“I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
Last week’s email got a very strong reaction and to answer the main question…yes, I did do the fire-walk. 🙂 (The proof is attached in a picture below.)
Keeping with the theme of walking, I found myself experiencing quite a lot of pain while I was getting a Thai-massage on Friday evening. If you’ve ever had one, you’ll know that part of the massage is having a small Thai woman walk all over your back, and bend you this way and that…
For me the massage is quite painful at times yet it’s amazing how I keep going back. It’s because I always feel great afterwards and I know that
long-term there are great benefits to my physical health. It reminded me that there are 2 types of pain – good pain and bad pain.
Good pain enables growth, improvement and breaking through limitations. Examples may include doing something that scares you, dealing with a difficult but important situation in work, regular intense exercise, learning a new skill etc. Ultimately the end result is growth.
Bad pain stops growth, improvement and breaking through limitations. Examples may include a physical injury, reacting badly to feedback,
lack of action due to fear, depression, worry, anxiety etc.
To achieve our goals in business and life requires some form of pain. And most of the pain in my experience is mental. (Even the physical pain is influenced by our mental attitude.)
Some people are really great at pushing through mental pain and they often get more of what they want. As Gandhi says above, one of the keys to avoiding unnecessary pain is by being selective about who we let walk through our minds with their dirty feet.
But most of all, we should watch our own feet.
Food for thought….
Shane
ps – picture of fire-walk below and me walking across it…
