Suffer smart, suffer strategically, suffer for a good cause, suffer for survival, suffer for better results.
To do or not to do? Should I or shouldn’t I? For many of us, it’s not so much a question of “Is this the right thing to do?” as it is “What consequences am I willing to bear?”
Lately, I’ve started to see my action or inaction as a matter of cost. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Sometimes it feels like whatever I choose next, I’m going to suffer anyway, so I might as well do something that will benefit me in the long run.
There’s a price to pay for everything we do. Being a couch potato, reaching for comfort food when you know you shouldn’t, losing control through bad habits or erratic behaviour – all come at a cost. So do things like following your calling, making a midlife career change, or starting your own business. When you choose to go down that road, expect to encounter tolls along the way.
What about “Buy One Get One Free” deals? Well, the words say it all. You need to buy one in order to get another for free. Even a freebie – technically given free of charge, is still traded in exchange for your most valuable commodities: time and attention.
In my case, I often pay the price of procrastination. Take exercise, for example. Love it or hate it, there are times when I just don’t want to do it. Typically, I’ll tell myself that today is not the day, and I’ll come up with all sorts of excuses.
I keep putting it off until the pain of not doing it becomes greater than the pain of doing it. That’s the turning point. Just get up, open the door, go out, and do it anyway. To add a useful point of reference here, swearing (“Fuck it!”) in moments like this actually helps. Pretty soon, 20 or 30 minutes later, an adrenaline rush kicks in, billions of my body’s cells come alive and jump for joy.
To sum it up, choose your suffering and live to tell the tale…
Ted Tsai 