Pain and Discomfort

Pain biologically serves as a deterrent from things against our best interests. It's usually a signal that something is wrong, like a headache or a sore throat when we’re sick. But then there’s saying “no pain, no gain.” 

Working out is inherently painful. The entire process of building muscle is by tearing them down for them to build back stronger. That pain doesn’t seem to be a signal that something is wrong. And this is a metaphor for almost everything—but its simultaneously a paradox. Pain is usually a signal to stop, but it's also sometimes a signal to keep going.

Perhaps this is where the distinction between discomfort and pain is important. Doing something difficult, even if you like it, is usually uncomfortable—hence a feeling of discomfort. But pain is different, even for nonphysical things. Studying for olympiads has always made me feel discomfort, but it was only painful when I was burnt out.

The way I’ve described discomfort seems like I just cherry-picked all the good types of pain and gave them a new term. And that is basically what I did. Pain is, by definition, a signal that you’re doing something wrong. There are times you feel pain at the gym that should deter you from working out. Discomfort, on the other hand, is tolerable pain that you’ve internalized the value of. People work out because they truly believe the pain they feel is getting them closer to their goals, so it's no longer pain, but rather an obstacle in the way to a better life.

The question I was initially trying to answer was that of discerning when pain or discomfort is a signal to do something or a signal against doing something. But the way I’ve laid it out, it's a lot easier to define in retrospect— if you did something, you likely found and internalized the motivation to, and thus it was likely “good pain” (or discomfort). Even if the thing you did is no longer valuable to you, the fact that you found motivation to do it implies that you felt discomfort rather than pain, by my definition.

But, there are two problems now. First of all, this is really easy to define in retrospect, but doesn’t help us figure out what we should continue doing in the present. And second, you can convince yourself that some things are worth it, even when they aren’t, so it's difficult to actually identify what pain is worth turning into discomfort.

I think the resolution to both of these issues is to figure out what pain is the most enjoyable to suffer through, but the most care has to be placed in figuring out why we’re suffering through something. And not all of that has to be intrinsic. Going back to the gym metaphor, getting advice from trainers is usually beneficial, and people know what pain they aren’t supposed to feel based on public knowledge. Ultimately, I think it boils down to actively choosing the battles we are fighting, and understanding why.