Can't Avoid Pain

There seems to be this belief that with enough information/planning/trying you can avoid pain. The issue is that pain is inevitable. There's the pain of effort; anything worthwhile is going to be difficult. It's going to require work and likely hard work at that. Not the easy things that fly by or make your day better but rather those grindy tasks that comprise drudgery but ultimately drive out success. Ask any professional or athlete and they'll tell you it's the hard things that get the results.

"The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow." - Anonymous

The other side of the coin is the pain of regret. It's even worse because it runs around in your head filling it with maybes, could haves, would haves, and potential never achieved. There's no way to dispel those without leaning into the pain of the first kind. Or maybe you regret the things you actually did...that one though, like the first type, has some healing given time.

"Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable." - Sydney J. Harris

So rather than trying to avoid pain, I recommend figuring out what the pain is FOR. Your "why" and goal will be what you can focus on as you lean into the pain. And remember, worthwhile things are never easy but they're worth it.