“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.It is in the whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has meaning. Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure. Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and our wisdom. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn.”
M. Scott Peck
Life is difficult…
Comments are closed.
Bright, shiny objects! 
Reblogged this on LifeRevelation.
LikeLike
Hi, I’m just commenting because I want to follow your blog.
LikeLike
Well thanks for stopping by. Where in the world are you?
LikeLike
I’m from Reno Nevada – USA
robin
LikeLike
Hah! I got my marriage license there and was married in Zephyr Cove, NV…
LikeLike
A great quote from the first page of an amazing book (an “everyone should read it” type of book) — “The Road Less Traveled.” So much amazing wisdom in that book. Thanks for sharing that excerpt, Todd
LikeLike
I think it’s the most important excerpt of almost any book I’ve ever read. Peck nails it and provides so much perspective on why life is what it is with just that one paragraph…
LikeLike
Agreed! It is definitely a very important excerpt. The poet, Rilke, also wrote often about learning how to better deal with adversity and difficulty as well, especially in letters 6 & 8 of his “Letters to a Young Poet.”
And, back to Peck, this is one of my favorite passages from “The Road Less Traveled”:
“Truth or reality is avoided when it is painful. We can revise our maps only when we have the discipline not to avoid pain and effort. To have such discipline, we must be totally dedicated to the truth, not partially. That is to say, we must always hold truth, as best as we can determine it, to be more crucial, more vital to our self-interest, than our comfort. Conversely, we must always consider our personal discomfort relatively unimportant, and, indeed, even welcome it in the service of the search for truth.
“Mental health is an ongoing process of dedication to reality at all costs.
“What does this life of total dedication to the truth means? It means, above all, a life of continuous and never-ending stringent self-examination and honesty with oneself.” — M. Scott Peck, from “The Road Less Traveled,” pp. 50-51
LikeLike
Amen…
LikeLike