The Wall

You may start strong. You may be firing on all cylinders in an automatic motion. You may be a locomotive that has picked up steam and is operating seemingly based on sustained momentum. You may be mentally checked out with an empty mind, with a body moving as if it’s a separate entity from who you are. Suddenly you are jarred back into the present. Your mind is no longer empty. Your body is no longer operating autonomously. Your effortless momentum is stopped in its tracks. You have hit the wall.

The wall appears suddenly and out of nowhere. It’s the glass door you run into when walking that you don’t notice until it is too late. It’s full body cramps at mile 18 in a marathon after running an automatic race. It’s writer’s block after picking up your computer after a week of flowing verbiage. The wall appears anytime and anywhere.

The wall is meant to stall, it’s meant to inhibit— it’s meant to destroy. The wall is like the pain cave except you can feel the journey into the pain cave building up, you know when you finally enter the depths of the cave. With the wall, there isn’t such a buildup. The pain cave is different than the wall because the pain cave welcomes you. The pain cave encourages you to make it your home. The pain cave offers you the option to either emerge stronger or quit. Either way, the pain cave gains another resident. The wall doesn’t care about you being a resident. The wall just wants you to quit. The wall aims to end everything you are trying to do and doesn’t care what happens next. The wall wants you to lose.

While in the pain cave, you are negotiating for your living arrangements. In the pain cave, you face a constant discussion about how much more pain you can take, how much more you can handle before you lay down and quit, and how much you can endure before a switch is finally flipped where you emerge victorious. In the pain cave you have options and the options have a spectrum for what they can deliver for you.

Defeating the wall is more black and white than the pain cave. The wall wants you to quit. It doesn’t want you to move on. To defeat the wall you encounter, don’t quit. It’s that simple. There’s no need for negotiation with the wall when you know its weakness— persistence and determination. The wall aims to eradicate any forward motion instantly. Defeat the wall by pushing to gain your momentum back. Defeat the wall by not giving in to the pain, suffering, and moment of dread the wall showing up brings. Defeat the wall by not giving in.