What It Takes to Grow Long Hair

To grow long hair is much like building physical strength. You have to put in the time and the work. It must be earned.

You cannot buy it. You cannot steal it. You cannot borrow it. You cannot inherit or win it in the lottery. It can only be earned through commitment, perseverance, and time.

It starts with commitment, the foundation for perseverance.

You have to start with making a commitment to a future state, a different and better version of yourself. Only with a rock solid commitment will you have the strength to overcome the inevitable challenge, to endure the pain and discomfort, to persevere through the resistance.

Inevitably the challenges will mount, and with them come the voices of resistance.

Coined by Steven Pressfield in the War of Art, the Resistance is the self-sabotage, procrastination, fear, arrogance and self-doubt inside you. It’s made up of the voices telling you it’s too hard, that you don’t need to be doing this, offering a thousand reasons and excuses to break your commitment.

The voices are insidious and persuasive, clever and relentless. Like water, the resistance will find any crevice, any crack in the dam, any chink in the armor.

This is where perseverance is required. You must persevere through the challenges, beyond the voices, and above the resistance.

With firm commitment and unwavering perseverance, the final ingredient is time. You must maintain your commitment and persevere over time, continuously building, growing and overcoming adversity. Each time you persevere and refuse to break your commitment, you become stronger.

The work must continue, because you are playing the long game. And the only way to win the long game is over time.

That’s why growing long hair is like building physical strength. They have the same requirements. And no one’s gonna give it to you...you have to earn it.