The Value in Suffering

There are two sides of suffering. The suffering that will destroy us when avoided and Suffering that strengthens us when embraced.

The best selling book of all time says that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

>>There is tremendous value in suffering<<

All of my life I have gone through a lot of suffering. Some of that suffering was out of my control, suicides in my family, abuse and trauma inflicted by others. Some of that suffering was from my own decisions. In life, I would consider myself an expert when it comes to suffering.

For 28 years of my life, I used to try to run away from suffering. Things would get too painful in relationships, financially or any area of life. So I would run away. I'd pack up and move out. No matter how far I ran suffering never went away. The suffering would subside temporarily but it would always come back and usually worse than before. 

It wasn't until I embraced suffering, feel in love with suffering, found freedom in suffering, used my suffering as fuel, that my life radically changed. 

I change my mindset from being a survivor to a warrior. On my journey of transformation, I found that a Survivor survives in suffering, a Warrior thrives in suffering.

My fight began 4 years in the gym. I found out that if I wanted to transform my body, that I had to find the point of pain and push past it. There are a lot of people that go to the gym, workout out and never see the transformation that they are seeking.

Why is that? Because most people workout until it starts to get painful and stop. But the transformation is in the 3 reps past that point of pain that contribute to the majority of the growth and transformation. Those 3 reps past the point of the pain threshold suck a 100x more than the ones you have done before that.

No pain no gain. I started to realize that if I want to transform, I have to embrace suffering and pain. The more pain I experience, the more of what I wanted came into reality.

After losing 60lbs in 7 months, I decided I was pretty fit and signed up for a Spartan Race with a friend of mine. This race was 6 miles with 30 obstacles, from barbed wire to running with 50-pound buckets of rocks, to rope climbs and swimming in frigid water. The day we went out it was below freezing outside and a quarter through the race was a water pit that I had to swim through. I ran the rest of the race completely soaked, freezing, shivering and fatigued. It was a Sufferfest!

Isn't it crazy that we live in such a comfort driven culture that people actually pay to suffer? These obstacle races like the Spartan and Tough Mudder are one of the fastest growing sports in the world. 100 years ago if you told someone that for $150 I will make you suffer. They would think you were crazy and respond with "no thanks I suffer enough as it is."

Amelia Boone is a 3x Tough Mudder world champion and Spartan World Champion. She says "I'm not the fastest, I'm not the strongest but I'm really good at suffering."

Amelia has learned to turn suffering into her greatest strength, she has found tremendous value in suffering.

After the Spartan Race, I thought I was in phenomenal shape but I had been doing aesthetic fitness. I found out there was a whole world called functional fitness that is more applicable to running these races.

In my search for a new workout program, I ran into SEALFIT. SEALFIT was designed for candidates trying to be Navy SEALS, taking the passing rate of BUDS from 30% to 90%.

I ordered the book 8 weeks to SEALFIT which really opened my eyes to the Warrior culture. Through my study of warriors like NAVY SEALS, I have found these guys embrace suffering and they look forward to suffering. 

They have sayings like: "get comfortable being uncomfortable" "embrace the suck" "the only easy day was yesterday".

"Suffering, Pain, Distress, Hardship" is the song these guys sing, they expect it, they embrace it and as crazy as it sounds its seems like they love to suffer.

The SEALS are Elite Warriors, they are unstoppable. They do the things that most call impossible, they have no limits. When no one else can do the job, we call the SEALS in. They have found tremendous value in suffering.

After completing my 8 weeks to SEALFIT book, I flew out to San Diego and did a Leadership Academy.

Countless pushups, running in the sand, rolling in the sand, in the ocean, shouting out commands, burpees, team challenges, wet, cold, sandy and tired. Suffering and more suffering.

After the academy was over. I drove down to meet another SEAL connection I had made that owns a skydive operation in San Diego. "Bram" does all the skydive training for the NAVY. I went down his operation, jumped out of a plane and he asked me if I wanted to help with a Men's event he was wanting to put on in Denver called Life of Valor. His vision is to call out men to be better fathers, better husbands and better leaders in their homes communities and businesses. 

From January of this year until May of this year I helped put on the Life of Valor event at the First Bank Center. We had close to 2000 men come out, that went back with inspiration to be the best men they can be.

Now that is a story I want to leave behind, having a significant impact on others. That is worth all of the suffering I went through to get to that point of having the opportunity to put on the Life of Valor event and impact other mens lives.

Do you see where suffering leads? Ultimately it leads to somewhere spectacular, somewhere few people are willing to go and ever go because they are trying to run away or avoid suffering. 

I have found that suffering is good, embrace it, fall in love with it, run through it, not away from it. Find some awesome people to suffer with, life is not meant to suffer through alone! With this perspective, your life will transform and you will do things most people cant even imagine.

I challenge you, look for the value in suffering.