The question of suffering

How you go through the non-comfort zone is as important as how you live in your comfort zone. So what does that look like for you? The comfort zone is easy, we know it, our body knows it, it aspires for homeostasis, and for survival’s sake, more often than not, it gets there, by hook or by crook. 

Ask anyone who ever tried to change their body composition how hard that can be. If you want to transform something in your life, you have to be willing to go through the fire. The fire is outside your comfort zone, especially if you want to take a long hike out of it, like me with running and the aerobic system. 

In his book “What matters is how well you walk through the fire,” Bukowski said: “Things get bad for all of us, almost continually, and what we do under the constant stress reveals who/what we are.”

It’s not where you go but how you get there

We can set goals and do our best to get to them, sometimes, it takes time and resilience. Setting your eyes on the long-distance goal is fine but less effective, as I see it. The way and how you take every step on it is as important as your goal, if not more so. 

You might say going through hell step by step and enjoying the way is not a good plan, and you’re probably right. The treasures hidden in your ability to suffer and get to the other side of suffering are, to my mind, of unfathomable value. If you choose your suffering or not, I believe it’s the same. According to my life experiments and some other great sufferers in the history of humanity, our ability to suffer and grow out of that suffering is unique.

The other side of suffering

Scott Jurek, from his and his wife Jenny Jurek‘s beautiful book North: “I had lost my desire to push my body to the edge. But even complacency has a shelf life. I felt an urge to reconnect with my old self, the one that may not win but still kept fighting.”