WHY NO PAIN, NO GAIN
On the Cost of Staying Still
Dear Why Team Member,
I hope this week’s message finds you well and enjoying spring—the season of rebirth, of vigor. It’s inspiring to see people outside—walking, running. You can tell that some have just started, while others have been at it for a while. As someone who trains regularly, I can attest to the power of vision and discipline—to see beyond the pain of new beginnings. Hence, this week we consider...
Why No Pain, No Gain?
We are either improving or declining, growing or dying—if not literally, then emotionally and psychologically.
The gym—where “No pain, no gain is most often heard—is the prime example.
Beyond the obvious physical pain—intentionally applied to build strength, endurance, and life-enhancing chemistry—consider the psychological pain required to establish an exercise discipline in the first place. Those who have trained for many years have long concluded that exercise is so life-giving, it is no longer optional:
Workout: Live.
Don’t Workout: Die.
With so many pleasures at our fingertips, choosing pain has become more difficult—as we design our lives for maximum comfort with minimal effort.
I have heard for years comments similar to this one:
“It must be nice, but for me, it comes at too high a price.”
Most people want to grow, but growth is change and change is rarely easy. Change can trigger a deep, subconscious reminder of death—the old dying to make way for the new.
For most of us, change means pain.
It is said that we will not choose the pain of change until we perceive that the pain of change will be less than the pain of staying where we are.
The operative word here is “perceive.” Many miss the benefits of change because they undervalue them. Why? Because many benefits from change cannot be fully quantified in advance of the change and certainly cannot be fully experienced until the change has been made.
Newton explained it simply:
A body at rest remains at rest unless acted upon by a force.
Are you comfortably numb?
Self-analyze: Are you so comfortably at rest that you have become numb to outside forces?
Nothing like a huge life change, usually a painful change, to rid ourselves of numbness and empower us to feel again, to live again. But, for many, this is rarely a choice made voluntarily. Those going through great change often share that they’ve never felt more alive—once they release the fear of it.
While I’m not suggesting you make any radical changes in your life, I am inviting you to no longer fear them. When we awaken to the fact that only lies can die, who wouldn’t want to experience a life filled with more truth and thus more freedom?
Pain of change? Yes.
Life is difficult—but the pain can be made less when we consider more the Gain; there is more aliveness in the midst of change, more connectedness with others and when you are more oriented to the gain, you are more likely willing to choose the pain.
For those who work out and train regularly, the emotional pain, necessary to establish the habit, has diminished over time as the value now far outweighs the cost.
Cost is only an issue in the absence of value.
For whatever it is that you would like to accomplish, weigh not just the cost (the pain), but more-so the value (the gain).
While many prefer the devil-they-know to the one they don’t, it’s often because they assume the devil they don’t know will be worse. The error is in the assumption—the devil they don’t know is likely not a devil at all - and has just become another rational lie to avoid the pain of change. Maybe this is what it truly means to rationalize.
Those who live: “better safe than sorry” often end up with a lot more sorry and a lot less safe.
Even in the moments when you think you miscalculated and the pain was greater than the gain, hang in there a little longer and look again, because there was the gain in self-confidence that you boldly said yes and didn’t run and hide. You grew more than you knew and learned more than you know.
“Fortune Favors the Bold”- Alexander the Great
This week, I am inviting you to live more fearlessly, embrace change more enthusiastically, and live more abundantly—for yourself and as a living example for others.
Make it a great week!
Steve Luckenbach