Count Only When It Starts Hurting

I believe Muhammad Ali was once asked how many sit-ups would do to prepare for a fight. His reply was priceless: “I don’t count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. When I feel pain, that’s when I start counting because that’s when it really counts.”

What powerful thinking.

Early in our lives and careers, when we start from zero, even taking a few steps can feel like a mile. There is an illusion of progress and momentum. However, that effort is par for the course. Life is like a marathon; the degree of difficulty keeps increasing as we grow in our lives and careers. There will be challenges, failures, and heartbreaks. We need to be prepared to deal with those in a balanced way.

As Mohammad Ali said, the timing of when we start counting matters.