As far as enjoying life goes, I see it like running a marathon, though you can substitute any challenging activity with a specific goal. You might think the glory is in the step across the finish line, but every step is as important as every other, be it the first step, number 1,234, number 2,341, or whatever.

Realizing every step is as important as any other lets you enjoy every step as much as the one across the goal line, even the painful ones around miles twenty to twenty-five when you’re most tired but still far from end. In fact, marathon training expands your boundaries of challenge, dedication, and pain. Learning to enjoy those experiences makes enjoying less painful ones easier.

The next step is to realize there is no finish line in life (except death, but after that you aren’t around, so you don’t have to worry about it), just like finishing a marathon isn’t the end of all your running.

These two perspectives—teaching you to find meaning, value, importance, and purpose (MVIP) in every step and that the steps never end—let you enjoy life to its fullest all the time.

Come to think of it, if you haven’t experienced how challenging yourself deeply led to you learning that you can find glory in the despair and loneliness you put yourself through for the MVIP it leads to, what I just wrote won’t mean much to you, unless you learned it another way. I think you can only learn these perspectives from experience.

If you haven’t had a comparable experience, I think you have to create such experiences for yourself. You have to put yourself through emotional challenges but I think you’ll find it’s worth it, though you won’t know it until after.

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