About a week ago I was in San Diego to check out one of Frank Kern’s events. I won’t go into the details of that event, other than to say I had fun. What I will tell you about is an experience that I think was vitally more important.

I had a near death experience.

Ok, maybe I am being a little dramatic but it sure felt like I was going to die. What seemed to be a fairly harmless eggs benedict on the airplane turned out to contain something vile and toxic. I never felt right after eating it. Even as I was getting a massage at the Hard Rock hotel I could see my stomach getting more and more swollen. The therapist even commented on my bulbous belly. About two hours later I was in complete bodily shutdown. I literally didn’t know which way was up and things were coming out of me that I didn’t know were part of this universe. The attack on my insides continued for twelve hours straight. I started to hallucinate.

I promised god that if he let me live I would never eat meat again.

I didn’t eat meat for three days.

By day seven not only was I eating meat but I even had an egg sandwich. The exact thing that nearly took me out. You have to ask yourself:

“How do we forget such painful experiences so quickly?”

The answer came to me and it is actually quite simple. Our brains were created with the ability to forget pain. More important is “why”? This amazing ability allows us to push the envelope of evolution. Think about it. Would the Wright Brothers really been able to keep crashing their test planes if the pain was in the forefront of their mind? Would NFL athletes be able to perform if all they could think about was that ligament tear? Then there is the big one: Would women really have another baby if the brain wasn’t downplaying the pain of the first birth? The answer to all three questions is a resounding NO!

So…we are programmed to forget pain quickly. This serves humanity by allowing us to procreate, evolve, invent, and push our limits.

The more important question may be: How can you harness this and how can it help you?

The fact is that most people are afraid of failure. They worry about what their friends will say. They worry about the financial strain it may cause. They worry about how it may effect their marriage. All of these worries are about “future pain”. The truth is that 95% of the time your fears won’t come true. The other 5% that do come true, as heinous as they might be, you will forget in as little as seven days. (At least that was my case with the eggs)

My point here is simple. Don’t be afraid of the pain. It is the fear that keeps you from trying something new and maximizing your potential. The pain is always less than you make it out to be and before you know it, you’ll forget what it even felt like.

To your success,

Aaron Parkinson