Darkness

We all have a dark side.

It's not something we like to admit, or talk about.

Everyone you know, no matter how nice they appear, has some mean aspect of themselves that they would just probably not like to talk about right now, thankyouverymuch.

But you know what?

That dark side helps us to lift more, to get farther faster, to carry on.Somewhere, sometime you've been through hell and it left scars. And, if you were smart, you learned to use those scars to help yourself and others. You triumphed over the pain.

But it left something in you: a dark reminder.

That dark side means you have a hard edge to bite down on when you're down—something to rely on when the plan goes all to hell and the pain is everywhere, and you're not sure you'll ever breathe normally again.

In the middle of the workout, that's when you need the mean, that's when you rely on the dark, that's when you bring your own pain to get the work done. That's when, somewhere deep inside, you flip the bird to everyone who ever hurt you, held you down, or stole a piece of your spirit that you aren't ever getting back no matter what and you finish the workout in some hard-bitten silent cry of "I will not be broken. Take that you  mother****ers."

That workout is you. All of you.

Ugly and pretty, good and bad, nice and mean, polite and whatthef***didyoujustsay, all in one package.

And that's life.

You have to know the dark in order to have the light.

Just don't stay in the dark or enjoy it too much – or you'll become the exact sort of person who brought you that darkness to begin with.