#23 Pleasure

Bob & Jillian have helped tons (no pun intended) of folks through the gates of hell to the heaven of fitness.

"Through the gates of misery & hell lead the road to untold pleasure"-Unknown. If you stopped and realized how many of us stop short of a goal or following through because it was hard, just a few feet, or even inches short, it could potentially depress you for days. When the going got tough, we got the hell out of there! If we had just stuck with it a little longer, a few more seconds, minutes, hours, days or weeks (you get my point) and we would've crossed that great threshhold from the temporary pain and inconvenience of the moment and gotten the pleasure of what we really wanted that couldn've transformed our entire lives. I'm as guilty as anybody. Years and years went by where I had thousands of opportunities to approach women out and about and because I was terrified of the prospect of rejection. I "played it safe", and stayed in my comfort zone, refusing to risk it. There were times it was obvious someone liked me and I still put my hands in my pockets, looked down sheepishly and refused to act on it. Finally, I decided to face my fear head on and get that area of my life handled. I talked to guys who were good at interacting with women, building attraction and just relaxing and having fun with attractive members of the opposite sex without having angst. I also bought some programs that helped guys like me (the 'Double Your Dating' series w. David D'Angelo series was most helpful) get comfortable and build my inner confidence. This helped me not just in dating, but in my life overall. When I moved to Nashville, TN I used the stuff I had been learning, crashed and burned a few times, but realized that I was growing and making great strides. I kept going. After dating several people I eventually met my future wife. I went through the hell of being forlorn in love, petrified to approach somebody, and have now found the person for me.

Exercise is another great analogy for this principle. When I'd let myself go physically, I'd reach that point where the pain of living life as a zombie-like (no energy) fat slob was greater than the pain and discomfort it would take to get my body getting back in shape. So I began the long journey back to being fit, and, as expected, my body resisted, hard (I even came close to vomitting a few times). Still, I kept going (notice a theme?), and before too long I actually started seeing results of my day-by-day consistent efforts and felt a sense of accomplishment and a rush of pleasure you can't buy or get any other way than by doing it and earning it. Also, eventually the workouts got easier and I actually began to look forward to it. It was fun and a great way for me to start my day and burn stress. At this point in my life, it's one of my favorite things to do and look forward to and is an absolute 'must' in my daily routine. It literally helps fortify me for the rest of my day.

Why do you think the show "The Biggest Loser" is such a big hit? You can literally see, week-by-week, the contestants transforming themselves and experiencing the profound joy of mastering an area of their lives that was a bane to to their existence. They are literally lifting huge weights off their shoulders. It's inspirational, like all people who experience remarkable growth in an area they had resigned themselves to. They had each gone through their own personal hells and entered a version of their heavens. What is your personal hell that could lead to heaven (untold pleasure)?