The Pain of Rigour-et

Pain is a tricky word. To most it means suffering and they never come around to seeing it differently. Yet to some, it means endurance. And maybe those are the select few who churn the most out of life.

It's funny how perspective actually defines who we become. Not circumstance, not bloodline, not even your choices honestly. Any of the above could be going south but can be manoeurved towards optimistic shores if your perspective is one that nudges you to keep going, no matter what. And this blogpost is also one that will make you pause and dissect your perspective because realignment from time to time is a norm of nature.

To begin with, goal setting is something that almost all of us regularly do in our lives. But the real question is what all are we ready to risk, revise, reverse, release, retain and resist in the process. The journey to goal accomplishment actually gives us a reality check of how far we are willing to go to make do what we envision.

There will come a time when we will face crossroads and there will be only two options. To see your dream to the end of it OR see the end of it. That is the thought behind this writing. It is all about choosing to bear the pain of rigour or the pain of regret, both of which are painful no doubt but the timeline that you would experience the pain in, how long it would last and whether it would plummet or propel you are the real points to consider.

We all have heard people say - 'Nothing comes easy in life'. And yes, maybe it doesn't but one thing surely isn't very hard - making the choice to embark on that joruney which is not so pleasing to your current self but what it could metamorphasize you into, is something remarkable. Yes, the roads would be rocky, the wind vengeful, the sun scorching and the pain unbearable but if that gets you to a footing solidified with passion, purpose and persistence, then the next thing you know - you would be invalidating that pain that got you there and would rather appreciate it to be a catalyst in your journey.

Let us broaden the context a bit. When we set our sight on a goal, the natural next step is to chart out how we would achieve that. This is where things get crucial. Yes we will begin working on it but when things get slightly hard, our fight-or-flight mode gets activated and that happens with everyone. Even the most 'accomplished' individuals face this ultimatum - either to run and change the course of their charted path (where predictably they would fall in the same dilemma eventually because there is no escaping the sharks when you have plunged into the ocean) OR choose to resist and persist. That's how they gradually create an empire - built on stories with reasons worth fighting for.

Well all of this may sound very heroic but when we come to think of it, it really isn't. Its about making those conscious and small yet significant choices everyday that lead up to one heroic decision - of not quitting when it gets hard. Of not turning away when it is most crucial to keep progressing. Of not limiting yourself when you are so close to gaining a reformative experience. It all boils down to whether - we have it in us to bear the grunt of 'day one' till whatever day it takes to reach the 'one day' we all have envisioned for ourselves.

Well any avenue we take - pain is unavoidable. But if we are to contemplate, real pain is not what we experience when we choose to stick to our pursuit. It is not even the hard moments that we encounter that leave us questioning if it is all worth it. And not even the days that are badgering and difficult to get past. In fact, real pain is not getting to experience this feeling of everything being taken away from us, just to receive a lot more in return because on one harsh day - we chose to fall back. We chose to be okay with our goal becoming a figment of our imagination rather than making it a reality. And trust me, that is pain at its worst.

Regret is that human emotion that one should not willfully bring themselves to feel and reel under. At best, it could be an uncontrollable consequence but should not the be result of a journey that we could not muster courage to complete. The ability to feel emotions is one of our greatest assets so lets choose to feel the pain of achievement, the euphoria of success, the ecstacy of striking off one line from your book everyday, the fulfilment of climbing one rung of the ladder day after day and the pride of not letting our dream settle in dust when it is meant to be the furore that sets us up on an unparalleled pedestal.

And this is not to show anyone or prove any point to people. It is not to portray to the world that you toiled for a long time to reach where you are. If that is the thought that strikes your mind while reading this, please get rid of it. This is a race against your past self, against that rigid person you once mostly were, against that self-limiting person you might have been. This should be an effort to live with the luxury of triumph outlined by sweat, not with the weight of unfulfilled stories soaked in tears.

On a closing note, whether we realize it or not, we are shaping our lives everyday with the decisions we take. It may not seem monumental but microscopic actions define majestic outcomes. Happiness means different things to all of us but one undeniable source of joy that all of us feel is taking pride in the individual we are becoming. Living forever under the burden of regret is far more difficult than sustaining a few days of severity.

So when you are 80 years old and reflecting on your life on a warm Sunday sipping coffee, let it remind you of all the unmerciful days and torrential nights you underwent to reach your desired position in life and not the incomplete quests that will prick you like a million needles of regret. Because life is too short to live under the fascination of 'what if'. We deserve to live a life sprouted from seeds of rigour.