Is it worth it?

I can think of a lot of times I look back on things I've done and asked myself this question, reflecting on some sort of outcome.  Rarely do I take the proactive approach and ask myself this kind of question before or during I take on another project in my life.  Here, I think the question turns from "Is worth it?" to "What is the purpose?"  I'm not talking about weighing the pros and cons of doing something new, this comes after you have already established that it's something you want to do.  I'm talking about having a clearly defined objective or goal; a reason for changing from the way you do things today.

I met this guy at the gym who invited me to join a group of his that does one of them "Insanity" workouts every Friday (Man, that workout is no joke!).  After this intense workout, the guy came up to me and said "Now if only i can look like you."  Instinctively, I told him this took years to do and that it wasn't worth it.  I didn't really think about it too much before I responded, but I considered it while in the shower (I don't know about you, but I do some GREAT thinking in shower, or any other time when I don't have a pen and paper handy).  I didn't immediately recognize the magnitude of what I said, but in the shower I realized having a great body really wasn't worth it.  This was just a by product of my wrestling career.  I won't go into too much detail (I'll leave that for another post), but I had some tough times throughout my wrestling career.  The workouts, the drama, the weight loss; it was all physically and mentally draining.  The amount of work I put into my wrestling career is not equal to just being in shape.  It's the disclipline it taught me along the way, the mental endurance, the intense highs and deep depressions that I went through.  It made me a better person, and that is why it was worth it.  The great body is simply an added bonus, but alone is certainly not worth the cost you pay.  The only reason I was able to stick it out so long was because these were the things I focused on.  Getting in shape and having a great body were pretty low on my list of reasons for wrestling - they would have to be; any sane person would certainly not go through this hell just to look good.  I focused on becoming a better person, seeing myself in 5, 10, 50 years down the road with some new obstacle and reminding myself "I went to Hell and back while I was wrestling.  If I got through that alive I can certianly get through this too."  It raised my standard for hard work, and I knew that I can handle anything life threw at me.  I went into 7th grade a boy terrified of the spotlight, and came out of college a man ready for the real world.

I don't mean to stray too far from the main point of this blog, but we have to look at ourselves and ask why we are working towards the things we think we want.  There's some part of me that wants to be good at talking to people so I can have a lot of friends and everyone will like me and think I'm cool, but this shouldn't be the main objective.  Everybody can think I'm great, but at the end of the day I may very well be completely miserable.  The main reason I want to master the art of conversation is simply to learn.  Learn about other people, learn their point of view, learn the different thinks that make other people happy in hopes that I can apply them to my life as well.  This is the real purpose of my mission and I didn't realize this before that reflection session in the shower.  Now that my purpose is clear I can continually go back to that and see if what I'm doing is really serving to advance towards this goal.  I can now stay on track and limit my distractions.