From the Founder, Brian Mazza 5/5
Happiness Doesn’t Mean Not Struggling
Real joy lives alongside real struggle.
We live in a culture obsessed with comfort. Everywhere we turn, we’re encouraged to seek ease, convenience, and quick fixes. Advertisements promise us happiness in the form of beach vacations, luxury cars, and wrinkle-free lives. Self-help books are packed with “10 easy steps” to a better you, instead of a High Performing Playbook. Social media feeds show polished snapshots of people smiling, succeeding, thriving—often with little sign of the chaos that sits just outside the frame.
And so we start to believe that struggle is a sign that something is wrong. That if we’re hurting, we must be off track. That if life feels heavy, we’ve somehow failed. This couldn't be further from the truth, and it's sad as a society we have been sucked in by the weak rhetoric.
But here’s a deeper truth that many never realize until they’re face-to-face with difficulty:
Happiness doesn’t mean not struggling. Real joy doesn’t come in the absence of problems—it’s born in how we rise to meet them and react to them.
The Myth of “When I Get There”
Many of us operate with a silent, deeply rooted belief: When I finally get there, I’ll be happy.
When the debt is gone.
When the business scales.
When the kids are older.
When my body looks different.
When I finally have some peace…
But “there” is always moving. And in chasing it, we often miss the richness of here. What’s more, even when we reach those milestones, new challenges arise. The pressure just shifts shape. The fear wears new clothes. Life continues to ask things of us, because that’s what life does.
If we only allow ourselves happiness when everything is perfectly aligned, we’re signing up for a lifetime of discontent. Believe me the journey along the way is more rewarding than when the wire hits your account.
Struggle Is Not the Opposite of Joy
Here’s something we don’t hear enough: Struggle and joy are not mutually exclusive.
You can cry in the morning and laugh at lunch. You can feel anxious and still show up with love. You can be under pressure and still be deeply grateful.
Emotional health isn’t about avoiding hard feelings—it’s about expanding your capacity to hold them. To sit in the tension between two truths. To feel both the weight and the wonder of being human.
Struggle isn’t the enemy. It’s the evidence you’re alive. It’s proof that you’re in motion, that you care about something, that you’re facing life head-on rather than numbing out or shrinking back.
In fact, the people who seem the strongest, the most grounded, the most joyful—those people aren’t living struggle-free lives. They’ve simply learned how to carry struggle with grace. They’ve developed tools, mindsets, and communities that help them stay centered even when the storm hits.
Gratitude and Grind: Embracing the Duality
There’s a concept I return to often: Gratitude + Grind.
It’s the balance between presence and progress. Between appreciating what is and working toward what could be.
Too much grind without gratitude leads to burnout, bitterness, and feeling like nothing is ever enough. But too much gratitude without grind can leave you complacent, passive, and stuck.
The magic is in the tension.
Wake up grateful—then get to work.
Honor what you have—and keep building what you want.
This is where real satisfaction lives—not at the end of the road, but in the way we walk it.
Finding Meaning in the Mess
One of the most powerful shifts we can make is learning to ask better questions in the middle of hardship.
Instead of: “Why me?”
Try: “What is this trying to teach me?”
Instead of: “When will this end?”
Try: “Who am I becoming because of this?”
Hard times force clarity. They expose what matters. They refine your values. They wake you up to the parts of yourself that you didn’t know existed—resilience, courage, vulnerability, and the quiet power of simply showing up.
Meaning doesn’t always arrive in the moment. Sometimes you only see the lesson in the rearview. But if you stay open—if you keep asking, listening, reflecting—the mess can become sacred ground.
You Don’t Need to Be “Fixed”
If you’re walking through something heavy right now, let this land:
There is nothing wrong with you.
Struggle is not a flaw.
Pain is not failure.
And being human means being messy, emotional, and in-progress.
You don’t need to wait to “figure it all out” before you allow yourself to feel joy. You don’t need to become someone else to be worthy of peace.
You can feel lost and still be on the path.
You can be struggling and still be whole.
Let go of the fantasy that happiness means everything is easy.
Lean into the truth that happiness comes from how you face what’s hard.
Final Thought: Master the Mess
We’re not here to escape life—we’re here to engage with it. Fully. Fiercely. Honestly.
So whatever season you’re in—whether you’re climbing, crawling, grieving, growing, or all of the above—know this:
You are not behind. You are not broken.
You’re simply becoming.
Embrace the duality.
Gratitude and grind.
Joy and struggle.
Peace and pressure.
Happiness doesn’t mean not struggling.
It means learning to struggle well—with heart, with hope, and with purpose.
