Constant Strive

Most of you know that I recently traveled to Alaska. During my flight I read a book called "Further Along the Road Less Traveled" by Scott Peck. I recommend this book to all. Most of the thoughts from this post stem from this book. Also, below I briefly mention the struggle of keeping a humble mind set, something I have always dealt with.  Once again, criticisms are welcome. Let me remind you that I still have no idea how all this will pan out. Happy reading.

Striving to embody any virtue or ideal isn't something you just come upon. It is something you fight for every single day. I can't stress that enough. For instance, take someone who is striving for humility . Eventually, they will likely achieve this desired mindset, but here is the catch: Once one sees that they are being humble, pride could set in. It might set in so much that they may think, "Hey, I'm a pretty good person, look at how humble I am." Thus continuing the process of needing to further humble themselves. Being humble isn't just a way of acting, it is a way of thinking. Fighting to better your self doesn't only apply to virtues, but to other areas in life as well. Take being healthy for example. In order to be healthy you must eat right and exercise. What would happen if you had been living healthy for years and then decided to stop? Your health would slowly decline. So where am I going with all this? Whether we are trying to be humbler, healthier, or more loving it all comes down to the many small battles we face each day. If we continueally win these 'small' fights, habit will begin to set in. I'm starting to think it isn't the big moments that define us (there are exceptions of course), rather that every 'small' decision will chisel us into who we are.  This will be an arduous process. In order to find ourselves or reach our virtue goals, we must lose ourselves to this on going strive and pain. With all this strive will come growth. With all this growth we will come closer to reaching our goals.

If you would like to learn about the importance of winning the 'small' battles that were mentioned above, then I suggest reading "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business".