Striving for difficulty when it's difficult to strive

“To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity. The next is to strive and deserve to conquer; but he whose life has passed without contest, and who can boast neither success nor merit can survey himself only as a useful filler of existence.” — Samual Johnson (1753)

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” — Theodore Roosevelt (1899)

Two excellent quotations from two oft-quoted guys. TR’s quote, benefiting from closeness in time, a bit more poetry, and the verve and vigor of an outdoorsy American president, garners more recognition, but don’t count Johnson out.

Clearly these quotes are linked — whether Teddy read Johnson and borrowed the framing, they both read the same body of classical work that contained similar thoughts (most likely), or they independently arrived at the conclusion that sitting on one’s behind is not the ideal life.

Which is exactly what humanity demands during a global pandemic. Sitting on one’s behind. And, while the vast majority of people will not ghostwrite for legislators or deliver hours of oratory while wounded, that does not mean we don’t feel the call for action. But it feels that much harder to act when sitting in your pajamas all week.

But for those who can balance the stressors of life at home, the question becomes how do you strive for the difficult instead of melting into the comfortable. In other words, how do you be more Like Mike and less like a Tiger King?

What difficult thing can you strive for, even given the circumstances, that betters yourself, your community, and humanity?