When we’re young, we develop a set of preferences — what we like to eat, what’s comfortable for us, how we like other people to be, what we like to do.

As we get older, those preferences can harden into strong views. Even into requirements: I can’t function without my morning coffee, without the right setup on my computer, without things being just so.

What if we could loosen attachment to those preferences?

What if we could treat them as possible options, but not the thing that will make us happy?

What if we could be happy under any circumstances? We could be free to do anything.

There is no situation so difficult that we have to quit. It’s just a setback. It’s just how things are, at the moment.

We can be free to continue to pursue the hard thing, because how things have gone are not a problem. They’re just how things are, at the moment.