I’m writing this article on a Saturday morning from the gym as I rest between sets of what is my hardest weightlifting session of the week.
There is something about this workout that always challenges me. It’s painful.
This session consists of a round of heavy lower body compound movements and a later round of challenging multi-phase upper body movements. From my feet to to my shoulders, each part of my body is taxed during this session – Including my heart and lungs.
Because of this, my body screams for me to stop and I’m usually tempted to run from the pain.
For as hard as they are, these sessions are usually no more than a battle of the mind. As such, today I was able to dig deep into the mental well and formulate a new idea that helped me crush this workout.
I think this idea can also help exceed in life and with our money, so here it is.
Pain Is A Privilege
The thought I created to push myself through that challenging workout was “pain is a privilege”.
That is, instead of brooding over the difficulty of the exercises and stalling between sets – I shifted my perspective to see the pain I was facing as an advantageous opportunity to grow and make myself stronger.
Specifically, facing the pain of difficult workouts are fortuitous opportunities to develop my ability to face other difficult challenges. Since the path toward success is laden with difficulties, it is a privilege to be able to use difficult workouts as a training tool for growing stronger.
Choosing Your Pain Is A Privilege
A more nuanced way that pain is a privilege is when we are able to choose our pain in life. For example, I am afforded the privilege of being able to make the choice to tackle a difficult workout.
All over the world there are people thrust into difficult and painful situations they would rather not be in.
Some parts of the world are facing war while others face famine, starvation, exploitation, and a general lack of resources. All of these places share a common thread that the people have tough situations that aren’t of their choosing.
Meanwhile, I’m here in my comfortable and privileged life fretting about a few moments of pain in a gym that I chose to enter upon my own free will.
Pick Your Pain
That brings me to my final point that those of us who can choose our pain should be grateful because having that choice is truly a privilege.
By the same token, the next time we find ourselves in a painful situation, we should consider if we’re really just choosing that pain versus the pain of some unchosen alternative.
For instance, being broke is painful, but most people choose that position because the hard work required to win with money is even more painful to do.
As evidenced by an average U.S. savings rate of 3.2%, most people would rather languish in the pain of financial despair rather than choosing the pain of tightening the belt, saving shit tons of money, and making sacrifices.
Most people would rather take fancy trips in spite of how expensive traveling is. Most people aren’t willing to carve out time in their schedules to track their lifetime earnings and plug spending leaks. Most people would rather act rich than do the painstaking work to actually climb through the levels of financial freedom.
The path to win with money is painful. Being broke is also painful. But the good news is that we still have the privilege to be able to choose between the two.
My question for you is which version of pain are you opting for?