Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.

Satisfaction tends to come from the climbing rather than from the view at the top. You solve something hard, you stand on the new ground for a moment, and then you find yourself wanting something further out. That restlessness is easy to mistake for a fault, but it is closer to the engine of a good life. The pleasure was never in arriving. It was in the difficulty giving way.

When something comes easily this week, notice how quickly the good feeling fades. Then look at whatever you have been avoiding because it is hard, and take the first step of it on purpose.