3rd Final Blgo: Overcoming Difficulty as a form of Happiness

In my final Blog post I would like to switch gears from Eastern thought, and instead look at one of thinkers from the 19th century. Friedrich Nietzche believed that happiness does not come from being able to do something well during one's first attempt. Echoing F. Scott Fitzgerald , " Nothing any good isn't hard." That is to say that happiness can be found in overcoming ourselves and lack of ability. I do not mean to say that being a practiced guitar player does not bring about happiness, but rather its the act of becoming better that brings about joy. This would be later elaborated in one of the 20th century's most illuminating ideas of happiness in Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. In Flow, Mihaly states:
"Contrary to what we tend to assume, the normal state of the mind is chaos … when we are left alone, with no demands on attention, the basic order of the mind reveals itself … Entropy is the normal state of consciousness — a condition that is neither useful nor enjoyable. "     
It's overcoming challenges that require enough attention to lose our sense of ego that allows a feeling of what some may call happiness to be experienced. Going to to Nietzche,  Allain Du Button went on to further explain some of Nietzhe's ideas of overcoming as a source of joy:
"The most fulfilling human projects appeared inseparable from a degree of torment, the sources of our greatest joys lying awkwardly close to those of our greatest pains…

Why? Because no one is able to produce a great work of art without experience, nor achieve a worldly position immediately, nor be a great lover at the first attempt; and in the interval between initial failure and subsequent success, in the gap between who we wish one day to be and who we are at present, must come pain, anxiety, envy and humiliation. We suffer because we cannot spontaneously master the ingredients of fulfillment. Nietzsche was striving to correct the belief that fulfillment must come easily or not at all, a belief ruinous in its effects, for it leads us to withdraw prematurely from challenges that might have been overcome if only we had been The most fulfilling human projects appeared inseparable from a degree of torment, the sources of our greatest joys lying awkwardly close to those of our greatest pains…

Why? Because no one is able to produce a great work of art without experience, nor achieve a worldly position immediately, nor be a great lover at the first attempt; and in the interval between initial failure and subsequent success, in the gap between who we wish one day to be and who we are at present, must come pain, anxiety, envy and humiliation. We suffer because we cannot spontaneously master the ingredients of fulfillment.Nietzsche was striving to correct the belief that fulfillment must come easily or not at all, a belief ruinous in its effects, for it leads us to withdraw prematurely from challenges that might have been overcome if only we had been prepared for the savagery legitimately demanded by almost everything valuable."

In conclusion, while this view differs from the view of my previous posts, I believe it to be perhaps, slightly more practical in our everyday lives. That is to say, that we may not be able to practice Zazen meditation for hours on end, but we can find flow, or find activities challenging enough to require all of our mental effort thereby leading to a state of content.