Wired for Struggle

But how we choose to struggle matters.

George Orwell, in his review of Hitler's Mein Kampf, wrote: 

“Whereas socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people ‘I offer you a good time,’ Hitler has said to them ‘I offer you struggle, danger and death,’ and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet.”

Something deep within us resists a life without challenge. 

Of course, we also appreciate comfort and convenience. If there's an app for that, we'll use it.

Still, we are wired to struggle. History provides countless examples of how this desire can be corrupted.

While the examples from our own lives may be less dramatic, we can surely point to times when this need to give ourselves to something has not ended well. Other times, the struggle was worth it.

The question is not whether we will struggle. Life gives us plenty of opportunities, and if things are going rather well, we will take up a new cause.

The question is whether it's a struggle worth engaging in. 

Thanks to those of you who have purchased a copy of my book, The Freedom of Missing Out. If you have read it, it would mean so much if you left a review on Amazon.