Paranoia in the monotonous

As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge.

Henry Van Dyke

I believe the worst thing to experience in the life we have here on earth is to do the bare minimum. I have written on this topic before but here, I want to focus specifically on the positives of going through challenges. Many of us do not want to be challenged in our lives. We all have different reasons but I will attempt to condense them into a few common experiences between most of us. I would gather that some of the reasons are:

1. Being challenged is too hard.

2. Challenges lead me to make tough decisions.

3. I don’t like conflict.

4. I want to live an easy life, facing challenges are for the knuckleheads.

Look, there are a slew of more reasons why people don’t want to be challenged but these are just a few. Yet, when I talk with people who are doing the bare minimum and don’t want to be challenged on a daily basis, I get some of these complaints:

1. I’m so bored with my life.

2. The things i’m doing now don’t make me happy.

3. I’m not satisfied, I want more.

It’s like these people with the complaints I just listed are the ones who always want to “have their cake and eat it too.” I don’t want to be challenged but I want the rewards of those who are being challenged. I want to be successful but I don’t want to put in the effort of getting there.

I’m here to tell you a “shocking” reality: You can’t have it both ways!

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, in his Vice Presidential acceptance speech for the Republican ticket with Mitt Romney for the 2012 general election a few days ago, said that America should be a place of “equal opportunity, not equal outcome.” Now, whatever your political beliefs are (and I’m not concerned with those), he makes a good point here that has been lost on the American culture for quite some time now. As Americans, I feel that sometimes we think we are entitled to everything and we don’t have to work hard and put in the “blood, sweat, and tears” to fight for our dreams and success. That’s not true. As Ryan alluded to: America is a land that should give all of its citizens the opportunity for “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The Founding Fathers, I would imagine, did not want to make an “entitlement” society. They simply wanted to provide a place where freedom could be established, government would be a limited system to promote “general welfare and common defense” (see the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States) and a land where if you work hard, you would be rewarded accordingly.

Sorry for the political rant, but I just thought that this example would lead us to understand another area of our lives, our spiritual life. There are positives to being challenged. Many times we look at challenges are negatives. We think: “Why do I have to be challenged?” What is the point of being challenged?

First, being challenged allows you to grow. You never know how strong you are until you face the biggest challenge you fail at. Yes, you have to fail sometimes in life. Failing allows you to gain perspective of where you need to improve your character. Yes, some of our failures our beyond our control. But no matter what, failure gives you perspective and allows you to reflect on where to improve and the direction you need to take in life.

Second, being challenged allows you to strengthen character. The majority of successful people that you read about online or in books did not get to where they are today without being challenged. With challenges, there are opportunities to “fine tune” your character. Facing a tragic death of a loved one, losing a job, making an “F” on that paper — these situations stink. Yet, they allow you to experience pain and suffering, and those emotions allow you to get stronger. Just as a weightlifter has to experience the pain of increasing the weight to get stronger, so do we if we expect to get stronger as well. There will be opportunities to face “the weight of it all” in order to build our character.

Lastly, being challenged allows you to not get stuck in a routine. Routine, while it provides stability and comfort, also can weaken you and your resolve to gain ultimate success in life. Challenges require sacrifice, and routine does not allow sacrifice. Routine says, “Don’t take chances,” “Don’t risk it,” “Keep things the way they are.” But no one who has achieved great success has played things safe or not taken any risk.

So, will you get stuck in the routine of life and not experience all that life has to offer; or will you take the chance, face the risk, experience some failures in order to achieve your dreams?