No pain, no gain!

Ricardo Andorinho

It works well as an advertising slogan for fitness centres or gyms and is currently seen printed on colourful T-shirts, but the origin of “no pain, no gain” takes us back to the eighteen’s century. Its founding father is Richard Sauders, better known as Benjamin Franklin, a self-made successful editor and publisher, statesmen and diplomat.

He published Poor Richard's Almanac, an immensely popular book filled with clever aphorisms and wise advice such as “There are no pains without gains”. Perhaps some of the book’s quotes were not his, being popular sayings at the time, but he certainly gave them credit and made them instantly recognisable worldwide.

Today, in our opinion, this quote should have assumed the role of a recognised self-management principle.

As we all know, “things” do not fall into your lap. People have to combine dedication, effort, strengths, abilities and capabilities to create, construct, design or give rise to new ideas or concepts, products or services.

If you have already noticed that things do not fall into your lap and you are willing to work towards your goals, keep going. It means you have the right attitude. If you want to win a marathon, you are certainly aware that you need to spend hours every day working out over a considerable period of time. But what if you want to become an exceptional husband or wife, an admirable parent or an excellent professional? You definitely need to work hard as well. You need to believe in yourself and you need to sacrifice! After all, no pain, no gain.

Pain is the key to succeed. Pain does not necessarily have to be physical but it could be if you feel sore because you have been working out to improve your health or to win a marathon.

However, most of the “pain” is psychological. It is the anger or frustration that you commonly feel when you have to work over a weekend to meet a deadline when what would you really wanted was to be with your loved ones.

Don’t be afraid of the pain. Don’t worry, be happy. What does not kill us makes us stronger. Statistically, 96 percent of the things people worry about never happen.

So, do not act as a spoiled brat or a victim of circumstance. You can choose to honour all your contracts; to under commit and over deliver; understand, respect and trust people; and be honest even when it hurts.

Obstacles appear in our lives for two reasons: to make us prove that we really want a particular thing and to keep others that don’t want such thing as bad as we do, away from having it!

Therefore, if you have run into an obstacle that you have not yet learnt to overcome, don’t panic. It is almost certain that your life is not the mess you imagine it is. Running into an obstacle often indicates that you are on the right path to achieve your goal and that success is dead ahead.

Notwithstanding, do not feel surprised if you see people around you changing only if the Pain not to change exceeds the Pain to change. It is a common mistake proper from human beings!

However, don’t let them influence your believe system! If you believe in the principle of no pain, no gain, and if you feel that you need to sacrifice for a particular cause, just do it. Success is on the way.