“I’ve lived. I’ve run the race which Fortune set for me.” – Seneca

Spoiler alert: the race that life has set for us is an obstacle race. Just when we think we can’t run anymore, we are relieved by having to carry five gallon buckets of crushed gravel straight uphill.

Here’s another fun fact. No one gets to the end of an obstacle race and is satisfied by all of the obstacles they skipped and all the walking they did.

No one gets to the end of an obstacle race and is proud of the creative ways they found to complain and moan about the course they chose to run in the first place. If we don’t think that we have chosen the race we are currently running, we need to reassess the inventory of our lives.

Do we want to risk getting to the end of this race and feeling like we complained too much? Or that we skipped obstacles that we would have been proud to have completed?

Life is going to be hard regardless of what we take on. It will be difficult regardless of the path we choose. Let’s choose the hard things that are going to mean something to us once they are completed. Let’s have a good attitude about navigating the difficulties life throws at us without our choosing. Let’s choose to always do the hard things.

And let’s finish the race life has set for us with pride that we made the best of it.

virtus fortis vocat