No Pain No Gain... Really?

Rabbi Ben Hei Hei says, "According to the pain is the gain." — Pirkei Avot 5:21

Ben Franklin, "Industry need not wish, as Poor Richard says, and he that lives upon hope will die fasting. There are no gains, without pains..." The Way to Wealth (1758)
​
According to Gretchen Rubin's book Better Than Before, I'm a "Questioner."  You can take your own quiz online.  Basically I move to the beat of my own drum and question everything.  I guess early in life I recognized that most adults had no clue... aside from my Grandparents.  So... No Pain No Gain has been on my radar for years.  I've had a variety of experiences which suggest the truth of this statement and I'm searching for some evidence in the opposite direction. 

Unfortunately my recent experience with Cross Fit served to reinforce the validity of this expression.  While sitting in a meeting this morning where struggle was one of the topics and different people had different experiences with the element of struggling to be sober... I personally did all my struggling before I came into the rooms, thank HP! My own lack of struggle in this regard got me to thinking why that might be and if that may be applied to the no pain no gain... I decided that perhaps the pain element is necessary only as function of the time element.  In other words... with exercising in particular if you stretch out your initiation to weight and frequency over weeks or months... you won't feel the pain you do when you go at it like I did my first class.  This seems logical and natural... the consistency is, perhaps, a challenge but that's a challenge regardless.  I can build up time like I build up weight and it won't be such a difficult "struggle" or "pain"...

Lately as I wing my ways across town and through my day I've noticed myself reminding me to take it easy... slow down.  There's no rush... ever, basically! I've surprised myself as to how often I create urgency when there is NONE. I was even late to a couple of appointments and it worked out perfectly... for me and the client, a God send as one person commented.   I watched an episode of Nature or NOVA recently that documented the fact that plants and trees communicate just very slowly... I guess when you're rooted in one single space, literally, there are huge levels of urgency that just don't apply.  This would make a great thing to think about more later! The more we move the more urgency?!

Anyway...   if the rushing feeling is not necessary, really, that's a level of fear... missing something, not looking good... come to mind immediately.  I still believe in being punctual, I think it's respectful... it''s just brought to my attention the element of time and expectations in my behaviors... feelings... etc.  I actually used to "bend time" frequently when I lived in LA so I've played with this element before just differently.

Applied to my original "No Pain, No Gain" I know that it is no longer true if applied to consistent incremental exercise stretched out over enough time.  I will prove this, by the way, starting today.  I will journal exercises and numbers and slowly ramp up over time.  My goal to go back to Cross Fit and NOT be so sore I can't move in the days after.  

​In what other circumstances is this phase used?  90 % of the quotes and images online refer to exercise.  I've apparently hit a big cultural belief.  Even my mentor Ben Franklin believed it true.  I didn't find it hard to quit smoking or stop drinking. Two HUGE gains with no pain.  I KNOW it doesn't have to be, at least for me.  So there was pain involved in hitting my personal bottom in those two areas emotional and physical pain, but once the decision was made there was no longer any pain, only freedom.  Splitting hairs, perhaps?  Bottom line pain and struggle are emotional states of mind, unless they are physical they can be avoided by internal perspective and thought management.  If they are physical, then you can use your head to plan for them, perhaps, thus my experiment with exercise.

---