“You’re wrong.” “Try again.” “I feel awful.” These examples all take the shape of words, though I present them in quotes. Have we heard these things from others? Where’s the opportunity in feeling awful? Let’s break them down a little more; contextually zooming out. Being wrong about something isn’t a succinct chance to be right… there’s no undos if we’re playing chess and we make a wrong movement. There’s no undos in life. I feel this goes for everyone. If someone has said to us, where’s the opportunity? If consequences are not as dire as life is in our context here, being wrong about an action or circumstance sets an example. “Wrong choices” always someone else’s opportunity for judgement or something else because of the example the choice as set. Even then, our choices are not necessarily wrong if the consequences are good or helpful. Look at Captain Kirk for any good example of how I mean. Effort: The wellspring of willingness. Someone I grew up with described insanity as “doing the same thing and expecting different results”. Yoda says from the “Empire Strikes Back” this: “Do or do not. There is no try.” Our effort will sometimes be tested, and that’s okay. Learning and trying go hand in hand; science is built on top of science’s failures until data produces results. “Try again” is the opportunity to do things differently and succeed. “Feeling awful” doesn’t sound like an opportunity, but working out when we are not 100% applies stress to parts of our bodies we never knew existed. It stresses our minds, our will, and our determination. If we ever ordered coffee and the barista was giving us foul looks for whatever reason, would I be responsible for how they felt? For some, feeling poorly is an opportunity to give looks. For me, my awful feeling is an opportunity to wish someone terrible a good day and mean it with my whole heart. Life is a challenge. We did not spend the last 10,000 years fighting off wild animals and dying in our 30’s because life was easy. Now, the landscape of our challenges is changing and many of our challenges are personal or interpersonal because mankind has conquered nature (mostly).