No Pain, No Gain

My middle school swim coach shouted at a group of us during a training session saying, "You're not really tired until you've passed out on the floor! Until that happens, keep pushing, keep swimming!" At the time, this was as close to the "Pain for Gain" idea as I had personally come to in my life. I felt it in my body, my mind and my gut. Afterwards, I felt exhausted, but realized I had completed the laps and, for that time, made my coach smile. Sort of.

But is pain really necessary in order to gain?

Plenty of people gain without pain it seems:

• Lottery winners exert little effort to buy tickets. Some win huge amounts of cash.

• Dating sites make it fast, simple and fairly effective to find new people for one's love life.

• Online banking has redefined how we track and use funds. It's more convenient than ever.

But the flip side of easy, fast and simple is often a very small pay out, if anything at all:

• How many lottery tickets were purchased before the win? How much spend? And how many persons buy tickets their entire life and never win big? Maybe they break even.

• Dating sites serve up good looking profiles, but there's no guarantee that the interest will be reciprocated. Or if there is mutual interest, that the relationship will last beyond a few days or weeks.

• Online banking provides easy and convenient access lessoning our reliance on actual cash. It's true, and we love it. But they still only pay 1% per year on your checking loyalty while taking 15%+ for themselves on your credit cards.

So maybe this idea of easy, convenient and immediate gratification is over rated. Simplification, satisfaction and brevity are delivered, but don't really deliver long-lasting results.

But in life what does?

• Getting up at 4AM to hit the gym, run the road and lift weights. You'll feel it, see it and live the results. But it won't be easy. It won't be fast.

• Working through relationships and mutually progressing to higher planes of fulfillment and satisfaction is tough. It takes time, isn't easy, requires you to know yourself better and to evolve your skills in listening, patience and forgiveness.

• Researching, editing, reediting and reediting again content for the website, pitch deck or brochures can result in a highly polished piece that is precisely focused with the right message the prospect is desperate to hear. It takes time, concentration and patience to craft such an impactful piece. But the new revenue created using that new piece is in itself a tremendous reward, plus the appreciation of the sales team and their enablement to deliver sales.

Lots of things in life are fast, quick and easy, but many times the payouts, or the fees to pursue them, quickly erode any potential satisfaction or long-lasting value. The quick hit keeps us coming back until we realize the expense, loss or lack of return being realized.

My swim coach was right about one thing: better to give it all you have for an honorable goal and risk failing vs. sitting on the sidelines for whatever floats along. In life, there's plenty being served up as "value". The wise observing person realizes anything of lasting value, lasting impact, often requires personal effort and sacrifice. Sometimes beyond what we think we can manage alone. Yet, as we suffer through it, we often do come out stronger on the other side with multiple high-value and otherwise not available payouts.

That's pretty cool.

Opinions are my own. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter (@MarkStephenWare).

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