The Way You Do Anything is the Way You Do Everything: The Why of Why Your Business Isn't Making More Money

Chapter 10

Pain

It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.

—Chuck Palahniuk, Diary

Turn off CNN, put down the Wall Street Journal, and ask your friends to be silent for just a few days. If you stop leaning on the pain you hear, see, and feel, interesting things can happen.

If you just look around, you'll see so much abundance right now. Look at your children, your pets, your health, your friends, and your stuff that you love: the car or house or fun hobby. Look at the pictures in your house of vacations traveled, holidays, and events. The sense of abundance is overflowing. It is truly plentiful.

Stop living based on what's going on Wall Street, or you will always be disappointed. Start living in the economy of now, and the economy of plenty. This outlook will alter every thought you have and decision you make.

Pain does crazy things. It enables us to make poor decisions, compels us to say no, stopping us from taking action—letting fear dictate our choices.

What pain in your life are you leaning on? None of us are going to escape pain. We signed up for it when we were born. But there are two types of pain: that which paralyzes, and that which allows us to perform. On the one hand, pain paralysis is that wound, that mess, that debilitating feeling of defeat that can last for a day, a week, sometimes even a year. Pain paralysis stops you from doing anything. Pain that drives performance, ...