Pain: is inevitable

Purpose: must be found.

Perseverance: is the final ingredient that unlocks your "good" life.

Sadly, over the past couple decades, this world has done a great job of working hard to shelter you from pain, take away your purpose as a human being, and give you a trophy for everything ... hinders the ability to understand what it means to persevere even when failure occurs.

Truthfully, I came up with this writing topic on my 10-mile run yesterday.

I was in pain. Not just from running in the heat, but I got bit by fire ants on my hand, which if you saw on my recent IG stories, it looks absolutely terrible hahah. Basically a balloon hand.

The run had extra purpose yesterday, as it was my mother's birthday, as well as the day Erin's father passed away 8 years ago.

Running in 90+ degree weather is never easy. Perseverance is a must when those negative thoughts start to creep in.

.

..

...

Life isn't / was never meant to be easy.

The human existence is hard.

And I think a lot of the troubling things we are seeing in the world are because we have created one which teaches people to avoid pain, neglect purpose, and find shortcuts, rather than teaching them principles such as perseverance.

Are you in pain right now? Ask yourself what it can teach you.

Do you lack purpose? Go help another person, your family, your community, LEND A HAND. By you helping others who are suffering, you essentially will bring a higher purpose into your life. And while doing so, you can begin to define your own path and purpose for the long run.

Understand that the problems and challenges in life are bestowed upon you to test your ability to persevere. Anything worthwhile in this world comes at the price of perseverance. The question remains, are you willing to pay that price?

I hope you are able to see the light and turn your pain into purpose, and that purpose into a lifelong attitude of perseverance.

#thriveon

CJ

p.s. today I am grateful for all the pain and challenges in my life that have forced me to seek a higher purpose for myself.