Have you heard the phrase "No pain, no gain"? It's something I hear many times in my martial arts lessons before we enter into full contact tournaments. In order to be successful at anything, you need to love what you do. Sooner or later you will come across something that causes you pain in one form or another, but that's something you must endure to achieve your goal.

So what does "No pain, no gain" mean in martial arts?

You can choose to train hard now and endure pain beyond your limits, or you can choose to get beaten up in fights and have your pain then.

Which one would you prefer?

That's an easy one, isn't it? Yet many fighters don't prepare as well as they should. They miss training sessions, continue to eat pizzas, sweets and other crap that will affect their performance. Why do they do this?

They simply don't see their goal clearly enough or they don't have one at all.

Let's say that Jim's goal is to become his country's champion and he trains hard for this great objective.

On the other hand, Peter's goal is to just participate and if possible, get away without injury. If both of them come across buddies eating hamburgers, who do you think is more likely to succumb and eat along with them? Who will stay strong and order a salad or nothing at all?

For any goal to be achieved, it has to be worthwhile to you. There will be pain involved, but there will also be the joy of your dream to gain. Whether you compromise your goal or stick to it, is determined entirely by whether your goal is bigger than any obstacle that you meet.

Read that sentence again.

Whether you compromise your goal or stick to it, is determined entirely by whether your goal is bigger than any obstacle that you meet.

Take it from someone who knows: "I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'" - Muhammad Ali

So make sure that your goal gets you excited, heats up your emotions and makes your head spin when you think, see, smell and feel how it will be when you get there. Only then can you smile at adversity and embrace any pain that will undoubtedly occur on the road to your objectives. Enduring becomes easy by constantly keeping your eyes on your sweet reward.

Andreas Pauli
www.track04.mybestmoneymaker.com/