No Pain, No Gain

No Pain, No Gain

Those four words seemed to be constantly ringing in my years when I was young. There were many times when I thought that my coaches, teachers, parents, and other authority figures were in my life to constantly drum that phrase into me. As I grew older, I realized that pain could come in a form that was tangible (broken finger) or intangible (broken heart), and that the gain could be an actual move forward or could masquerade as a setback.

As a result of many life experiences, I’ve come to the conclusion that, often enough, something has to “pain” us before we make a move to improve some aspect of our lives, be it a relationship, our health or a career path. One current example is the price of gas, which pained us all. Since the record high cost per gallon, we’ve decreased our consumption and found alternative means of transportation. There’s a much more concentrated effort by larger well-funded groups to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels by exploring and exploiting alternative energy sources found here in America that are far more eco-friendly. Even though there’s still a lot of work to do, I believe the pain at the pump created a gain that’ll benefit the whole human race. Life seems to work that way and, if we choose to look beyond the immediate, we’ll usually see the gain that’ll come from the pain.

“I don’t accept the maxim ‘there’s no gain without pain’, physical or emotional. I believe it is possible to develop and grow with joy rather than grief. However, when the pain comes my way, I try to get the most growth out of it.” –Alexa Mclaughlin

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