Life ain't easy...

It always seems like life is hard. And that’s kinda the point. We didn’t make it to the top of the food chain by taking the easy route. And now that we aren’t out in the plains fighting sabre toothed tigers we sometimes create our own imminent threats. Nothing like an existential crisis to get the juices flowing. Other times, though, the universe comes through with a good ol fashioned biblical plague. Hey there pandemic. Whether it’s self-inflicted or a global crisis, we are going to face some pain. As always, it’s how we deal with it that determines the outcome.

Yesterday I got to have my second conversation in as many weeks with my friend Dr Pat Davidson. Pat is an exercise physiologist, personal trainer, educator, and author. He is both brilliant and a savage. Basically, he’s the guy I want on my side in the best of times and the worst of times. He’s also someone who never leaves me the same as when he found me. Every conversation sparks something that encourages me to examine something. We talked about training, relationships, business, and life. The one central theme we kept coming back to was pain. And that learning to truly feel it is what is at the essence of human experience.

We can easily go through life in avoidance of pain. There are so many distractions in this modern life. Drugs, alcohol, food, work, social media, and even our pursuit of fitness. But if we never sit with our pain, if we never take the time to really understand it’s genesis and purpose, we will continually stay stuck. Our ancestors never had this luxury. Stagnation is tantamount to extinction. We were never gonna get far if we didn’t start walking upright and throwing rocks. But we did. And we got better. And a million years later we’ve got a bunch of people running marathons for fun and guys throwing 100mph fastballs for 10 million bucks a year. I would say our ancestors did a good job facing down our fears. The ones who didn’t… well they didn’t become ancestors. Just dead.

So the lesson from all of this is that just because we level up, just because we reach the next plateau, just because we might have a little bit more money in the bank or weight on the bar… it don’t mean shit. We still have to do the work each day. We still have to face the pain of our past, present, and future. We can choose to kick the can down the road. We can choose to avoid it. We can choose to atrophy. But at some point the the toll keeper is gonna ask for his due. And we all have to pay. So we might as well start now. Make the choice to sit in it. Make the choice to grow. Make the choice to make the hard decisions. And make your ancestors proud.