Ups and downs

You won’t ever really feel good if feeling good is the only thing you seek. A life with only the ups and no downs is not only impossible, it is undesirable.

You won’t achieve anything of value unless you’re willing to work your way through some difficult and demanding challenges. Value is built through effort, and there is no way around that.

To become skilled, you must practice, and to learn, you must study. There are always new techniques that can make you more effective, yet there are no shortcuts when it comes to true achievement.

The pains, the disappointments, the frustrations and the trepidations hurt. Because they feel so bad, you have the opportunity to authentically feel good by working your way beyond them.

Life is necessarily difficult, and that’s what makes it possible for life to be so good. For it is in dealing with the difficulties that the power of life’s goodness is fully experienced.

Live life fully, enjoying the good times and growing stronger by working through the difficult times. Savor the richness that is to be found in it all.

— Ralph Marston