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My mentor taught me that if you want to achieve great success, the key is to PURSUE PAIN.
You get those 6-pack abs after weeks of painful push ups and sit ups.
You become a remarkable guitarist after years of learning and practice that caused those painful calluses on your fingers.
You are a superb father who spends time with your children because you have experienced the pain of having a broken family.
You are now a happy millionaire because you underwent the pain of being broke.
You need pain to survive. You need pain to grow. There are people who have become so comfortable in life that they have become lax. Their lives have become meaningless because they have no more burning dreams. Remember that life is short, and we are meant for bigger things.
I encourage you to get out of your comfort zone and start growing -- spiritually, relationally, or financially -- by pursuing pain.
The Three Sources of Inner Pain
The first pain comes from Grief. This is intense suffering like bankruptcy, catastrophe or sickness, that drove most successful people to greatness.The second pain comes from Greed. Greed is painful, too, when it fuels people to work, work, and more work, forgetting their families and health, just to earn another peso. I'm sure you are aware of very wealthy (and unhappy) people who achieved their success because of greed, and lost the things that are more important than money.
The third pain comes from Giving.
The Pain of Giving
Giving is self-imposed pain.
It is voluntarily chosen.
When you give, and you do not experience pain, your giving is fake.
When you give, it must hurt you. It must shake you up. It must wake you up from your complacency.
I have realized that when you give, it must rock your world so much, that it creates a hunger in you to keep on earning money so that you can keep on giving.
This pain gives joy.
This pain blesses you.
When I started child sponsorship through World Vision, there was pain in giving at first because I did not even know the child. But when I received a handwritten snail mail from my sponsored child, I had butterflies in my stomach. It was overwhelming. It gave me joy beyond explanation knowing that I was able to help, not just a child, but her family as well. Then I knew that I was doing the right thing.
There are those people who would criticize me, because although I am earning enough for myself and my family, I still make ways to earn more. Why? So I can give more. My dream is to help send more kids to school every year.
I pray that you find your reason for success. And that you transform your pain -- either from grief or giving -- into FUEL to reach your dreams.
Be blessed and be a blessing!
