No pain no gain, the more you suffer in training the less you bleed in combat, suffer today so you can win tomorrow….. there are so many quotes abouts pain and suffering to achieve success. It is true that hard work involves a certain degree of pain, but do we have to look at it as suffering?
I trained myself to respond to pain in a positive way. The more fatigued I would get or the more pain was being inflicted, the harder I would go. This gave me an edge for getting through difficult tasks and to the ability to achieve things that were beyond my level of skill or condition. Basically, I would go until my body quit, not my mind.
In the immortal words of Patrick Swayze “Pain don’t hurt.” You can let pain hurt, connect it with negative adjectives or you can recognise it as part of the process to create a better you and to win. If you turn pain from a sign of something bad into proof that you are doing what it takes to succeed, pain will be fuel instead of this scary thing that makes you doubt yourself.
Pain is not hurt and hurt is not pain. We have to be very clear on this. If something is broke and you will make it worse by continuing, stop. If you are feeling pain but are not broken or seeing the signs of going too far – inflammation, dehydration, throwing up, severe headache…… basically – when your body is telling you to stop by acting outside of the normal sweat and burn routine, now you should stop and pay attention.
We are conditioned by the insulated bubbles we have made for ourselves. We do not have to fight for our existence like our forefathers had to. Hungry, go to the fridge. Thirsty, turn the faucet on. Tired, lay down on the couch or bed. Have to go somewhere, use one of the multiple avenues modern transportation provides. We have used technology to quit doing so many things, why would we want to push at anything? Our lives are not designed to push, we have been trained to create solutions that actual diminish the need for action.
You want to stand out or simply be better? Then recondition yourself. Learn to do more then bear your pain or accept it. Learn to enjoy the pain that comes with effort as a precursor to your success. When your heart is hammering and your lungs are burning – be happy! You are alive, you are fighting for something, and you are a person in action while the sheep are grazing into obscurity.
Turn pain into something positive. Turn hard work into something positive. Recondition yourself to love the hard way because easy just isn’t worth doing.
Be bold, be brave, be true to you……
Brian Wright