“The road to Paradise starts in Hell.” Tim Grover
If you want to reach Heaven you have to pass through Hades, for it is in the fires that our weaknesses and impurities are burnt away and our spirit tempered into unbreakable steel.
The greatest athletes are willing to push themselves harder than anyone else will, over and over again to reach levels no one else can. The three a day workouts, the special diets, the mental pressure to transform themselves in ways that lesser athletes or performers shy away from because of the mental and physical pain entailed in the transformation into exceptionality.
Winning is never all unicorns and smiles. It is time in the dungeon and torture chambers. It is uncomfortable in proportion to the desired outcome, so becoming the absolute best requires the greatest of sacrifices of self.
The harder the battle the more euphoric the victory. To touch Heaven one must repeatedly descend into Hell to make oneself worthy.