I am willing to put myself through anything; temporary pain or discomfort means nothing to me as long as I can see that the experience will take me to a new level.
Interpretation
Temporary struggles can lead to significant personal growth and achievement.
This quote by Diana Nyad emphasizes the importance of perseverance and resilience in the face of challenges. It suggests that one should be willing to endure short-term discomfort, as it is often necessary for long-term progress and the attainment of higher goals in life.
In practice
Motivating a friend who is hesitant about starting a new workout routine.
You have a dream and you have obstacles in front of you as we all do. None of us ever get through this life without heartache, without turmoil, and if you believe and you have faith and you can get knocked down and get back up again and you believe in perseverance as a great human quality, you find your way.
In swimming, especially training out in the ocean and open water, you got fogged-over goggles, you're stuck with your own thoughts - there's great benefits to that, deep thinking like that after many hours, but there's also tremendous loneliness. You burn out. You want to run, jump, ski, do anything. So at age 30, I was finished.
Every human being on this planet has their pain and their heartache and it's up to all of us to find our way back to the light.
I swam. We made it, our team, from the rocks of Cuba to the beach of Florida, in squeaky-clean, ethical fashion.
I grew up in Florida, so you start swimming at the age of 1, really. By 10, I was competitive swimming, and by 12, I had aspirations to be the best in the world.
There is... nothing greater than touching the shore after crossing some great body of water knowing that I've done it with my own two arms and legs.
Don't wait until you feel like taking positive action. Take the action and then you will feel like doing it.
Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.
If you stay up late and you have another hour of work to do, you can just stay up another hour later without running into a wall and having to stop. Whereas it might take three or four hours if you start over, you might finish if you just work that extra hour. If you're a morning person, the day always intrudes a fixed amount of time in the future. So it's much less efficient. Which is why I think computer people tend to be night people - because a machine doesn't get sleepy.
You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.
What the SEAL teams do, what our training does, is it chips away the outer that layer and shows you what you're capable of and not capable of.
Human beings are the only creatures who have the ability to write down their goals and design their future. And here is why most of us don't. We're trapped either by regret of the past or the routine of the present.
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