The Struggle is What Makes the Adventure

Last night, our family time at the campsite was cut short when a nasty thunderstorm blew in. It was the whole package: thunder, lightning, rain, and wind. We quickly retreated to the tent where we rode out the storm and eventually fell asleep. While we were trying to settle the boys in, they were a bit panicked. I think there’s some lingering impact from an absolutely brutal storm we endured in the tent earlier this summer…..which included Pax getting flooded out in the middle of the night. In an attempt to calm them down, I encouraged them that these are the moments that make the adventure. It helped…..a little.

Think about your favorite movie. The struggle is what makes it. If Darth Vader wasn’t around, Luke Skywalker’s journey would have been a borefest. If the Hunger Games never occurred, Katniss would just be another girl. If Michael Jordan didn’t have the Detroit Pistons, his legend may not have been as iconic. The triumph over struggle is what makes it good.

I think about this a lot when it comes to work and money. It’s fun when we experience wins, achieve our goals, and continue to experience up-and-to-the-right progress. But the struggle? The struggle is what makes those moments so much sweeter. I remember back to January 2020, seven months after leaving my career to start my coaching business. That was the month when our monthly income exceeded our modest expenses. Until then, we were riding the struggle bus and supplementing our income from savings. It was a scary time, but the struggle made the win feel all that much more satiating. I can think of so many other struggles we’ve faced in the last 15 years. Struggles that oftentimes felt like they would break us. Like the struggle of fertility. Finding out I’ll never become a biological father, then the nearly three-year wait in the adoption process, then the failed adoption when we were ready to go meet our child. Gut-wrenching struggles. So when we met Finn and Pax four months later, it was the sweetest of the sweetest wins. It was the best day of our lives. All these years later, it was the struggle that defined us, not the win. When I look at my kids, I remember everything that went into becoming a parent and finally meeting them. I will never take that for granted.

So yeah, we’re huddled up in a tent with a storm whipping right through us. Not ideal, for sure. But the struggle is what makes the adventure.