Frustration is not an interruption of your process. Frustration IS the process.
The fun part is when we are feeling great, we have more energy and we’re seeing results—our friends are seeing our results. But Elizabeth Gilbert states,
“You don’t just get to leap from bright moment to bright moment. How you manage yourself between these bright moments—when things aren’t going so great, is a measure of how devoted you are.”
Holding ourselves together through the mess is where the real work lies. But it’s also where the magic occurs. I was having this conversation over Christmas, half jokingly, “Can’t I just skip the messy middle and get to the part where I’m comfortable!?”
Mark Manson writes, “Everything sucks, some of the time. You just have to know what suckage you’re willing to deal with. So the question is, what are you passionate enough about, that you can endure the most trying points of the process?”
I can explain it this way—if you want to change your body or your health in some way, you are going to have to sacrifice something, and you may have to be prepared to do some internal reflecting. You will be uncomfortable. The other side is, not changing at all, keeping all your goals as fantasies, but remaining comfortable.
Both will be frustrating at times. But which frustration do you want?