When I think of this project two things come to mind for me, one more literal and one figurative, but both taught me lessons that I’ve applied to other areas of my life.
First, literally carrying weight in terms of weight training has shown me that the more frequently you willingly carry weight the more you will adapt. It wasn’t easy but I didn’t want it because it was easy. I wanted the resulting strength. Too much weight too soon or training too often can leave you unable to properly recover and possibly injure you. The same can happen with mental stresses. Properly developed, the adaptations that your mind and body forms can make you a better you. The better and stronger you are for yourself, the better you will be at helping others.
The second thing that comes to mind is my struggle with drug addiction. The process of withdrawal requires you to carry all the weight that you perceived as lifted off you by using in the first place. Drugs might slightly delay hard times, but they never help them. Being sober and more mentally present now I can say that carrying weight is necessary to derive meaning from life. Meaning is directly a result of how much responsibility you are willing to take on; how much weight you are willing to carry.
Finding actions that serve to make you stronger and are also enjoyable can be hard for many. That’s why the “having importance” meaning of “carrying weight” is both stressful and tolling as well as rewarding and flattering. Some value meaning over freedom and some value freedom over meaning but it’s all dependent on how much weight you are willing to carry.
