Ep 413 | The Benefits of Visiting the Pain Cave

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast. We believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. As many of you who have been following the No Days Off movement probably know, I like to participate in, in endurance activities or endurance sports. I'm not especially great at them, but I do thoroughly enjoy these longer types of races or hiking scenarios like 29.029, like we've talked about. Or recently I just ran a few marathons. I've got a, got a marathon coming up here in the very near future in New York City. These longer endurance type events, uh, I'm just a big fan of. I like training for them and having the order in which I have to train. I like the experience, but I'll tell you in a very sick and twisted way why I really, really like them. And I get asked the question, you know, what, what motivates you to do this stuff? And, and for me, the answer is that— I'd say the number one answer is that in every one of these events, I have the opportunity to visit what I would refer to, and I know many would refer to, as the pain cave. This moment in time during the race, during the event, where things get a little wonky, they get a little weird mentally and, and physically. Uh, you start to— you kind of enter this point of maybe you being drained. You've been putting in this extreme effort in, in this sport, in this activity, and you start to experience some degree of discomfort, or maybe it's exhaustion, or maybe it's even self-doubt. For me, um, it is a moment of, or a place of hardship. And in that moment, I get to make a choice, and that choice is to obviously either quit, which we're not going to do, but that is an option on the table, or to push beyond the comfort zone to really test my limits and, and frankly, just really test my willpower. And if you're listening right now and you've been through these events, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. See, in endurance sports, it usually happens when you're just depleted of energy and every step or movement requires some sort of like perceived unbearable level of effort. Uh, in, in business, or maybe in a personal life, the pain cave may be moments of high stress or, or crisis when you feel stuck, or this feeling of overwhelm or uncertainty. But the bottom line is, in these events, it— to me, it represents this opportunity, because for me, I get to confront what I would describe as my rawest, maybe most vulnerable self. I've got to kind of tap into inner reserves of strength if they exist, or resilience. And when I do that, I come out of the other side a more confident, stronger individual. I have a deeper sense of confidence, and there's just this, this personal growth. So the power of this pain cave really, for me, lies in the transformation. That, that, that, that moment presents or offers to me. And while it kind of sucks in the, in the moment, while it's super challenging, it's usually where, for me personally, I just get the biggest breakthroughs and where these certain learning moments happen. So the sick and twisted part of this is I think I've somewhat become, dare I say, addicted to getting in that space. And I want to find things that put me to that degree of uncomfort because again, that's where the opportunity lies. Now, I'm talking about this pain cave and I want to stop talking about my, you know, endurance events. I don't know if that appeals to everybody, but I want to talk about this pain cave because it doesn't have to just be experienced in some endurance or athletic event. There is a very, very clear parallel in business, especially if you're the owner of a business or you're an entrepreneur, which is pretty much all of our audience. Just like in endurance sports, building and scaling a business brings challenging moments that, that push you to the limit, that test your limits. And you do find yourself in this business pain cave that you can learn a lot from. In this business pain cave You have to work on your mental toughness and your resilience. There's inevitable setbacks. It's coming. Cash flow issues, some sort of operational crisis. There's going to be a shift in market, probably multiple times. There's going to be competition, competitive pressures. All of these things can feel like an emotional or mental gauntlet of sorts. These moments test your resilience and your ability to keep going. And despite the uncertainty of things, you got to push through. Much like pushing through some sort of endurance event, you've got to push through. This is the hardest part of the race, of the business race. The pain cave in business tests your mental toughness. It tests your resilience. In this moment, much like the endurance events, you go through this self-discovery. In business, you can go through this self-discovery. Just like you, you learn about your mental fortitude in an endurance sport, tough times in business actually reveal who you are, maybe who you are as a leader. It's during what I think are these very difficult times that you might uncover some new strengths. You also might uncover some weaknesses that you can work on. Maybe you find approaches that you hadn't even known about. See, each challenge that you go through gives you a clearer picture, I think, of your values and your vision and, and the sacrifices that maybe you're willing or unwilling to make. Again, the pain cave, pushing yourself to that limit, allows you this opportunity for self-discovery. Now, through this process, much again like the endurance events, you develop or have the opportunity to develop some confidence. Overcoming these business hardships builds confidence, just like finishing some sort of grueling athletic event. Every obstacle conquered in business adds to your skill set. It adds to your belief in your own ability, and that sets you up for navigating future challenges that you, of course, are going to end up facing. This kind of confidence in business and endurance events, I mean, it'll carry into all areas of life and prepare, prepare you for bigger, maybe bolder decisions that you're gonna have to make down the road. Lastly, when I think around the opportunity that is the pain cave in business specifically, or in both sports and business, when you're deep into that pain cave, you've got to adapt. Adapting is crucial. And many business challenges, as you know, require some sort of creative problem solving. Just as you might need to adjust your pacing or mindset in a race, you have to adjust the way that you're approaching things in business. And the pain cave presents this opportunity to adapt and problem solve. So learning to pivot or think differently is often born from these, these pain cave experiences, which makes you more adaptable, adaptable, which makes you a better leader, a better business person. So in business, these pain cave moments can be defining. Just like the hardest parts of a race, they make the successes that much rewarding as well. So what am I talking about here? I'm encouraging you, I'm encouraging you to embrace the moments in business when things get super hard. Uh, look forward to those moments. I understand it's very tough to to deal with. I get it. It's a privilege that you get to deal with it. And it may seem insurmountable. You may be going to bed at night thinking about it and waking up in the morning thinking about it. And this may go on for days or weeks or months. And it's freaking hard. But of course it's hard. If it was easy, everybody around you would be doing it. But not everybody's building a business. Not everybody's an entrepreneur. Not everybody is trying to, you know, create generational wealth. Or just becoming a better leader. Not everyone thinks that way. Because you're doing that, you're going to run into challenges. But I'm saying run at those challenges and be grateful that you get to experience them. If you're in one of the— if you feel like right now I'm in this pain cave, my business is not going the direction I wanted to, the relationships I'm building are just floundering maybe at this moment, there's headwinds and I'm trying to navigate them. But every time I look, every time I, you know, you know, uh, come up with an idea, I get smacked, and I turn left and I get smacked again, and I turn right and I get smacked. Yeah, that's the pain cave. In the moment, it's going to feel like an eternity, as we talked about, I think, last week in one of our episodes. Long term, it's going to feel like seconds when you retell the story. But the idea here is what an amazing opportunity you have. So in summary, I want to encourage everybody here today to run towards the cave. Be excited when you, when you hit it. I know you may not be excited in the moment because it's hard as all hell, but the reality is you're going to build mental toughness, you're going to build resilience, you're going to self-discover, you're going to create more confidence and growth, you're going to learn to adapt more so than you ever have before, and you're going to learn to problem solve at an even higher level. There are very few opportunities, I think, in business or life that present that moment to you like we're describing here in the pain cave. So run at it and make the most of it. Truly, it's a privilege. And any goal that you're pursuing is likely not a worthy one if there wasn't some pain and challenge along the way. Just remember that. If the goal is a worthy one, if you're striving to do something big, then you're going to run in the challenge. If you didn't run in the challenge, then I would contend maybe the bar isn't set high enough. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.