Moritz Plassnig this morning sent me a great article through a Tweet.  It’s called “The Most Important Question You Can Ask Yourself Today”. It is well worth reading. Author Mark Manson writes:

What’s more interesting to me is what pain do you want? What are you willing to struggle for? Because that seems to be a greater determinant of how our lives end up.

Everybody wants to have an amazing job and financial independence — but not everyone is willing to suffer through 60-hour work weeks, long commutes, obnoxious paperwork, to navigate arbitrary corporate hierarchies and the blasé confines of an infinite cubicle hell. People want to be rich without the risk, with the delayed gratification necessary to accumulate wealth.

Coincidentally, The New Yorker came out today. I glimpsed briefly through it after noticing Nelson Mandela was on the cover.  He’s definitely a man who was able to articulate and understand trade-offs in life. Though he was married and had two daughters, he took on a personal mission of great danger. Ultimately, for 18 years, he was imprisoned in an eight-foot-by-seven-foot cell.  He was allowed to send one letter and to receive one letter every six months.

An incredible struggle….