Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for fewer problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenge, wish for more wisdom. –Earl Shoaff

It’s tempting to want to focus on changing the externals of our life—to wish things were easier or less challenging. But in the end, the externals that we experience don’t matter nearly as much as the kind of people we become in the process. What happens in us is more important than just what happens to us.

So instead of only seeking ease and comfort, it’s better to seek to grow as a person—to seek wisdom and virtue and skill—qualities which will serve us well regardless of the situation. And if we embrace each situation we encounter—even the hard ones—as an opportunity to grow in some way, we’ll be the better for it in the long run.