When things are working out, you are losing.

What would life be like if we never failed? Empty. That is the most logical and reasonable answer.

When everything is working out as planned, we are losing. It is the struggle, the grind, that is what makes it worth it. In our vocation, our art, our writing or hobbies, it is the failed ones that frustrate us and make us grind. That is the stuff that keeps us coming back. If it is easy, walk away. There is nothing to be gained from being the smartest person in the room; nothing positive comes from such an ego reinforcing place. You are in the wrong room.

We want the ones that capture us, make us sit and struggle, captivate us and keep us returning. The struggle is the mystery that grows its roots into us, tangling and tethering our intrigue to its elusive soul.

It is only fun when we are wrestling to get that thing to within our grasp. And when we are lucky, we catch it. And if we are truly lucky, we only catch it for a moment, until it slips from our hands forcing us to cast the line back into the water. The journey is in trying to catch it again.

The things that matter most to us often have an elusive mysterious component to them. We hate the struggle, and we also love it, both, at once. We want to get to the inside, we want to be in that group, we want to get on that team, we want to learn the tricks, we want to figure out how to become a master.

The saddest thing just might be reaching mastery. But, anyone who truly knows, anyone who gets close to that level knows, once we step over the line to the other side, we start over again. The game resets to a higher level, another dimension opens up. Perhaps this is when the true understanding of something opens up to us. Some will call this the birth of wisdom I would imagine. In thinking we won, that we have arrived, we realize we are just getting started.

Being on the journey is what matters most. We really should not want to reach the destination, and we shouldn’t want things to work out, at least not too often. If we are truly lucky.

“Once you see the way broadly, you will see it in all things”. -Miyamoto Musashi

-Shawn