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Writer's pictureJake Lawrence

Endure: life, pt. 1



ENDURE

This is uncomfortable. This is discomfort. Should I stop?

Apply this to any and all scenarios, respond appropriately and continue onward.

How many times have I wanted to quit? Many. And quit I have. Ask: do I grow in the unknown, or cease in the familiar? One would think that a successful response would produce only future successful responses, not true. Every moment is a new moment. Experience is memory. Memory is continuous whether you persist when comfort ceases or, stop. Make intentional memories.

Define. Decide. Do.

I refuse to stop. I choose only the experiences I want to have. I’ve learned what love is from/through the journeys I’ve traveled. Knowledge. Life doesn’t occur in separate compartments. For years I thought it should. When I committed, I succeeded. When I doubted, I failed. Commitment is a consequence of persevering. The moment when doubt arrives, as it surely will, is an opportunity to create a new outcome. Step into the unknown. Only when you’ve gone further than ever before can you then invite another to do the same. Illusions are meant to be shattered.

Stop protecting. Protection is fear. The decisions made out of fear are the birth of shame. The body is a self-sustaining machine. It functions automatically, moment to moment. Pain is knowledge. Pain can be your door to the unknown if you open it. Life exists on the other side. Fatigue, soreness, and pain create strength. The old is not enough to experience the new. The ego must die. The pain welcomes a full breath of life; an offering to live here and now. Bliss is not comfort. Yet, stasis is inviting... more familiarity. Bliss happens absent of desire, ambition, and expectation. We must connect with the elements of each moment. When it’s hot, it’s hot. When it’s cold, it’s cold. Eat when hungry. Sleep when tired.

No mind. No force.

Balance. Understand that to be all of anything requires you to be less of another. The body–mind will inform you when it needs a dose of what has become (through repetition) unfamiliar. Feed the desire. To have this feeling is to know you are truly alive. Find your personal path of endurance. Listen. Have the inner–conversation. Do the thing (new, required, desired) in your own way, absent of an intended outcome. Creativity happens when you fuel the present, the thoughts that persist create possibility, reveal potential. These are clues from the universe, listen.

Certainty kills curiosity; an absence of curiosity will eventually kill me.

The difficulty is often familiar: time, place, stimulus, often occurring at a familiar stopping point. Doubt enters the mind. Recognize, but carry on knowing that this too shall pass. In a race situation/format I will adjust pace, relax my face, and patiently wait for gravity’s assistance. Your weakness need not become a strength. Persist. Momentary (or sometimes prolonged) discomfort dies when doused with a positive mental attitude. Look good, feel good, perform.

The difference will always be an anomaly. Intuitively we look for the reason. What’s wrong? Are you OK? How do you feel? To endure anything you must recognize the discomfort as a temporary anomaly. Life is change. When you stop trying to normalize a feeling, to find the cause, you are able to adapt to the present.

Solutions are here/now not there/when. 

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