How to Select Our Pain?

It seems like an inevitable effect of the success that you have to deal with some “undesirable” challenges along your way of climbing up the ladder of achievement. As you see, I didn’t refer to it as “pain,” which is an explicit expression of the endeavors we have to undertake or tolerate. It doesn’t mean that suffering is a prerequisite to success. If you can avoid any inopportune occurrence, do it! Otherwise, bear with me to get a better understanding of our ineluctable.
Firstly, we are not looking for a silver bullet to turn every challenge into redemption. We are contemplating the very foundation of the success journey. But before that, did we ever sit down and define success for ourselves? Maybe it’s not something straightforward or evident. For some people, it’s limited to monthly income, social prestige, or the people they hang out with; for some others, it’s about happiness, family, health, or freedom. Whatever it is, we should be honest with ourselves.
In the second step, we want to quantify these criteria. Without numbers and a clear goal, it’s hard to pave our way forward. Numbers assigned to our progress’s achievement rate demonstrate how far we have come and how much we have ahead. Comprehensive tracking and analysis of the time spent, factors gained, and tasks planned could be a report of your performance. Take writing and understanding it seriously.
Thirdly, prioritize them. Everything! Whether it’s your goal, what you’ve planned ahead, what’s on your wishlist, everything. It allows you to eliminate those least beneficial things on your schedule. Maybe keeping only three things for a period of a week would be a reasonable workload to concentrate on. Then, it’s your moment of choosing your pain. These are the frogs you have to swallow. It’s obviously not so pleasing or fascinating, but you have to get along with them and bear with them until you achieve a minimum of the performance criteria you set before. It’s a pain that there isn’t and shouldn’t be any escape plan for. Because it’s what you, as the wise person, chose for your own life, and you have to commit to your future self. Consider this as a loan you have to reimburse to your future self.
Lastly, stay on track. Never go outside of this iterative loop of planning and executing. It’s what makes you a better person. It’s the dedication and persistence that distinguish winners from mediocre players. In those moments of overwhelming devastation, remember that if you don’t stick to your pain, this pain will escalate and return to you, which you may not be able to handle as you’re capable of today.