What are you willing to suffer for?

 This article (see below for link) has been making the rounds on my Facebook news feed. As with any opinion piece, there are solid grounds to agree with the author's POV or disagree with it. But for me, it resonated. And I don't think it would have resonated so well before I was a runner. Because that is immediately what I thought of, what I could relate to in this article.

The author asks us, "what pain are you willing to sustain?" In other words, the critical question in life isn't simply "what do I want?" but rather, "what do I want so much that I'm willing to love the struggle and pain necessary to achieve it?" It's easy for us to want anything and everything, but you can't achieve it without loving the blood, sweat, and tears that come with life's most prized successes. If you really want a lucrative and successful career, you have to love trudging through low-level jobs and putting in long weeks to work your way up to the top. If you really want a beautiful home, you have to love the endless search for the right house in the right location and giving up so much free time for renovations, repairs, and decorating. If you really want a great relationship, you have to love the emotional turmoil, multiple rejections and mixed signals that come with dating.

And if I really want to be a runner?

I have to love shelling out so much of my disposable income on winter running gear and race registrations.

I have to love that feeling about halfway through a run when it literally feels like I just cannot run another step and the energy it takes to push past that feeling (I believe they call this "running on the wall"?).

I have to love the frustration of a bad run and the disappointment of a bad race.

I have to love lining up for a race and instantly being surrounded by people who are naturally faster and much more experienced than I am - every single time.

I have to love the feeling that I ran faster and worked harder than ever before, yet still didn't reach my goal time, or when it feels like I ran a mile and I look down at the GPS to see I've only advanced about .4 miles. 

I have to love trying to squeeze in adequate training between a full-time job and volunteer/social engagements.

And I have to love that no matter how hard I work, how long I stick with it, and how good I get, there will always be someone better than me. There will be strangers who are better than me, there will be close friends who are better than me.

I have to love all this (and more) if I want the runner's high, the exhilaration of finishing a race and learning that I beat my previous time and trounced my expectations, the excitement of signing up for a race, the energy and camaraderie of race days.....and that incredible feeling when I finally have my very first half marathon medal hanging around my neck!

And I do. I do love all of this. I must, because otherwise I would have given up a long time ago. But it's been almost half a year and here I am - still running, still setting goals, still sticking with it. No one is holding my hand or forcing me to get out there, it's all on me, so clearly I must love the pain if I haven't given up yet.

I suggest everyone, runners and non-runners alike, check out the article. I'm sure it will resonate with you in some way if you've ever worked hard and sturggled for something you really want!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-manson/the-most-important-question_b_4269161.html