#140 The Gain of Pain

The adage of “no pain, no gain” might be tried and true. But it is also misunderstood.

First, pain is a signal. It’s that check engine light that comes on. A sign that something is wrong and should be investigated.

Hiding from it certainly won’t fix your car and neither will ignoring it but sometimes you have to make do and just get where you’re going.

To go a little deeper, the check engine light (pain) can raise questions about what you were doing or not doing to cause that light to appear on your dashboard. Maybe you were flying over speed bumps or driving in first gear the last 20,000 miles. Or it could just be time for that maintenance after years of abuse.

Either way, pain is good. Something I learned from past surgeries is that it’s better to feel pain than to feel nothing. Nothing means (A) you’re dead or (B) you’re numb from drugs. Both things keeping you away from what you want to do.

So embrace the pain because it will be here as long as you live but you can use it to reach new levels or let it stop you in your tracks.