Worth The Outcome

Making a choice that winds up hurting you can be discouraging, particularly if there was no indication that there might be a downside. Most decisions I've made in life, however, came with a guarantee of undesirable affect. Some of the best things in my life are the result of choosing to endure whatever pain came with the decision. In every single one of those instances, I regret nothing. The pain is always temporary and the benefits are always longer lasting. 

Whether it was the decision to have children, the choice to get divorced, change jobs, move, or end a friendship, the price to find peace and happiness over those rainbows of choice has always been worth paying. Occasionally, I hemmed and hawed, putting off making a decision about something because I couldn't see that the shitty part I would endure was temporary. Either that or I wasn't able to appreciate the value that pain would ultimately provide. 

Six days a week I choose a little pain in the form of muscle soreness. If anything, working out — really pushing myself each and every time, has made making these kinds of choices in life easier in the sense that I don't labor over the emotional and physical costs that are short lived. Just that alone is an accomplishment and one of the many ways making fitness a lifestyle has improved my life. It has also made the times I have to step back and let my body recover from things like surgery and illness a little more tolerable. I don't like setbacks — they are a different kind of pain, but again, they are temporary.

The next couple of weeks will bring physical pain and discomfort as I have opted to have minor surgery to correct an annoying issue. I could have taken more time to decide if this choice was really the way to go, but really, the only reason to do that at this point would have been because I was apprehensive about the initial pain. In the end, there really was no internal debate because the outcome benefits me in so many ways. I've lived through pain that I created, chose and was subjected to without choice, so this will be a cake walk in comparison. 

There is no balance without a little of the undesirable in life. Pain doesn't deter me any longer. Happiness is worth the work it takes to achieve it.