“There are two types of pains. One that hurts you and the other that changes you.”

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When you exercise, you may feel some pain in your muscles. The burning sensation comes from the build-up of lactic acid. This pain is typically temporary. Over time, with consistent exercise, the activated muscles grow and become stronger. This is the type of pain that changes you in a positive way. On the other hand, the pain you experience from a fall or any type of injury just hurts. There’s no positive change.

These two examples provide a great illustration for this quote by Jettie Woodruff. Both examples deliver the sensation of pain. However, one simply hurts while the other changes you in a good way. Although the illustration is about physical pain, it can be applied to the challenges and difficulties you face in life, which cause a different, more emotional, kind of pain. The trick is to know the difference between the “pain” that’s simply hurting you and the one that is molding you into a stronger person. When you know the difference, you can eliminate or minimize the former as much as possible while the latter becomes much easier to bear.