Life will bring you pain all by itself. Your responsibility is to create joy.
Milton H. Erickson
You don’t have to expand much effort for things to go wrong. There will always be something. There will always be more of something and it will never stop. Life is a meaningful journey but a journey we cannot escape unscathed.
This is how life is but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a choice in the matter. We have plenty of choice but millions choose not to exercise any of that freedom. We don’t get to choose to avoid things that are happening in our lives, but rather how we choose to react and see the things that are happening. Viktor Frankl called this the last human freedom. When the world has taken every conceivable option away from you, the one thing they can never take away from you is the free choice of how you’re going to see it.
This is why Terry Fox decided to unite a nation and inspire the world, by doing a marathon a day for a hundred and forty three days. Most people aspire to do one in their lifetime, but he, despite dying of cancer decided to see where he was and who he was differently.
As special as Terry Fox was, there is nothing special about his decision to act instead of being acted upon. Every human being has the same ability, the same chance, the same opportunity, but for millions and millions they chose to create more pain, or do everything they can in their power to avoid all pain, when all along they should be embracing their opportunity to create joy.
Joy.
Three letters.
Such an uncomplicated, clear, and beautiful word. That is what everyone should spend their time in creating. Making the world a better place is what should be on our mind when we wake up in the morning. Every challenge should be an opportunity to do something. Every disappointment should be another stepping stone and foundation to greatness. Everything that life puts in our way is not meant to burden us, but to help us to become something we are incapable of becoming on our own.
Friction is inevitable and is very desirable. But you cannot wish it upon yourself otherwise you reduce yourself to a sadist and that is a horrific hell to be in. You cannot really wish for friction and adversity in our life, so we can grow and become better, but than again there is no need to because life will provide plenty of it. There is always something around the corner.
But you should take that corner burdening yourself with how you can generate more meaningful joy. What can you do today that will make your life and the lives of those around you better. What can you give? Who can you be? How much can you run and financially contribute so that other boys and girls, who are struck with this illness or that, don’t have to run a hundred and forty three marathon, but can instead life a happy life, or focus on other things that will demand fixing and making better.
