Is it better to struggle through life trying to accomplish great things or skate along easily content with mediocrity?

If you set the bar high and fail, disappointment crashes down.
Yet if you reach the excessively difficult goal, exhileration reigns.

If you only minimally challenge your abilities, there's little chance of either major disappointment or exhileration. If you strive for too much, you're constantly falling short and dealing with failure. However, if you take the easy road, you succeed more often than not, but how much of a sense of accomplishment can you gain by figuring out a no brainer?

I hit a crossroads in my life today. I faced the decision of whether to bang a left down the difficult path or cruise off right to the flat, smooth pavement for an easier stroll.

I've typically traversed the grueling road, but I went against the grain and decided I'm too damn tired of struggling so much in my life. I chose to kick back and coast for a change.

But now I feel like a failure before I've even begun! Of course, normally I feel like a failure because I can't meet the excessive demands I put on myself, so I guess I'm still in the same boat, just on a different body of water.

Thoughts anyone?

Hey, if you can make it through skating I'd say go for it!! Just be careful those wheels has stoppers so you don't crash too fast!

Ms. Wright, is it really skating or chosing the path of least resistance. Sometimes it's not a choice, it just is. Sometimes life is content, sometimes a struggle. It teaches us to appreciate our blessings whether given or earned.

I've always felt that what really mattered was to be happy with what you're doing....for me, that means I HAVE to be doing something creative.

I don't know how that will work out. How successful can an obscure sci-fi author be? I don't know. But I don't think I could live with myself if I didn't make the attempt to find out.

In the end, whether I make a dollar or a billion dollars, I can be satisfied with the fact that I took the time to write the damn things in the first place. THAT'S where my satisfaction ultimately comes from.

Is it easy? No, it's a lot of work, and it would be much easier, in some sense, to be a "normal person" and do whatever it is that "normal people" do.

But then I think that would probably kill me....because that would be a life without the kind of stimulation, the kind of energy, that I need in order to write.

"Coasting"....? If I ever get to the point where I'm doing that, it'll be time to leave this existence....!

I try not to set any goals...that way I'm never disappointed

Excellent points Chrissy! I guess I see it as skating because the effort I'm going to need to exert to succeed will be so much less than what I've been putting in thus far. You're completely right about having to play the hand we're dealt, so I have to look at it like that. I can't control which doors life puts in front of me, I can only decide which one to walk through and make the most of it from there on out. I'll try to enjoy my path of least resistance and look at is as a gift. Thanks for the wise words.

I think you hit the right answer area when you explained that you chose THIS TIME to take the easy,though less accomplished choice.
To me, this would come under the heading of "pick your battles, since you can't fight ALL of them." I don't know WHAT you chose the easy road about. As long as it wasn't life-changing (" I SHOULD have called the fire department when the stove caught, but I just wasn't in the mood"), you can go back and clean up whatever mess you left, or just set a new course to correct things.

Oops. Well, it kind of was life changing.

I've been going to school for a specific degree, and I opted today to pursue a less prestigious one. While I'll still accomplish something, it won't be what I had hoped for initially. I'm going to have some really easy classes my senior year instead of some really difficult ones, hence why I said I'll be skating, or coasting, so to speak.

I followed my heart for a change, not my head, which is why I'm second guessing myself now. I'm not used to doing that; it feels odd. Half of my brain is screaming "no neurosurgery now, ya loser"! and the other half is going "Oh shut up. The kid who gets a splinter removed is just as cured as the one who has his brain tumor removed." Both get better, does it really matter whether I have one skill or the other? As long as I'm helping, I'll be happy.

Plus I've got a year to pursue some other interests now that I didn't have time for before, so I'll probably be way happier in the long run actually. Just feels strange to not be stressed.

i just go with the flow .....

to each his own

you can't decide what is right or wrong for another person, only yourself

Once I started trusting my heart and intuition and got comfortable with the new way of thinking, my life just fell effortlessly into place. No more logic, no more pro's and con's lists....
awww, it's very liberating and empowering.

I gotta go with "skate". I LOVE roller disco thursdays and am ok at roller limbo (though those damned 5 year old girls kick my @ss everytime)

life hopefully is a long long rode for all of us...sometimes you get to coasr and sometimes its skate uphill, no matter which rode you take happiness is what is the ultimate goal, the rode will twist and turn and no one can tell you for sure where you will end up on your journey, just make sure you are doing what you want for yourself no one else, unless you have children then they come first. Make sure your decisions are yours and no one is undermining your goals and aspirations.

i immediately thought of this song,after reading this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2SfmcNg8js

read the lyrics i hope this answers your question
in the end,its Your choice.

as cliche as it sounds, its best to do what makes you happy

if you are one who isnt content without 'accomplishing' amazing things,, set the bar high and go for it,,,,if you are one who is happy with love and the basics,, than go ahead and skate through,,,

No matter what one does or what path one may choose everyone at times will have the ups and downs that life's journey will bring along the way.

No one just goes through life without struggles we just all handle them in our own way. Some tend to stress over the issues much harder where some just seem to brush the problems off and say it will work out.

As some say you have to go with what makes you happy not others at times we find out that our calling may be different then our goals. But.......it never means we are less of a person due to our choices in life just that we found our nitch.........

you can skate with me any day....just no inline skates..

I can't dance unless I've had quite a few drinks! And I barely ever do that so...

Plus, won't it be hard to dance with skates on?

But thanks for the dedication. I appreciate the sentiment!

a smart peeson learns from their own mistakes...
a wise person learns from others mistakes...
never be negative about what you've been through it make you.......you...

Funny story...I bought my son some inline skates probably about three years ago. Yah, because the dog devoured them a short time later so that's about right. But prior to the feast, I offered to go skating with him. He sarcastically spouts "You don't have any skates."

I reply confidently "Sure I do!" and go in my bedroom and strap on these twenty year old white monstrosities with a faded yellow stopper and 4 very well worn down wheels. I come rolling out, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

He wouldn't leave the house with me!