“Life is not a bed of roses—and even roses have thorns.” This old adage is one that I’ve heard many times growing up, and it took me a while to truly understand its meaning. To me, I've come to the understanding that you must work for comfort but never get too comfortable. Nothing truly worth having is simply given to you. The adage means that life is not always easygoing and filled with comfort (a bed of roses), and even so, the easy life still comes with its own struggles and mishaps(even roses have thorns).
True value lies in working for and earning what you deserve the hard way. It’s the path less traveled. But even if you get things the easy way, there is still a downside to it: you aren’t equipped with the skills to overcome adversity that you would have gained by going through the fire. This struggle—this relationship between beauty and pain—truly coexists no matter the situation in life. True growth, meaning, and confidence are earned through adversity, not ease.
As humans, we all want to feel safe, successful, and satisfied. These are the most basic desires that we all share, no matter who we are. Every goal in life is structured to achieve one or more of these feelings.
The first—safety—is the most basic and most necessary for the progression of human life. If you do not feel safe, then you cannot focus on anything else. Your goal will always be to reach a point where survival is no longer top of mind, where it becomes something subconscious rather than something that dominates your thoughts.
After this is achieved, we strive for success. Success is relative, which is why it differs so much from the feeling of survival. Success is what forces you out of bed in the morning and keeps you up late into the night. It is what forces you to forgo a life of temporary ease in order to build a foundation that provides lasting comfort. Purpose is vital when it comes to defining success—it is its other half. Success is fulfilling your purpose and creating a life of comfort as a result of that fulfillment.
In the end, satisfaction follows. Satisfaction is the final stage that we strive for as humans because it is what leads to true happiness and peace. Reaching this level is genuinely a process—a step-by-step progression.
Modern culture sells us the dream that achieving safety, success, and satisfaction is a microwavable process, where quick results are obtained. It tries to convince us that overnight success is not only possible but normal. Worse, society pushes this narrative to make people weak and dependent on the very system that convinces them microwavable success is the ideal.
Working toward comfort is natural and necessary—but it is not a microwavable process. When we settle into that comfort and stop striving, we stagnate. Growth begins when you push beyond the edges of comfort and venture into discomfort. When you earn something through hard work, you appreciate it more deeply. Struggle and effort add meaning to your accomplishments. Nothing worthwhile is handed over without cost.
Choosing the difficult path may seem frustrating, but it builds resilience, wisdom, and strength. Easy routes may offer quick wins, but they deprive you of the internal tools necessary for sustained success. If everything is handed to you, you bypass the lessons that adversity offers—lessons that sharpen your decision-making, deepen your gratitude, and develop your mental toughness. Ease can rob you of the skills to handle hardship.
So strive to go through the fire. Let it refine you. Let it shape you into someone who can not only handle success but appreciate it, protect it, and build upon it. That’s where your true self is forged. That’s where lasting fulfillment begins.
Don't run from the difficult path—embrace it!
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