Embrace The Suffering Paradox

Mickey:
Why do you have to wear that stinkin’ sweatsuit?

Rocky Balboa:
It brings me luck, you know?

Mickey:
Brings you luck. I’ll tell you what it brings – it brings FLIES! Now here’s what I want you to do – I want you to chase this little chicken.

Rocky Balboa:
Hey yo, Mick, what do I got to chase a chicken for?

Mickey:
First, because I said so. And second, is because chicken-chasing is how we used to train back in the old days. If you can catch this thing, you can catch greased lighting.

Rocky Balboa:
Well, I’ll do it if you say so, but it ain’t very mature.

Mickey:
Yeah, well NEITHER ARE YOU, very mature! -scene from the film Rocky

“Schwartz knew that people loved to suffer, as long as the suffering made sense. Everybody suffered. The key was to choose the form of your suffering. Most people couldn’t do this alone, they needed a coach. A good coach made you suffer in a way that suited you.” –The Art Of Fielding, novel by Chad Harbach

“I don’t think people understood what it was I was doing at Shaffer. I wasn’t there to conduct. Any fucking moron can wave his arms and keep people in tempo. I was there to push people beyond what’s expected of them. I believe that is… an absolute necessity. Otherwise, we’re depriving the world of the next Louis Armstrong. The next Charlie Parker. I told you that story about how Charlie Parker became Charlie Parker, right?…Parker’s a young kid, pretty good on the sax. Gets up to play at a cutting session, and he fucks it up. And Jones nearly decapitates him for it. And he’s laughed off-stage. Cries himself to sleep that night, but the next morning, what does he do? He practices. And he practices and he practices with one goal in mind, never to be laughed at again. And a year later, he goes back to the Reno and he steps up on that stage, and plays the best motherfucking solo the world has ever heard. So imagine if Jones had just said, “Well, that’s okay, Charlie. That was all right. Good job.” And then Charlie thinks to himself, “Well, shit, I did do a pretty good job.” End of story. No Bird. That, to me, is…an absolute tragedy. But that’s just what the world wants now. People wonder why jazz is dying. I’ll tell you man. And every Starbucks “jazz” album just proves my point, really. There are no two words in the English language more harmful than “good job.” -Terence Fletcher (played by JK Simmons) to Andrew Neiman (played by Miles Teller) in the film Whiplash

“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

“When you think that you are done, you’re only 40% in to what your body’s capable of doing. That’s just the limits that we put on ourselves.” -David Goggins, book Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy The Odds

“Just before you break through the sound barrier, the cockpit shakes the most.” -Chuck Yeager

The suffering paradox….

Deep down we all want to be pushed beyond our limits. See how far we can go. How great we truly can be.

Yet at the same time, who wants to go to those places? Suffer like that? Give their pound of flesh? It’s torturous. At times, maniacal. It sucks.

Greatness isn’t for everybody.

But if you’re one of the few who’s striving for it, then there are times when you gotta embrace the suffering paradox. 

And while yes, Terence Fletcher is extreme–abuse is not to be tolerated–if you have a coach or mentor who believes in you and is willing to push you, even if that means you get angry at them, realize their belief, encouragement and the time they invest in you, is a gift.

P.S. – This scene.