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 a question of “Is it a right thing to do?”, but more so, it’s a question of “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 I feel whatever I choose to do next, I’m going to suffer anyway, I might as well do something that will benefit me in the long run.
There’s a price to pay for everything we do. Things like being a couch potato, reaching for comfort food when you know you shouldn’t, losing control in some bad habits or erratic behaviour, all come at a cost. So do other things like following your calling, making a midlife career change, starting your own business etc. When you choose to go down that road, expect to meet with tolls along the way.
What about Buy One Get One Free stuff? Well, the words say it all. You need to buy one in order to get another one for free. Even a freebie, technically it’s given free of charge but traded in exchange for your most valuable commodity – time and attention.
In my case, I often pay the price of procrastination. Take exercise for example, love it or hate it, there’re times when I just don’t want to do it. Typically, in my head I’ll say to myself that today is not the day and all sorts of excuses.
I keep putting it off till the pain of not doing it becomes greater than the pain of doing it. It’s a turning point! Just get up, open the door, go out and do it anyway. To add a useful point of reference here, a moment like this, swearing (Fuck it!) does help. Pretty soon, some 20 or 30 minutes later, an adrenaline rush starts to kick in, billions and billons of my body cells then come alive and jump for joy.
To sum it up, choose your suffering and live to tell the tale…
Ted Tsai 