The Trick is Not Minding

Assalamu alaikum, everyone. You're not gonna find any highly successful people in any field who, if you ask them how they made it to the top, they'll say that they learned some secret trick or tip that propelled them to success. But we always wanna find a way around difficult things. We wanna lose weight by some kind of cream or diet pill or wrapping our fat in plastic instead of just facing the fact that you have to move more and count your calories and eat less. When I used to train beginning fighters, they all wanted to know how to take a punch as if there's some trick to it.

There isn't. You just have to get punched in the face again and again. And it hurts, but you get used to it and you get stronger. There are no shortcuts. I'm saying this to men now because I see a lot of guys online asking for advice on how to control their urges and their desires, like how to not watch porn, how to not want to commit zina.

But the thing is, that's kind of like asking how do you walk upstairs. You walk upstairs. There is no trick to make it effortless. Effortless. As a man, you have to reconcile yourself with difficulty.

You have to get used to doing hard things. You have to get good at being uncomfortable. You have to get good at self denial, at sacrifice, at deriving satisfaction from discipline instead of desire. And I'm not guaranteeing you that it will get any easier. It may, but it may not.

If there's a trick to it, then the trick is to not care if it gets any easier.