When to Persist, When to Quit, and How to Give a Shit | Coach JP Primeau | Episode 434

JP Primeau is a strength coach, former university football player, and Olympic weightlifting coach in Nova Scotia.

But this conversation isn't really about lifting.

It's about what happens when the identity you've spent years building begins to change.

JP and I talk about his transition from football into Olympic weightlifting and eventually coaching, what it feels like to go from being good at something to becoming a beginner again, and the difficult process of accepting that some of our ambitions may not turn out the way we imagined.

That leads us into a question I've been thinking about more and more: when does perseverance become stubbornness?

Stoicism teaches us to work with the obstacles life puts in front of us. But wisdom also requires us to ask whether we're pursuing the right obstacle in the first place. Sometimes continuing is courageous. Sometimes walking away is.

JP offers a useful rule for those decisions: don't make them only on your worst days. Make sure you still feel that way on a good one. 

Later, we turn toward coaching and leadership—why technical knowledge isn't enough, what it means to listen to what someone isn't saying, and why a good coach has to respond to the actual human being standing in front of them rather than blindly following the program. 

Near the end, JP summarizes much of the conversation in five words:

“It's a skill to give a shit.”

A conversation about strength, identity, perseverance, coaching, listening, and learning to genuinely care about the people we're responsible for.

Find JP Primeau:
Instagram: @CoachPrimo
Coaching: Primo Weightlifting Club
Based at KAOS CrossFit in Bayers Lake, Nova Scotia

JP coaches the Primo Weightlifting Club with team training on Thursdays and Saturdays. 

The Strong Stoic: strongstoic.substack.com