Welcome to the Daily Quote, the podcast designed to kickstart your day in a positive way. I'm your host, Andrew McGivern, and this episode is brought to you by the Great News podcast. Because great news should be heard, and the link is right here in the show notes.
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Today's quote is from Baruch Spinoza.
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), also known as Benedict de Spinoza, was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin and one of the most important rationalist thinkers of the early modern period. He is best known for Ethics, a rigorous philosophical system that identified God with nature and argued for freedom through understanding.
Baruch Spinoza once said…
”All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.”
Spinoza spent hundreds of pages building an argument about how to live well, and then he ended with this almost gentle warning: if it were easy, everyone would already be doing it.
The difficulty isn't a sign that you're on the wrong track. Often, it's a sign that you're on a track worth being on.
We tend to treat hard as bad. If something is hard, we assume we chose wrong, or we're not good enough, or we should quit and find something easier.
But some of the best things in life… a strong relationship, a skill you're proud of, a life lived with integrity… are hard precisely because they matter. They're rare because they cost something.
So if something you're working on feels difficult today, don't automatically read that as failure.
Ask a different question:
Is this difficult because it's wrong, or difficult because it's excellent?
Sometimes the answer is the first one, and it's wise to let go. But sometimes and more often than we admit, it's the second one. And that's a reason to keep going, not to stop.
So here's the question:
What is something in your life that is difficult that maybe you feel like quitting. Is it difficult because its wrong or is it difficult because its excellent. If what your doing is moving towards excellence than keep going. Because all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.
That's going to do it for today. I'm Andrew McGivern signing off for now, but I'll be back… tomorrow! Same pod time, same pod station with another Daily Quote.
