Thoughts

Pain

My favorite scene in Rocky III is when the ringside interviewer asks Mr. T what his prediction is for his fight against Rocky Balboa. Mr. T answers "My prediction? Pain."

So let's talk about pain. No one likes pain. We want to avoid it. We remember times of intense pain. This is part of man's survival instinct.

But pain has a use. It is a great motivator. So too is failure. We remember major failures, big losses, as much as painful events.

Problem is, when everything is going right, when things are going well, we tend to get soft. We become complacent, thinking everything will go our way. Once in a while we need a swift kick in the ass to awaken that human survival instinct. Pain, failure, is every bit important to survive. Think about it.

One of my favorite quotes from Napoleon Hill goes: "Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." We need to remind ourselves of this especially when things are going well. And we need to embrace failure and pain, to harness its power.

Back to the movie, Rocky had it too easy, he was living the good life, all his needs were taken care of. He got soft and lost that mental edge, eventually losing to Clubber Lang. He had to regain the eye of the tiger and get back that missing mental edge.

Now what are you waiting for?

 

Posted: Dec 20 2004, 09:59 PM by robtwister | with 2 comment(s)
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Comments

Jinath said:

i also love rocky from 1 to 5 :)
and more info from matrix
"Agent Smith: Have you ever stood and stared at it, marveled at it's beauty, it's genius? Billions of people just living out their lives, oblivious. Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world. Where none suffered. Where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed that we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that as a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering. The perfect world would dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this, the peak of your civilization. I say your civilization because as soon as we started thinking for you it really became our civilization which is of course what this is all about. Evolution, Morpheus, evolution, like the dinosaur. Look out that window. You had your time. The future is our world, Morpheus. The future is our time."
# December 21, 2004 1:17 AM

3rdWorld said:

> suffering purifies the soul

some people seek pain. during the week which precedes easter, fanatics undergo a ritual to "cleanse" their spirit. whipping. being nailed to the cross. higher members of the opus dei, a conservative catholic order, have had to wear devices on their person. to purify their souls.

a mon avis, pain is how much we define evil. more pain more evil. less pain less evil.


# December 22, 2004 7:42 PM
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