Progressive Hardship

Fall seven times, get up eight. Fail forward. I watched an inspiring speech by Denzel Washington a few weeks ago, and I loved his words - especially the last of it, "Ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship." I thought about this in many ways, at many times, in many circumstances. At times people have asked me how I got to be the way that I am. I have thought about this and I came to some conclusions. Two things: Pain and hard work, this is what has carved me. Pain itself will not carve you if you do nothing with it, but if you look at it, embrace it, and make it something - it will do everything. As Eckhart Tolle says suffering can be a doorway to enlightenment if you let it be. Anything of value takes work, takes getting beyond yourself, and going to the next step through uncomfortably. You can have two people that have achieved worldly success in their life, and they come from very different backgrounds, but I guarantee the one who is fulfilled is the one who looked at what they wanted and what they needed in life and worked towards it. Sometimes the most blissful people come from painful backgrounds, and the most unsatisfied people come from backgrounds that were quite comfortable. Happiness come from being happy with yourself, and being happy with yourself comes from working towards your dreams, which takes love and commitment. Granted this is easier said than done, as I just opened another letter of telling me they can't fund an artistic project I want to do...so I must take my own advice in this process as much as anyone. I must keep on plugging towards my dreams endlessly. What does this all mean? Embrace the hardship and pain, make it your friend. Use it to learn what you need to learn and take yourself as far as you can possibly go towards truth and what you truly love.

Photo by Valera Vulfson