“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.” — Seneca

“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor. (一片風平浪靜的海洋無法造就一名偉大的舵手)” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt

“One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.” — Sigmund Freud

“Nothing in this world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty.” — Theodore Roosevelt

“Hard times create strong men, strong men create easy times, easy times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.” — G. Michael Hopf

“The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.” — Richard M. Nixon

“If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.” ― CS Lewis

“Difficult and meaningful will always bring more satisfaction than easy and meaningless.” — Maxime Lagace

“I thought I’d solved a problem when really I was creating new ones by taking the path of least resistance.” — [@gogginsCantHurtMe2018]

“Our culture has become hooked on the quick-fix, the life hack, efficiency. Everyone is on the hunt for that simple action algorithm that nets maximum profit with the least amount of effort. There’s no denying this attitude may get you some of the trappings of success, if you’re lucky, but it will not lead to a calloused mind or self-mastery. If you want to master the mind and remove your governor, you’ll have to become addicted to hard work. Because passion and obsession, even talent, are only useful tools if you have the work ethic to back them up.” — [@gogginsCantHurtMe2018]

“I learned that by constantly doing things that are hard and making myself uncomfortable, I improve my ability to handle obstacles. I get comfortable being uncomfortable—and that’s real mental toughness.” ― Jesse Itzler, Living with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet

“We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.” — Jim Rohn

“Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong.” — Mandy Hale

“Who you are is defined by what you’re willing to struggle for.” — Mark Manson

Do the hard thing, because after doing it, you will feel that you can do anything.

• Confidence is built, not born. Manufacturing evidence of your ability to do hard things is how you create confidence when you’re feeling low.

Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.

Do hard things that really matters; audacious ideas lead to true motivation.

Do hard things, but don’t make easy things hard.

Do very hard things to make yourself feel like a savage/badass! 🐐🦍

Hard means worry: if you’re not worrying that something you’re making will come out badly, or that you won’t be able to understand something you’re studying, it isn’t hard enough.

It’s better to be a warrior in the garden than a gardener at war.

Stop wanting things to be easy. Prepare for them to be hard.

The Warrior in the Garden

One day, a young warrior was walking to his training when he spotted his teacher, a master warrior, tending to plants in the garden.

He approached cautiously and stood quietly, not wanting to disturb the man from whom he had learned so much.

“What is it you want?” Asked the master warrior, without breaking focus from the plants.

The student replied, “Why do we train for war? Would it not be more tranquil and serene to be a gardener and tend the plants?”

The master paused, turned to the student, and smiled.

“Tending the garden is a relaxing pastime, but it does not prepare one for the inevitable battles of life. It’s easy to be calm in such a serene setting. It’s hard to be calm when under attack.”

The student nodded and turned away, satisfied with the answer, but the master wasn’t finished.

“It is far better to be a warrior tending his garden than a gardener at war.”

When we embrace |voluntary struggles, we’re better equipped/prepared for the involuntary struggles that inevitably enter our world.

• Get comfortable by being uncomfortable.
• Avoid unchosen suffering by choosing chosen suffering.
• Fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.

Callous Your Mind. Develop Mental Calluses.

[@gogginsCantHurtMe2018]

• Just as hands develop calluses through repeated friction, the mind can be “calloused” through enduring hardships.
• Seek discomfort intentionally to strengthen mental resilience.

“If you have 2 choices to make and they’re relatively equal (50-50), take the path that is more difficult and painful in the short term.” — Naval Ravikant

“Easy choices, hard life. ¹ Hard choices, easy life.” — Jerzy Gregorek ^{2 3}

“The costs of your good habits are in the present. The costs of your bad habits are in the future.” — James Clear

• Short-term pain typically creates compounding long-term gain.
• Short-term cost pays long-term dividend.
• Every gain in life comes from compound interests. Almost all mistakes in life come from short-term thinking. The things that feel good to us in the short-term are rarely the things that are good for us in the long-term.
• 先苦後甘 > 先甘後苦
  • Hard now, easy later.
  • Always choose harder right over easier wrong.

Hedonic Happiness & Eudaimonic Happiness

“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.” — C.S. Lewis

Comfort is the most seductive thing in existence. Comfort is not free. It comes at the cost of who you could become. Step into the unknown. The unknown is the foundry where you forge your chips. Everything important is uncertain. Sitting with the discomfort of that uncertainty is the hard part, the wedge that can move the world.

“We are kept from our goals not by obstacles but by a clear path to lesser goals.” — Robert Brault

When things get hard, the mental gymnastics start—you start convincing yourself that it’s ok to ease up, that the clear path to your lesser goals looks pretty darn good. At this moment, tell yourself: “It’s supposed/meant to be hard/difficult. If it were easy, everyone would do it.”

References:

• The Odysseus (奧德賽) Trap: A Clear Path to Lesser Goals | The Curiosity Chronicle
• Lotus-eaters - Wikipedia

The Sinatra Test: Something passes the test if a single example of success is sufficient to effectively create a halo of “credibility” for future endeavors.

“If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.” (from Frank Sinatra’s famous song, New York, New York)

Doing the Unrealistic is Easier Than Doing the Realistic

“It’s lonely at the top. Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for ‘realistic’ goals, paradoxically making them the most time and energy-consuming.” ― Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek

Make Something Heavy - by Anu Atluru - Working Theorys

Always do your best as possible

Delayed Gratification

Resilience

Two Types of Passion