Happiness x Struggles

Because happiness requires struggle.

If you find yourself wanting something month after month, year after year, yet nothing happens and you never come any closer to it, then what you want is a fantasy, an idealization, an image, a false promise. Maybe what you want isn't what you want, but you just enjoy wanting it. Maybe you don't actually want it at all.

Because you have to choose something. You can't have a pain-free life. It can't be all roses and unicorns. Pleasure is an easy question and pretty much all of us will have similar answers. The interesting question is the pain. What is the pain you are willing to suffer? 

You want the reward but not the struggle. You want the result but not the process. You were in love not with the fight but the victory. Who you are is defined by the values you are willing to struggle for. It is not a call for will power or grit, not another admonishment of 'no pain, no gain' but our struggles determine our success. Choose your struggles wisely. 

-Extracts from Mark Manson