Pushing through is great until it’s the wrong push. Knowing when to stop is also a skill.

Persistence gets all the praise, so stopping tends to feel like failure even when it is the accurate read. There is a real difference between the discomfort of hard work and the signal that something is wrong, and telling them apart takes as much practice as endurance does. Ignoring that signal is not toughness. It is usually a slower way of losing the same thing.

Before you push, ask what specifically hurts and whether it is effort or a warning. Let yourself stop once this week, and notice that nothing collapsed because you did.