Preparation, Trials, & Fortitude
Wednesday Wisdoms for January 15, 2025
Welcome to Wednesday Wisdom, our 3x3 Newsletter where I distill worldly advice for better living with 3 quotes, 3 observations, and 3 questions.
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Preparation
🤨 Quote
“What ought one to say then as each hardship comes? I was practicing for this, I was training for this.”
Epictetus
Source: Discourses, 3.10
Observation 🧐
You will be caught off guard, but you don’t have to be.
Life is filled with left hooks, moments and events we never see coming. Nassim Taleb may refer these events at scale as black swan events, once in a lifetime occurrences.
But when they do arrive, they need not throw us off course nor slow us.
Seneca once remarked that we must keep top of mind that “everything might happen; anticipate everything… When everything seems serene, the dangers are still present, only sleeping. Always suppose that something offensive to you is going to arise.”
We preach about needing to stay in the present moment, but it is more often in our nature to look ahead.
Instead, we must strive to be present and understand the moment we encompass while simultaneously accept and acknowledge it can all be ripped away in an instant.
There is great anxiety in this when we first confront it. But once this initial impulse subsides, we realize this is exactly what life holds, moments of left hooks, moments of impossibilities that come true.
But when we meditate on the possibilities of life, when we imagine scenarios arising, if and when we do arrive, we blunt their shock as we’ve already seen it and prepared.
Anything can happen. We must meditate on that fact and mentally prepare ahead of time for its arrival.
🤔 Question
When something arises out of nowhere, how do you respond to the situation?
Trials
🤨 Quote
“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”
Seneca
Source: Moral Letters 92.5
Observation 🧐
When we disallow ourselves to face adversity, we plant the seeds of failure.
“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body,” Seneca wrote to his friend Lucilius.
Adversity is a necessity of life. We need struggle in order to find purpose. Without trials, we can never come to learn how to be resilient.
Happiness is never truly achieved in the destination, it’s achieved on the path to the destination.
It is achieved by overcoming adversity. In exemplifying our strength. In pushing through when we achingly want to quit.
Without trials, without adversity, we never have the chance to truly see what we are made of.
And in turn, we cut ourselves off from happiness by never giving ourselves enough water to grow.
🤔 Question
What is the right balance for you between working outside your comfort zone and being pushed too far? How do you find the line and hold it?
Beneath the paywall this week we explore the wisdom of Marcus Aurelius. Click below to support and get access.