Avoiding the pain

Ten times a day I have the same conversation in my office.

It goes something like this.

Me: So I think that this injection will make your knee feel better.

Patient: Does it hurt?

Me: Your knee or the shot?

Patient: The needle. Does it hurt?

Me: I don’t feel a thing.

Why wouldn’t someone want something that is going to make them feel better?

The answer is simple. Pain.

We avoid pain, even if it is a clear solution to a bigger, more chronic type of problem. The pain of a needle is nothing compared to the pain of arthritis, and yet many still refuse the shot.

Even if we know that the discomfort is brief.

Even if we know that the pain won’t kill us.

Even if we desire the change it will bring.

We still avoid it.

photo by Leonadini (stock.xchng)

In this article by Don Miller, he points out that pain is usually the only way significant transformation happens in our lives.

We like the idea of transformation. We love the idea of beaming a better person. Everyone of us imagines ourselves different than we are today. We see ourselves being thinner, richer, smarter, faster, and more hipster. Whatever kind of betterness we can imagine, we want it as long as getting it isn’t painful.

But every time we avoid the pain, we are making a decision to be the same.

Does the shot hurt? Of course it does.

Does it help? Probably.

Is it worth it? The only way to find out for sure is to try.

What pain are you avoiding that will make you a better person? Comment here.