Back to Basics
There is a truth that keeps repeating while reading Strong Ground by Brené Brown.
What struck me was not a dramatic revelation, but a recognition of something I see repeatedly in my work, and if I am honest, something I have also had to sit with myself.
Success, Impact and Resilience is built by continually doing the fundamentals.
When people come to work with me, the solopreneurs, founders and leaders who are driven, capable, and already successful in many ways.
There is often an expectation that we will move straight into the advanced work. Strategy, scale, impact and growth.
Then comes the friction, where we slow things down and return to basics. That is usually where frustration shows up.
It can feel uncomfortable to revisit foundations when you believe you have already moved beyond them, yet that discomfort is often pointing to exactly what needs attention.
I have seen this dynamic play out beyond my work at Creative Muscle. Like when my son started playing football for the local team, I asked a close friend, Carlos, to coach him.
My son (and I) expected drills that looked impressive, something that felt like progress. Instead, the sessions focused on first touch, simple passing, and control of the ball. Over and over again.
At first, it felt almost insulting to his sense of ability. Over time, his confidence increased, his skills became stronger, and his relationship with the game changed because the basics no longer demanded effort.
That same lesson met me when I was 14 and first walked into a boxing gym. I was eager to put gloves on and get into pad work or the ring.
What actually happened was six weeks without gloves at all. Conditioning, running, skipping, strength work and then repetition of all of the above.
At the time, it tested my patience. Looking back, it gave me a physical and mental base that made everything else possible and sustainable.
This has approach has remained some 40 odd years later when returning to the gym for strength and conditioning (without injury).
This is exactly where many SOULpreneurs get caught out. There is a desire for scale, visibility, sales, and recognition, all of which are valid.
The issue arises when those outcomes are pursued without the foundations to support them. Clarity of intent, disciplined habits or rituals, energetic capacity, and honest self leadership are rarely glamorous, yet without them the bigger goals remain fragile.
Progress does not come from bypassing the basics. It comes from returning to them with intention, refining them, and allowing repetition to do its work.
Each pass, each run, each small adjustment strengthens the structure underneath everything else, just like our physical bodies.
If you want impact that lasts, growth that does not cost your health, and success that feels aligned rather than hollow, then fundamentals are not a step backwards.
They are the ground you build on, again and again, until the structure can carry what you are asking of it.
My name’s Earl the Resilience Guy
Resilience is a system.
I guide entrepreneurs and leaders to build from alignment, create from inspiration and craft a sustainable life on their own terms.
For Living on Purpose.. as a SOULpreneur.