According to Dr. Peck, Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled, life is difficult. He’s not saying it’s difficult because of something or situations and circumstances he’s simply saying life is difficult. What do you think? Read my comments on the subject and leave your comments.
M. Scott Peck’s book The Road Less Traveled was very successful, selling steadily for year after year. Many people loved the book, many hated it but read the whole thing anyway. Most loved it.
But I wonder how many of us really accept Dr. Peck’s premise, “Life is difficult.” As Dr. Peck said, basically that’s the thing. Life is difficult. Not “life is difficult because…” Not “life is difficult but…”
Life is difficult.
I think it’s ‘life is difficult and ________‘.
Life is difficult and life is great and life is fun and life is long and life is to be lived. Once you come to terms with the “difficult” part, then you have everything else in life to enjoy, thrive on, build around.
Okay, yes, life is difficult. But that’s good news, isn’t it? Because if life is difficult for me, I know that it’s not that “MY” life is difficult. You don’t have an easy life while I have a hard life. Life is difficult. That’s the definition of life. Difficult.
Given that life is difficult, I have a lot of options in front of me in terms of what I want to do with the life I’ve been given.
And since life is difficult, and I can’t get around that given, I can stop thinking about it and focus on everything else in life.
See, if life was only difficult sometimes, or only for me, or only in certain circumstances, I would have to put work in to make sure that life got less difficult. But since life is always difficult for everyone, that’s out of my control.
Some people do not understand, but having life’s difficulty out of my control is one of the best things that can happen to me.
If I know I can’t fix that, I can stop spending my energy on it. I can focus on things I can control.
- Life is difficult, but I don’t have to work in a job I hate. I have control over whether I hate the job, or at least over whether I stay in the job. There are difficulties there, but I have the time and energy and ability to respond to those abilities.
- Life may be difficult, but I can have friends and family who care about me, and I can care about them, and we can make each other’s lives more pleasant, if not less difficult, just by caring about each other.
- Life is difficult, but I have plenty of time to do the things that allow me to enjoy and treasure my life, because it’s also long, in some ways, and short in others.
Life is difficult.
But wow! Think about all the other things life is besides difficult.
Isn’t life grand?
