Meaningful suffering is what gets you where you want to go. Meaningless suffering is what keeps you where you are.

Meaningful suffering feels like "the burn" of lifting weights or going for a run. It's the discomfort that goes along with our consciously moving towards our goals. The pain of repeated mistakes - the symptoms of which are eerily close to the Seven Deadly Sins - feels a lot milder compared to the pain of growth. And that's why we so often fail to recognize it. It feels like a desire met; simply because to abstain from a desire is to suffer meaningfully. You can't have it both ways. Or, as the clumsy cliche says, you can't have your cake and eat it, too. 

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