Earning It

Easy is cheap.

Let me put this a different way: that which we can do easily, we do not value as much as that which we have to work at.

There is a satisfaction and a sweetness to the hard-fought victory.

Whether that victory is over a pull-up, over a workout, or even over your desire to mash your face full of that big old sweet cinnamon roll, even though you know you're going to feel like crap 15 minutes after eating it. (But for 15 minutes, you're going to be King of the World!)You know this: Earn it and you'll love it even more.

So why do you complain?

• "Life is hard."

• "Oh my God, I can't do this."

• "FML."

Better you should rejoice.

• "Holy hell, I'm getting stronger."

• "Yeah, this hill sucks, but there's a peak and I will reach it."

• "FML? FYL. Mine is awesome."

Challenges are the best part of life.

The poet Rainer Maria Rilke once wrote: "So you mustn't be frightened . . . if a sadness rises in front of you, larger than any you have ever seen; if an anxiety, like light and cloud-shadows, moves over your hands and over everything you do. You must realize that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall."

Something is happening to you. Now go make it something good.