Everything we do matters–whether it’s making smoothies while you save up money or studying for the bar–even after you already achieved the success you sought. Everything is a chance to do and be your best.
Wherever we are, whatever we’re doing and wherever we are going, we owe it to ourselves, to our art, to the world to do it well. That’s our primary duty. And our obligation. When action is our priority, vanity falls away.
To whatever we face, our job is to respond with:
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hard work
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honesty
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helping others as best we can
Whether anyone notices, whether we’re paid for it, whether the project turns out successfully–it doesn’t matter. We can and always should act with those three traits–no matter the obstacle.
The great psychologist Viktor Frankl, survivor of three concentration camps, found presumptuousness in the ageold question: “What is the meaning of life?” As though it is someone else’s responsibility to tell you. Instead, he said, the world is asking you that question. And it’s your job to answer with your actions.
In every situation, life is asking us a question, and our actions are the answer. Our job is simply to answer well.
Right action–unselfish, dedicated, masterful, creative–that is the answer to that question. That’s one way to find the meaning of life. And how to turn every obstacle into an opportunity.
How you do anything is how you can do everything.
We can always act right.
* Source: The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday