“He who grumbles and complains and bemoan himself is nevertheless forcibly compelled to obey orders.” – Seneca

We could choose to see life as a long series of difficult tasks. And what could make us more cynical, as we become more competent, the difficulty of the tasks we are expected to accomplish is only going to increase.

If we choose to take this point of view, we still have to do the hard things, we still will become more competent and we will still be expected to perform more and more difficult tasks. We will just make ourselves – and likely those around us – miserable while we do it.

No matter how miserable we are about it, no matter how much we complain about the things that need to be done, they still need to be done. They aren’t going to go away. And even if they do, they are taking any opportunity that they brought with them when they go.

Instead, we should resign ourselves to not only performing the duties we have made ourselves responsible for but also we should resign ourselves to maintaining a good attitude about the tasks we have to perform. We don’t have to like them, we don’t have to be happy about it, but we also don’t have to make ourselves miserable.

Complaining about our responsibilities only makes our experience worse. Better to keep our emotions disciplined and maybe even learn to enjoy doing the hard things life will ask of us.

virtus fortis vocat