"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad." (2 Nephi 2:11)
You can't experience "good" if you don't experience "bad." Moreover, there is a gradation to the amount that you experience "bad" you are able to be "good." Lehi explains further, speaking of Adam and Eve:
"They would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin." (2 Nephi 2:23)
If they didn't have children, they couldn't have known misery, and if they didn't know misery, they couldn't have experienced joy. Apparently, children are required for misery -- and joy.
"0" The easy life
"If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen!" Those who want no opposition in life only need to choose to do no good. Life is easy when you have no opposition. Most people want a quiet and easy life. They are constantly trying to "get out of the kitchen." Some are successful, but many are not. Those who opt out of "the good life," meaning "doing good" are paradoxically seeking "the good life," meaning "without opposition." However, you are left without the ability to experience joy, because you know no misery.
"10" The greatest good - and evil
To do good, and experience joy, you must be willing to bear the burden of evil as well. The Saints in all times have shouldered opposition so they could do more good. Prophets do not have lives without opposition, on the contrary, they experience a great deal of evil. The Prophet Joseph Smith explains:
"I was destined to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom; else why should the powers of darkness combine against me? Why the opposition and persecution that arose against me?" (JS-History 1:20)
From Adam to President Thomas S. Monson, the good prophets do are balanced by evil that surrounds them. This will be true of all those who try to become "a disturber and an annoyer of [Satan's] kingdom."
Of course, the greatest example would be the One who did the most good, and experienced the most Evil. Rejected by His own people, Jesus still carried-out the Atonement for them. They arrested, mocked, and killed Him because, as Peter tells us, "He went about doing good." He is the only one to reach a "10" on the scale -- both scales.
Therefore, one way to know if you are doing good is by how much opposition you experience. It's very unlikely that you do much good if you don't experience evil. Perhaps it is for this very reason that Paul said: "We glory in tribulations." (Romans 5:3) Therefore, rejoice in opposition, the more the better because it means you are doing good.
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