Blood or Sweat?

Which Do You Choose — Blood or Sweat?

There was a phrase that we used regularly in the Marine Corps to justify all the pain and the suffering and torment that we inflicted upon ourselves to prepare for combat. We were always in a state of training. It was non-stop, 24-hours per day, of training. What we were doing at all times was preparing myself for competency for when we received the call when chaos ensued.

It’s better to sweat a gallon of sweat in peacetime than it is a pint of blood in wartime. The adage we adhered to is when we needed to be, it was better to be prepared, than to become prepared at that moment. This takes a growth mindset, where you are always stretching yourself and making yourself uncomfortable not to avoid pain, but create discomfort so you could grow into the next level before you needed to.

It’s choosing growth in your life when comfort is perfectly present.

I see many people that are pain-motivated who require immense amounts of pain before they’ll make any changes in their lives. That is not growth. That is running from pain.

Human beings are wired for comfort. That’s why we are pain-motivated. You can flip that switch any time you want and choose to sweat a gallon of sweat in peacetime so that when you are in conflict and you need to be prepared, you are.

In case it shifts in your mindset and your emotional system, and how you view the world, and in what you really desire. Do you desire growth or comfort?

Because you can’t have both.