Hard Truth

The other day at the gym, I was doing pullups. And it hurt. 🥴  I didn’t like that and I thought, “I hate how much this hurts. I gotta get better at pullups so they won’t hurt so much.”

And as soon as I thought it, I knew it was the exact wrong thought to have. 

Because to get better at pullups,

I have to do lots more pullups.

Which is going to hurt.

But if I hate how much they hurt…it’s going to be really hard to do MORE pullups.

To get better at pullups, I have to stop hating the hurt and decide I like the hurt.

This is true for more than just pullups. I find that for most of the things I want to do in my life, I want what it looks like, but I don’t want what it feels like. 

I want to be good at pullups, but I don’t want to feel pain.

I want to maintain a certain weight, but I don’t want to feel deprived.

I want a growing business, but I don’t want to feel seen and judged.

I want to know how to love unconditionally, but I don’t want people to act in a way that’s hard for me to love. 

We want what it looks like.

But we don’t want what it feels like.

And to get what we want, we gotta want what it feels like too.

All the things you really want are created (in part) by feeling a feeling that you don’t.

But here’s the thing: if you’re willing to feel it, and willing to like feeling it, then there’s nothing you can’t have.