, and my feelings about that are irrelevant.
I'm remodeling my house and it's teaching me something I don't want to learn.
I'm the guy who wrote a book called Hunting Discomfort. I talk about crossing thresholds, leaning into the unknown, pushing through resistance. My entire philosophy is basically: Go. Move. Do the thing. No Matter What.
And right now I am waiting for a permit.
There is no threshold to cross. There is no discomfort to hunt. There is a city office that will get to my paperwork when they get to it, and my feelings about that are irrelevant.
I've also waited on contractors' schedules. On material deliveries that take eight weeks because that's how long they take. On timelines that don't care how motivated I am or how early I wake up.
This is maddening for someone like me. And probably for someone like you.
Because most of us got where we are by pushing. It worked. Push harder, go faster, outwork the problem. That's the muscle. And when you've built your life on that muscle, everything looks like something to push through.
But some things aren't resistance. They're just process. And the process doesn't move faster because you stare at it.
I keep catching myself wanting to call someone. Send another email. Check in again. Not because it helps (it doesn't) but because doing nothing feels like failing. Like if I'm not forcing progress, I'm losing ground.
That's the lie driven people tell themselves. That patience is passive. That waiting is the same as quitting. That if you're not pushing, you're falling behind.
It's not.
Sometimes patience is the hardest thing you do all day. Harder than any keynote. Harder than any uncomfortable conversation. Because it asks you to trust a process you can't control, on a timeline you didn't choose, without any of your usual tools working.
Sound familiar?
This isn't just about houses. It's about the product launch that needs another quarter. The team member who's growing but isn't there yet. The strategy that's right but needs time to take hold. The relationship that can't be rushed into trust.
You can push all of those. And you'll either break them or exhaust yourself. Or both.
The remodel will be done when it's done. My job isn't to speed it up. My job is to not make it worse by forcing it. And to stay honest about the fact that my discomfort with waiting is not the same thing as something being wrong.
Not everything responds to force. Some things just need time.
Patience isn't passive. Sometimes it's the hardest form of discipline, especially for people who built their lives on pushing through.
The next time you want to force something, ask: is this resistance, or is it just process?
What are you trying to push that actually just needs time?
Chat with AI Sterling → Take the quiz →What's your to-do list protecting you from?
Find out what you're avoiding, and what it's actually costing you.
→ Take the assessment