Most of us live in a world where everything is available at any time.
There is no real struggle in getting food or water. Our lives have become more and more comfortable over the last 80 years.
The problem with that is that humans are designed to survive and not to be happy.
Since we don’t have to worry about survival anymore, our main task which is survival has already been accomplished.
That is one of the reasons many of us are suffering with mental health issues like depression.

We are ordering food online. We lay around all day and we have easy access to almost anything that we want immediately. The biggest struggle for most is to compare themselves with others and to focus on the things that we don’t have while others do. That is the blueprint for jealousy and depression.

People fear struggle

Many of us live lives that have no real struggle. Our main goal is to avoid anything that makes us uncomfortable and that creates struggle.
In my opinion that is the ultimate way to unhappiness and depression.

The fear and avoidance of struggle is what creates struggle.
If we avoid everything hard in life it will hit us ten times as hard once we’re faced with something uncomfortable. Being lazy might feel good now but it will make you feel terrible along the way. Exposing yourself to struggle regularly will not only take away your fear of uncomfortable situations, it will also help you with self-confidence and it will boost mental health.

Struggle will make you happy

Fulfillment:
How do you feel when you watch Netflix and scroll around Instagram and Tiktok all day? The answer is, probably good for two hours and horrible after that. After a run, studying or work, chances are high that you’ll feel much better.
The reason for that is dopamine. Scrolling around the internet is easy. It doesn’t take struggle or effort to do.
A reward without struggle has been shown to be an unhealthy way of producing dopamine. You will create a dopamine resistance which will result in depression sooner or later.
Try to work hard and aim to achieve something instead. The feeling of personal fulfillment and accomplishment you will feel is almost addictive.

Mental toughness:
There is an Arab saying that was a true eye opener for me:
“Hard times create hard men. Hard men create soft times. Soft times create soft men. Soft men create hard times.”
It really hits the nail on the head. If people are only faced with easy ways around live there is no struggle. That will create problems along the way.
I believe there is no denying that people after the war, who struggled through starvation and poverty came out stronger than our generation today.
You have to be confronted with struggle in order to create mental toughness.
Learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Push through a run, take cold showers or wake up very early once in a while.
Tough times will create a strong mind. If you know that you can push through challenges and hard times you won’t fear future struggles as much.

Personal growth:
Besides health and family I believe that personal growth is the key to happiness.
You can only grow as a human being when you decide to do things that are outside your comfort zone.
Personal growth does not necessarily mean that it has to be in the workplace.
Learn a new language, master a new hobby or pick up a new skill that you always thought was not possible for you to do.
Everything new will come with a struggle at first. No one starts something new and is great at it immediately. There will be times where you will fail and that will be hard. Those times suck.
Discipline and consistency might not feel good now but once you stuck with something and you became great at it, the reward will be priceless.

In conclusion

Seeking easy comfort will bring discomfort. It’s a big mistake to think that laziness is the easy route.
It might be easy today but in the future it will make you miserable.
Enjoying time off is essential but it will feel much better if you were also faced with some struggle before.
Reward for hard work will always feel better than easy access to comfort.
It’s no coincidence that often times the hardest workers are the happiest.
The feeling on a Friday after a week of work or the feeling on the couch after a hard workout are priceless.
Start being comfortable being uncomfortable and stop fearing struggle.
Hard work and uncomfortable situations will make you happy and mentally strong.


Thank you for reading.