Slay the Dragon in Its Lair

There is an old idea that gets passed down in different forms:

Slay the dragon in its lair before it comes to your village.

Most people misunderstand this.

They hear it and think it means “go looking for problems.”
It does not.

It means stop living on defense.

Because when you live on defense, problems decide the timing.
They arrive when you are tired.
When you are busy.
When you are unprepared.

And by then, the damage is already done.

Offense is different.
Offense is when you become the kind of person for whom certain problems no longer register as problems at all.

Not because life got easier.
But because you got stronger.

Why Problems Feel Bigger Than They Are

Early in life, the challenges are small.

Getting up on time.
Doing your chores.
Paying attention.
Following rules you did not choose.

Those are early tests.
Basic responsibilities.

As you grow, the problems scale.

Managing your health.
Showing up consistently.
Handling pressure.
Building something that lasts.
Carrying responsibility without being told.

The mistake people make is thinking the problem is the enemy.

It is not.

The untrained version of you is.

A responsibility only feels overwhelming when you are underprepared for it.

The same way a weight feels heavy until you train for it.

Why Hard Is Good (When You Understand It)

People avoid difficulty because they think it means something is wrong.

But difficulty is usually a signal of mismatch, not failure.

The challenge exists because it is asking something of you that you have not become yet.

That is not punishment.
That is an invitation.

Think about it this way:

A million-dollar business comes with million-dollar problems.
A strong body comes with training stress.
A disciplined life comes with structure and constraint.

The reward makes sense only because the problem was hard.

If the problem were easy, the outcome would be worthless.

No one respects a title that was handed out.
No one admires strength that was never tested.
No one trusts confidence that has never been earned.

Why You Should Stop Playing Defense

Most people live reactively.

They respond when things break.
They wait until pain forces change.
They fix symptoms instead of causes.

That is defense.

Defense looks like this:
“I’ll deal with it when it gets bad.”
“I’ll start when things calm down.”
“I’ll fix it after I fall off again.”

That is why progress feels fragile.

Offense is different.

Offense is when you choose the problem.

You name it.
You understand it.
You train against it on purpose.

For many people, training five days a week feels hard.
For someone who has done it for years, it is not a challenge.
It is their minimum.

That dragon was slain a long time ago.

Not in one heroic moment.
But through repetition.

When Skill Starts Looking Like Luck

This is where people get confused.

They see someone who is always disciplined.
Someone who never seems to fall off.
Someone who “just has it figured out.”

They call it luck.

What they are really seeing is repetition.

You fight the same problem long enough, and it stops being dramatic.
You solve the same challenge enough times, and you stop fearing it.
You train the same skill long enough, and it becomes reflex.

At that point, the solution looks effortless.

Not because it is easy.
But because it is familiar.

Luck is what people call preparation they did not witness.

They did not see the early mornings where you did not want to get up.
The nights you wanted to quit.
The boring meals.
The sessions you did without hype.

You fought that problem so many times it stopped feeling like a fight.

Becoming Someone Problems Bounce Off

This is the part most people miss.

The goal is not to avoid problems.
The goal is to become someone they no longer disrupt.

When you solve a problem once, you feel relief.
When you solve it repeatedly, you build identity.

Eventually:
The thing that used to derail you becomes background noise.
The challenge that used to drain you becomes manageable.
The obstacle that used to stop you becomes expected.

That is not toughness.
That is competence.

And competence compounds.

The Question That Actually Matters

So here is the real question:

What problem keeps showing up in your life because you have not trained against it yet?

Not the one you complain about.
The one you avoid preparing for.

And a second question, more important than the first:

Who would you have to become for that problem to stop being a problem at all?

Not temporarily solved.
Not managed.
Neutralized.

That is the work.

And that is why problems exist in the first place.

Name the dragon.
Slay it in its lair before it comes to your village.
Let that be a warning to the rest.

A Final Note

No one slays dragons by accident.

They prepare.
They study.
They learn, sometimes alone, sometimes from others who have been in the arena longer than them.

At times, isolation is a weapon.
At other times, perspective is.

Sharpening your thinking.
Refining your habits.
Learning how others survived the same battles.

If this resonated, keep equipping yourself.

Read the other entries here.
They are written as tools, not motivation.

If you want weekly perspective and structure that keeps you honest, subscribe to The Weekly Standard.

And if you want to stop improvising and build the capacity to handle bigger challenges, you can work with me directly.

Not because anyone is the answer.
But because no warrior becomes dangerous without training.

You decide how you fight.
Who you fight with.
And what you are willing to become.

Learn more at https://kaizeninfinity.fit

Courage is not the absence of fear.
It is choosing to step forward anyway.

Back to work.