No Pain, No Gain: Do Hard Things

I love desserts, ice cream, pastries and cakes, and sweet candy. But in 2024, as I’ve focused on getting healthy, I’ve slowly cut this out of my life. I recall a day on a business trip at the end of the year in Baku, Azerbaijan. I was walking around and just had way too many desserts, 2 cakes, baklava, and chocolates from Lviv Chocolate Factory. It tasted so good but I felt terrible after. Like literally sick to my stomach. 

You look forward to it, you really enjoy eating them. But boy, did my body hurt. There is something to that. The things you enjoy, usually turn out to be bad for you. Late nights out partying, alcohol, drugs, junk food, sweet foods, easy sex. It’s ironic. So easy to access. No wonder the general populace is in such bad shape physically and mentally. 


On the other hand, the stuff that you dislike or is hard, turns out to be really good for you. I don’t always like going to the gym or fight training. And I certainly don't feel good while working out. But boy, do I feel really good after. As I wrote before, you never regret working out at the gym. Your head is clear, you feel like you have accomplished something and you are stronger and healthier. 


These hard decisions and situations could be the job you hate or the business you feel you have to start. This could be that class you have been meaning to take. Or the new food diet you know you need to follow. This could be the crappy money losing stocks you’ve kept in your portfolio for too long that you should have sold a long time ago. The useless employee you’ve put off firing despite continual bad performance. The deal or relationship that clearly is not working and has no future. 

We put the decision to take care of it off because we dread it and dread dealing with it. But boy does it feel good after you take the hard action and just do it. 


So my point: do the hard painful things that you know are good for you. Get used to doing it enough so that what was once hard and painful, eventually becomes enjoyable. Just like going to the gym over time. Train your brain to embrace this hardness and not avoid it. My life started getting better after I figured this out. This is the way breakthroughs and greatness in life are found. Pain and suffering leads to true growth. 

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Understand Yourself to Manage Yourself

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The Ultimate Test of Your Mettle: On the Frontier or on the Battlefield