📖 Current Read; 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living — Ryan Holiday
First, A Hard Winter Training
The Daily Stoic Meditation for September 3 outlines that training yourself for difficult things you have not yet encountered is incredibly beneficial.
Engage in a hard, lengthy and treacherous winter training.
“We must undergo a hard winter training and not rush into things for which we haven’t prepared.”
— EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 1.2.32
A Hard Winter Training
A hard winter training; the act of training yourself with the most difficult, agonising and cruel circumstances.
You train as if, metaphorically, it was winter — hard snows, bad gear, blizzards etc.
Why?
There’s great benefits to training yourself to the most difficult circumstances, even if they may not happen.
Benefits such as;
- Endurance
- Better health
- Confidence (in yourself)
- Clarity
- Success
- Being prepared
Do Not Rush
Epictetus outlines a second part to this quote — do not rush.
Do not rush into things, especially the things you have not trained for.
Do not rush in, for you could find yourself in a gravely difficult situation that you may struggle to get out of!
Take careful strides, think carefully and decide the best way forward.
Prepare Yourself
You must prepare yourself.
You must try, as best you can, to gain experience and knowledge on the things you have not yet encountered.
Prepare yourself — the act of getting ready to face something.
You must ensure that you are well prepared to face any obstacle. This includes those you have never seen before.
—
Preparing yourself ensures that nothing phases or challenges you.
It means that you can stand on steady feet and fight off the obstacle.
Idea of the Week. 💭
Want Nothing
Have Everything
Want Nothing
Want nothing — the act of being entirely content with what you do have, and not wanting more.
This is a deep contentment and happiness with what you do have.
You recognise that it is futile to want more — you are happy with what you already possess!
Have Everything
Have everything — you’ll have everything if you do not want more, especially the things you cannot have, and put to good use what you do have!
Forgo the longing for what you don’t have, you recognise that everything you could ever want is already in your possession!
When you want nothing more, you have everything.
You can then put that great abundance to good use!
Quote of the Week. 🗣
Charlie Munger on being interested — follow your natural drift.
“I have never succeeded very much in anything in which I was not very interested,”
“If you can’t somehow find yourself very interested in something, I don’t think you’ll succeed very much, even if you’re fairly smart,”
To end, here’s a question from me! ⚡️
How can you challenge yourself this month?
Thanks for reading!
Until next week,
Sam. 😆
