J.A. Westenberg wrote an article titled Unbruised Prosperity Makes You Weak (3 October 2026).
« Trees exposed to wind develop what botanists call reaction wood or stress wood. The constant flexing tells the tree to build denser, stronger tissue. Without it, a tree grows tall and soft. It looks healthy – right up until the moment its own weight becomes too much for it to bear. »
« Your judgment works the same way… So does your ability to sit with uncertainty, hear criticism without collapsing, make a decision without perfect information, be wrong in public, and keep going. If you spend years in a role where nobody challenges you, where the clients are easy, and revenue keeps growing on a predicted curve, and your opinions are celebrated by default, those capacities shrink. You won’t feel it happening; you’ll feel good, in fact, because comfort feels like competence from the inside. The atrophy only makes itself known when gravity rears its ugly and inevitable head. »
« You can read every book on resilience ever written and still fold the first time someone hits you, because reading about weight isn’t the same as lifting it. »
« The dose matters… Biologists have a name for this: hormesis. Small amounts of stress trigger adaptation, while large amounts cause damage. A bit of wind makes the tree stronger. A hurricane just knocks it down. Exercise is a controlled injury that your body repairs into something more capable. A car crash is not exercise. So what matters is whether you’re getting enough small, survivable stress to keep your capacities alive, or whether you’ve arranged your life so carefully that nothing ever pushes back. »
« Take the small bruises while you can choose them. Take them on purpose, at a dose that teaches without breaking. Grow some stress wood. »
