Damaged for Growth: How to Push Past Pain to Reach Your Next Level

Pain tells you how far you can go. If you’ve injured your shoulder, there’s only so high your arm will lift until the pain stops you. If you’re lifting weights, or running, it’s the pain that tells you, “That’s far enough. You can go no further.”

It’s works the same way emotionally. It works the same way mentally. The barrier of pain is there to stop you before you hurt yourself, but sometimes you have to push past the pain in order to move up to your next level.

Your Way to Greatness

Anyone in great physical condition has pushed past lots of pain barriers. Anyone who is successful in business has overcome countless limitations to reach their level of achievement. Anyone engaged in teaching, speaking, or writing has overcome massive obstacles in order to create what they have.

There’s no way to greatness than through the many thresholds of pain.

Pain is unavoidable unless your idea of achievement is winning the lottery. Therefore, the sooner you learn to accept the pain, the sooner you’ll grow. The sooner you learn to love the pain, well, that’s when you’ll shoot to the top.

Pain Comes From Resistance

It’s the pain that digs deep into your muscle, your mind, and your heart, and that’s what causes you to grow in whatever it is you’re doing, or whatever it is you’re striving to be.

The pain comes from the resistance, and the resistance gets heavier as the levels get higher. The idea that life somehow gets easier is false—not if you’re trying to reach new levels. If you’ve settled for where you are, then you might get by with less pain, but time will eventually run out.

You may have put it off for a few years, but the pain is coming. If you don’t improve your skills and job security, the pain of a recession can hit you blindside. It’s better to endure the pain of self-education, starting a side business, or taking classes then it is to wake up to a pink slip.

Damaged for Growth

Whatever it is you’re trying to change, or achieve, will require you getting past the pain barriers that resist you from succeeding. It’ll do no good to complain about them, because it won’t change anything. It’s better to embrace the pain and suck it up.

Accept that pain is part of growing
The sooner you accept it, the quicker you’ll grow. Don’t look for shortcuts.

Learn to desire the resistance that pain brings
Bodybuilders do this. They relish in the burn and soreness that lifting heavy weights can bring because they know their muscles are being damaged for growth.

Work harder each time you come up against the resistance of pain
Whenever you meet resistance, work harder. This is what pushes you past pain barriers.

Build yourself up little by little
The best way to push past pain barriers is to do it little by little. In this way, you’re “boiling the frog in water.” In other words, you’re progressively getting used to greater levels of pain.

Be thankful for what makes you grow
Without the hard shell of the egg, the new bird will not build strength. As hard as it may be to break out of the shell, that bird should be grateful for the resistance that brings strength. So should you.

Take a look at the areas of your life you want to change. Do you know where your pain barriers are? Are you prepared to exceed them? Tell me in the comments below.