Hook Grip Lessons

The hook grip is a method of holding a barbell. Instead of just holding the bar in your hands, you put your thumbs under your pointer and middle fingers and this creates a stronger, more effective grip. The hook grip is hard at first. It doesn't feel natural. It can hurt. I kept hearing that once you got used to the hook grip, you'd never go back, but it didn't feel right to me. My thumbs didn't feel long enough. I couldn't clean the weight I was used to.

I keep gym equipment stock photos on my computer for this very reason.
This is an old one from CrossFit Central LI.

When I moved down to Atlanta, I made the conscious decision to transition permanently to the hook grip. My one rep max clean and jerk was 105#. I dropped back down to 35#. It was the most weight I could correctly clean using the hook grip. And it sucked. No one wants to drop 70# off their lift. But it's better to learn something correctly than to continue to get better at doing something wrong.

Recently I noticed that hook grips are second nature to me now. This morning I completed a clean complex (power clean, hang squat clean, 2 front squats) at 95# and it didn't hurt, it didn't feel weird, and it went up pretty easily.

The lesson of the hook grip applies to other aspects of life. What other things could I change if I decided to stop, reset, and learn again?