The Value of Obstacles

I often dream of a life in which everyday is spent doing the things that I love and enjoy, and doing none of the things that I don’t want to do.  Especially since I graduated from college and started sitting at a desk all day, a life in which I could do whatever I want seems to be a highly worthy (if not highly ambitious) goal to pursue.  When I look ahead to the future and I see 50 weeks a year (2 weeks of vacation – whee!) of hanging out in my cubicle, being told when to show up and when to leave, and sitting in traffic I think to myself that I need to figure out NOW how to not do any of this.  But, would I really want to live a life where I had no constraints or pressure in my daily life?  Would I really want to have pure unadulterated individual freedom? 

 Think about a film maker who doesn’t have the budget they want to realize their vision, or one of the great Renaissance artists who had to complete work commissioned by the church in order to make a living, or the individual who works a full time job and doesn’t quite have the time to engage in the activity that they love.  All of these people have to find ways around these obsticles.  The obsticles themselves energize the individual to movement.  So, the next time you feel yourself starting to complain about something in your life that you don’t have, ask yourself questions that begin with – “How can I…” or “What can I do…” and you will begin to figure out your way around the problems in your life.  Human greatness is realized in the tension between “what I want to do” and “what I have to do.”

You can be absolutely certain that when you feel you are being most unfairly tested, you are being prepared for great achievement.  -Napoleon Hill