Mar 25 2014

An expression that is usually found in gyms & other sporting venues, there is some truth to it in business as well. Moving forward, getting ahead, making a strong position for yourself & your team takes effort, often painful effort. Fighting against the grain, pushing against years, decades of bad habits, poor decisions and lax standards. It can be painful, often to the point where we want to quit, and many do.

Having the foresight to stick it out, to push through the painful moments, days, weeks and months to get through to the real, sustainable gains we seek can be difficult. It can be downright disheartening at times, but it is necessary. If it were easy, then everyone would be doing it, right? If it were easy, what would be the point, what accomplishment would there be from doing something easy?

Sometimes it is necessary to stop, regroup & attack the problems from another angle, from a different approach, with different tactics. Sometimes it is even necessary to pause, to hold off on the forward drive just to maintain the status quo, but be careful with this, it can become a habit. The pain may be frustration, it may be financial, it may be daily emotional battles with those who resist your efforts to move forward. Whatever the pain is, it will only resurface as you begin again.

For those who exercise regularly, they know that it is much harder to start again once you stop than to maintain the pace, the drive, the push through the pain. It is the same in business, often worse as each new attempt or drive for progress is met with not just self doubt & concern, but vocal, active resistance from the front line.

There isn’t much worth doing that isn’t difficult in some way, pushing through the pain to achieve the gain is worthwhile, focusing on the long term benefits rather than the short term difficulties can help, but rest assured, backing off from the pain will only make it that much more difficult when you decide to start again.