- Can one produce great music without going through the ordeal of producing bad music
- Can one write anything great without ever writing bad prose
- Can one code elegant computer programs without ever coding clunky and ugly programs
- Can we make big money in the Stock Market without ever losing big money
- Can one ever cook great dishes without ever dishing out culinary disasters
- Can we be great at relationships without ever screwing up on a few
- Can one be a great leader without ever having been accused of being a lousy one
- Can anyone be a great at any sport without ever having played mediocre
- Can one succeed in life without ever failing
It’s imperative to experience the bad in order to savor the good. It is imperative to experience the pain in order to savor the success.
It is a law of nature that for anything great to happen, we need to be prepared to go through 3 types of pain
- Pain of putting in the effort- e.g Working out for 2 hours , Studying 12 hours daily….
- Pain of sacrifice. e.g Sacrificing sleep to wake up at 4 am every morning to workout. Sacrificing fun for the discipline….
- Pain of failure. e.g losing money in the stock market, being passed over for promotion….
The pain one is willing to suffer, defines the extent of progress and growth one will experience.
Almost all of the inspirational stories we come across have this common theme of pain of all the 3 kinds. Extraordinary achievement coming on the back of extraordinary failure or extraordinary pain. Life is a bit like the trampoline.Greater the height of the drop, higher is the bounce back. Similarly, Greater the pain of effort and failure , Greater the rewards of growth and success !!
Whenever I seek achievement of any sort, I ask myself this simple question. Is the pain I am experiencing commensurate to the results I am seeking? Either I regulate my expectations or I bunker down for more pain- There is no other choice.