“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Recently, I was asked to provide a quote that I found inspirational and the first person I thought to reference was Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States. It’s amazing how quotable he was but the one above really resonated with me and, when I shared it with my group, most of them had similar reactions which got me to thinking it might make a good post here as well.
Despite being over a century old, what our former President said holds true today. We admire those who persevere and who overcome great challenges; and those who had success seemingly land in their laps… well, not so much.
Still, this seems fairly obvious so I thought it be insightful to drill into two aspects of this quote that stuck with me and made me really ponder the deeper meaning here.
First is the implication that the most worthwhile things to do or to possess are those that you really have to work for. This speaks to the sense of accomplishment we have in overcoming obstacles and the importance of choosing wisely on how we spend our time and talent.
Too often, we opt to take the easy road and then look back and wonder at where the time has gone. When this happens, I think that this relative ease allows us to passively exist rather than actively live out our lives because we are not engaged with the world around us. We are truly on auto-pilot. President Roosevelt, for his part, seemed to only have been an active participant in his life and, as a result, is one of the more remarkable individuals I have ever studied.
As a more personal example, reflect on your life and what you’d consider to be your biggest accomplishments. I suspect that the majority of what you conjure vivid memories and, in all likelihood, you’ll be active in mind and/or body. This may seem obvious upon reflection but it’s an important observation to make and a good reminder to ourselves as we face what’s in front of us today.
The other, perhaps more subtle, lesson I took from the President’s quote is the last few words about envying people who led their difficult lives well. We all face adversity but what Roosevelt was implying is that we need to step up and face those challenges in a way that is worthy of admiration. As these challenges arise, if we are able to find it in ourselves to stand up and push on towards something the betters the world, then we become worthy of the respect of others.
We tend to cheer for the underdog who is beaten down but somehow finds the strength to stand back up. We want them to win but, even if they don’t, we can still respect the effort they made and can be inspired by them in our own lives.
I find these lessons to be as timely and relevant today just as they were when the President first uttered them on Nov 4, 1910. I’d encourage each of us to take an objective look at how we are living our lives and decide whether what we see would be a life we would admire. And if not, to start taking steps so that it would be.
Know that I’m pulling for you!
PS. If you haven’t read much about Teddy Roosevelt, I enthusiastically encourage you to do so. Roosevelt’s life was truly amazing and I’ve come to have a deep admiration for the man and the principles he lived by.
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