PAIN MANDATORY, MISERY OPTIONAL
Doing the hard work it takes to become a champion is not for the faint of heart. Striving to reach your potential, earning the success you say you’re after, and becoming someone worthy of winning in any important area of life is tough. In fact, sometimes it downright hurts.
Physically, you’ll have to push yourself well beyond your comfort zone, past the point of fatigue and maybe even into flat-out agony. You’ll be sore. You’ll be hurt. You’ll be exhausted. And not only will your body be broken, at times your spirit will be, too. You’ll be frustrated, disappointed, and embarrassed. You’ll be annoyed, upset, and angry. Your mind and body will be put to the test again and again on the long journey to becoming your best.
But I do want you to see clearly today that while pain is mandatory, misery is optional. We don’t get to choose whether or not we’ll have to endure the many mental and physical challenges that come with pursuing success, but we do get to choose how we see those challenges, and the part we assign them to play in our story.
Ultimately, what we’re talking about here is the power of our perspective. The truth is, champions have a way of seeing things differently, and that makes all the difference. I’m not saying they enjoy all these challenging moments they’re forced to endure along the way, but I am saying that champions have accepted that pain - in all its forms - is part of the price that must be paid. They recognize that greatness isn’t for everyone, and that tough moments have a way of weeding out the frauds and the pretenders. They recognize that while painful moments break some people, those same moments make others into the tough, resilient competitors that winning requires them to be.
Champions have a way of seeing things differently, and that makes all the difference.
The frauds and the pretenders - the losers, let’s call them - they see things differently, too. To them, pain is punishment. The exact same challenges the champions saw as a necessary and in some ways even valuable part of their experience, the losers see negatively. Their perspective focuses on the unfairness of their situation, and when things start to hurt, it encourages them to do all those things that losers do. They blame. They complain. They become miserable and make those around them miserable, too. Usually, eventually, they quit.
The famous early-American philosopher Henry David Thoreau said, “It’s not what you look at that matters; it’s what you see.” That’s so true, and it speaks directly to the power of our perspective. What we see determines what we think. What we think determines what we decide to do, and what we do ultimately determines who we become. For both the champion and the loser - and for each of us, too - there is great power in our perspective. I want to challenge you to take a minute today to evaluate your perspective, especially on some of the painful parts of your experience. How do you see those challenges? What part have you assigned them to play in your story? And does your perspective encourage you to do what champions do, or to settle for something less?
Yes, reaching your potential, earning the success you say you’re after, and becoming someone worthy of winning in any important area of life is tough. In fact, sometimes it downright hurts. It’s not easy, but in the end I hope you can see it’s not supposed to be easy! If it was easy, everybody’d do it. Remember, you don’t get to choose whether or not you’ll have to endure the many mental and physical challenges that come with becoming a champion, but you do get to choose how you see those challenges. Pain? It's a mandatory part of the experience...but misery? That's up to you.