What is pain?

We all know pain.  Physical pain, and emotional pain.  But while pain will come as a part of life, in more or less measure depending on what we do, if we go around spending all our energy trying to avoid it completely because we are afraid of it, we will be even more injured when it comes anyway. We’ll have spent lots of resources of all kinds thinking about pains that have not happened, or may never happen, or that haven’t happened yet.

While pain is inevitable, must we suffer from pain?  Can we just observe pain, and be aware of it, while not suffering?

Recently I ran a Spartan Beast race.  A 15-mile run with 60 intense obstacles. The Killington Beast in particular – the hardest one in the country for its steep ascents that go forever – and ever.  I tried this theory out with physical pain.  With my legs burning I decided not to suffer.  After all, while I have a body, I am not my body.  For example, my 10 year old body is long gone, yet I am still here – now with this body. So I observed my pain without being consumed by it.  I decided not to suffer, but to just be aware.

Was it easy?  I had to work at it over the 7 1/2 hours, and I am still trying to master this, but I made great progress.  Rather than to automatically interpret pain as suffering, I got rid of much of the suffering.

Pain will come.  Suffering is a choice.

That special someone

Whether we have children or not, we have the opportunity to be an incredibly special person for someone else.  We can support them, care for them, be a backstop for them, love them, teach them, encourage them and/or help them out of trouble.

This someone else may be male, female, much older or younger than us, may be black, white or brown, and may or may not be related to us in any way.

People are everywhere.  Your choice. 

Be bold, but not a bully

There are times to be bold; in going after goals, in standing up for what is right and against evil, in speaking up for a person or group when nobody else will, and in learning and trying new things.

Discerning when to be bold and when to be gentle or passive is a master skill of a high performer.

Break through, higher

What can you do after you can’t do anymore?

A lot.

Break through your own self imposed limits.

You can.

Doing things better than they have to be done

A “quality person”.  What is such a person like?

A person that does things better than they have to be done; such a person surely would be noticed.

Likewise, a person that does the bare minimum to get by is also noticed, as the results surround them and follow them wherever they go.

We can dress better than we have to, speak more politely than we have to, keep our spaces cleaner than we have to, and do our work better than we have to.  If we do this, we’d live a life that is better than it would be.

Going beyond yourself

Your self-concept is what you think you are – what you believe about yourself and what you can do.

In order for you to go beyond your self-concept, you must risk not believing in it.

Let go of what you believe about yourself and try to do something your old self would never do.

Go beyond and grow.

I "couldn't", because I didn't

I am doing physical training for some extreme events coming up.  This kind of training is a great metaphor and example for doing just about anything in life.  

A few years ago if someone told me to do 20 burpees in a row or 10 pull ups or run 10 miles, I’d have said “I couldn’t”, and I would have been right.  But the reason I couldn’t, is because I didn’t.  I didn’t try.

Of course when you try things the first time you can’t do things as well, as long, or as effectively.  But you learn, and you get stronger and better.  Then you keep trying and you make progress.  

One day, you can say “I can”.  How do you know?  

Because you did.

The "Ping"

That little sensation that causes us to check our text, email or social media; because something out there may be more important than what is right in front of me.  

Because of the ping, we lose our ability to think deeply and sustain our focus.  We lose the ability to do great work.

Shut your phone off to do your best work.

Habits leveraged over time

What could one day matter?

And another?  And another?

If you look at your finances, your career, your health, your relationships – you can see the accumulated effect of habits over time.

What could today matter?

Today is all we have.

Continuous Partial Attention

We live in a world of streaming distraction.  You can’t do important work if you don’t shut it all down and focus.

Go somewhere boring and cut off (shut off) communication to the outside world to do your best work.