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Writer's pictureHanuš

How to LIVE (pursue pain)



You wake up to the sound of your alarm.


The world outside is cold and still.


The warmth of your bed whispers, “stay.”


But you swing your legs over the edge anyway.



Why?


Why torture yourself when every cell in your body begs for comfort?


You don’t need to do this, no one’s watching you.


But you’re not doing this for anyone else.


Everything good comes from some kind of pain.


Avoid pain, and you avoid improvement.


Avoid improvement, and you avoid transformation.


So you ignore your instincts, and take the harder option.


All the time.



The streetlights hum as you run.


Step by step, breath by breath, the miles unfold like a challenge.


Your muscles scream.


Your lungs burn.


But you smile.


With every muscle fatigue, you feel you’re getting stronger.


Pain has become a familiar friend—an ally.


You know its power relies on surprise.


If you expect it, it’s weaker.


If you choose it, it’s gone.


And the second you stepped outside, it already lost its power over you.


You became its master, not a victim.



But the day ahead is no easier.


At work, you volunteer to lead a project you have no idea how to tackle.


You’re terrified, but that’s exactly why you raised your hand.


Anyone can be their best when things are going well.


But the crisis —the most painful moment— is what defines the hero.


If you over protect yourself from pain, every little challenge you face will feel unbearably difficult.


And before you know it, you’ll start feeling weak and unprepared in any situation that’s new to you.


Pain is coming anyway, so why not choose a saddle over a shield?


You do what scares you the most.


And once it’s done, you realize it wasn’t all that bad.


Next time a similar task needs to be done, you’ll be the expert everyone’s asking questions to.



That evening, you sit down with your journal.


It’s time to face the hardest thing:


The truth.


A rift with an old friend has festered for years.


The apology you owe feels like a mountain.


But the right thing to do is never comfortable.


How you face pain determines who you are.


So you pick up the phone.


It keeps ringing, until it doesn’t.


The weight lifts with every admission.


The discomfort, the vulnerability—it feels like freedom in disguise.


You see, they had some time to think as well.


And the difficult conversation you both avoided all this time, turns out to be the thing that saves your relationship.


Well, ghosts don’t leave until you’ve understood their message.


Problems persist until you face and solve them.



The weekend arrives, and you’re not on the couch.


You’re on a rock face, gripping cold stone with trembling hands.


A slip of a finger, a single misstep could be the end of it all.


But the goal of life is not comfort.


Avoid risk, and you avoid reward.


Reaching the summit, every blister, every aching muscle feels worth it.


The view isn’t just beautiful; it’s earned.


Pain is the price of mastery, and you’ve paid it.


You’ve trained thousands of hours to complete this climb, and you finally did it.



You lie in bed that night, with every atom of your body sore.


You should be exhausted, but you feel alive.


It was one of the most exhilarating experiences of your life.


Why do you think?


Because it was daring.


You know tomorrow will bring new challenges—new discomforts.


But you don’t dread them.


You welcome them as play.



Happiness is solving good problems.


So you study pain.


There’s a lesson inside every single one, and a reason why it hurts.


Growth brings the pain of loss of your previous self.


Wealth brings the pain of responsibility.


Fame brings the pain of expectations.


You analyze and understand every pain you go through.


As you solve the little problems, you start facing better ones.


And whatever problems you’ve had, many other people have had the same problem.


Facing pain helps you relate to others.


Most people don’t get to choose how they suffer.


So once you tame pain for yourself, you help tame it for others.



Weeks pass, and you find yourself at your desk, staring at the resignation letter on your screen.


It’s been sitting there, unfinished, for days.


You’ve typed and deleted the same sentence a dozen times.


The cursor blinks, almost mocking you.


Your heart pounds, your finger hovers over the ‘Send’ button.


Your mind races: “What if I regret this?”


This isn’t safe.


This isn’t guaranteed.


But that’s exactly why you know you need to do it.


You think about how predictable tomorrow will be if you stay.


And the day after that.


And the next year.


Your job has become a cushion—a soft, suffocating trap.


You’ve been avoiding this leap for years, because failure terrifies you.


But the thought of being in the same place as you are now in a few years is scarier than anything else.


The sooner you pay a price, the less it costs.


Avoid failure, and you avoid what you really want.


You close your eyes, take a deep breath, and click send.



This is it.


On the outside, nothing really happens.


The world doesn’t explode, and no one rushes in to stop you.


But you feel a seismic shift inside of you.


It’s freeing, and strangely quiet.



The months that follow aren’t glamorous.


In fact, they’re brutal.


Late nights stretching into dawn, savings draining faster than you ever expected.


Sooner or later, you find yourself questioning if you made the biggest mistake of your life.


But then, one night, as you’re juggling through problems, you get this strange feeling of pride.


Not because you’ve succeeded, but because you’re still standing.


Still fighting.


Still showing up.


You remind yourself that the upside of doing this is so vastly high compared to the downside, you’d be stupid not to do it.


The pain is proof that you’re alive, proof that you’re on the right path.


Looking back, your proudest moments will be the ones you overcame your biggest struggles.


Someday, this won’t just be a story of hardship—it’ll be the breakthrough of your life.



Comfort is a silent killer.


Steering towards pain is how to live.

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