Use pain and pleasure and do not let them use you

Whenever we suffer pain or want to enjoy ourselves with something, we become slaves to them. Whoever enjoys a game, for example, loves it and it takes over his entire being and all his emotions, and he becomes angry for it, happy for it, and sad for it. Why not make pleasure an obedient servant for us, and not serve it as a writer, so we become its slaves? Likewise, why do you make pain a tool that controls us? If pain befalls us, we abandon our work, our friendships, and the affairs of our lives. Why not make pain our servant so that we may continue to succeed? A man was told, “You are a failure. You are not fit to be a writer.” He suffered greatly because of these words, but he made the pain a servant of his series of successes. He continued writing and was determined to become famous. Only a few months passed until he became a great writer. He called on that discourager who said to him, “You are not fit to be a writer.” And when he accepted, I invited him and met him and told him about his hurtful words that caused his pain and the pain caused his success. Pain can make us people with vision and success, so use your pain and do not let it use you. From the book Life Skills by Ibrahim Al-Shamlan