Managing ourselves between life’s bright moments

Gandhi was right when he wrote that joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself. 

Proving, that it’s one thing to locate joy in spite of our suffering, but the harder question is, can we locate joy inside of our suffering? Can we get to a place where we’re so grateful and engaged and in love with our own process of growth, that even our most difficult and painful experiences are witnessed with joyful awareness and complete presence to the miracle of being alive? 

It’s like having sore muscles after a tough workout. Personal trainers call this condition delayed onset muscle soreness, which is caused by muscle microtearing, which helps build muscle fiber and make them stronger. 

Which means, we’re doing the work. We’re growing. 

And so, we can whine to the world about our deltoid muscles hurting every time we raise our arms in the air, or we can find joy in the fact that we have pushed ourselves hard enough to warrant a physical response. The choice is ours to make. 

Now, there’s another piece to the suffering puzzle. One that pays real emotional dividends later on. Because during hard times, if we’re willing to engage our imaginations, we can also locate joy in the fact that the skills we’re building now will contribute to our story as an individual in the future. 

James, the epistle who wrote letters to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, said that we should consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds, because we know that the testing of our faith is what produces perseverance. And we should let that perseverance finish its work so that we may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 

That’s how we manage ourselves between life’s bright moments. Not only finding joy in the fact that we’re alive and breathing and gloriously suffering, but also finding joy in the vision of the person we’re becoming. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

What’s your strategy for locating joy inside of your own suffering?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

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Namaste.