Encounter Obstacles (Truman Capote)

The word choice here "condiment and flavor" evokes a sensation of eating. According to Capote, life is meant to be devoured. And like any good meal, it's about contrast and variety. Much of life is about comfortable monotony, which we need to keep from overstressing. But to achieve anything of importance, we have to break those moments up with periods of working hard and encountering obstacles. And when we do this, we are going to experience failure --- writing a few bad novels on the way to penning our bestseller, losing a few games or a whole season before coming back next year to win the championship, getting yelled at by your boss until you learn how to be the best employee they have ever had. It's important to remember that this is a natural part of putting yourself out there --- your trying. That's what courage is. Try to replace the idea of failure in your mind with the realization this is the sensation of being brave. And then never lose sight of the potential rewards, because nothing will feel better than achieving them. It's that contrast, that movement between relaxed to stressed, stressed to elated that will give your life much more flavor than it might've had otherwise.