The Variances of Individual Tolerance

When we consider a 1-10 scale for “something” tolerance, my 10 is not your 10.

This is one of those things that’s mind-numbingly obvious, and any further discussion is beating a dead horse. However, putting this into practice is NOT obvious.

Once, someone told me that they shouldn’t feel bad about a broken leg because look at what all I’ve been through. Even worse is if you tell someone, “Your thing isn’t that bad, just look at Cosmo. Handle it like he handled his injury.” First, nobody likes being told something like this. It can be valuable, but it is almost always not received stoically. Second, what if that person who broke their leg is a runner and just about to go to a big competition? For them, that’s a 10/10 on the scale of “this is a bad thing, and I don’t like it.” For me, my injury was horrible, and of course, I absolutely hate it, BUT I’ve been able to stay positive and not get depressed about it, which makes it maybe a 6-7/10. I also never experienced pain from my injury, unlike if I were to break my leg and have a bone sticking out – that’s 11/10 (I’ll pass out seeing that).

Don’t compare yourself or other people when the situation is so different, and likely the scales are not the same. If another runner before the same competition broke their leg and handled it very well, then that’s a good time to consider how you react.