Approaching Challenge

I’m sure we all have our challenges in life, although they may differ in severity. I find the Stoics to be incredible in terms of the way they approached challenges. Many of their methodologies to enjoying life were so simple, yet so effective.

Let’s start with a simple example: say you are afraid of losing money. Or you find that you can’t appreciate what you currently have. Seneca, an ancient Roman philosopher, was an incredibly wealthy figure, but he knew of the dangers of not being able to appreciate that wealth. He only wanted the upside of wealth, without any of the downsides, like dependence upon it. In order to fulfill that desire, every so often he would force himself to be away from his wealth by staging a shipwreck, and when he came back, he gained a greater appreciation of his wealth. He emphasized the importance of making wealth the slave and not the master of your life. Although he was not a Stoic, Epicurus, an ancient Greek philosopher, followed a similar process; he lived on essentially bread and water alone, and every so often he would have a piece of cheese and could savor it fully.

You can do something similar without taking major risks: for a few weeks or a month, try eating only the cheapest food (you could optimize for health here), wearing the cheapest clothing, being away from your devices, etc. You can ask yourself, Should I fear this? If the answer is generally no, then you can gain a greater appreciation of what you have and purge one of your fears.

That’s not the easiest example, so let’s look at another: people often worry about the outcomes of events that are not within their control. It’s difficult not to, but it seems irrational: why do I agonize so much over what I can’t control? Couldn’t I better spend that effort on what I can control? Marcus Aurelius, a famed Stoic and emperor of Rome put it simply: think of all the events you have no influence over as “divine happenstance”. This wording should make it very clear to you that these events are not worth worrying about. By separating these events of divine happenstance from what you can control, you can more effectively achieve your goals.

For example, say you want a specific political figure to win an election, and say that the result is very significant to you. Do your best not to worry yourself about the final result and worry only about what you can do to help achieve your goal. For example, this could mean trying to convince other people to change their vote, campaigning, etc. Whether or not they win in the end is largely out of your control, so only focus on handling the aspects of this outcome that are within your control as well as possible. If you generally apply this to life, you can both be content with giving your all toward the things that matter most and get the best results you can get. If you are competing in a sport, do not think, “I wish I was born as strong or tall as my opponents!” Rather than that, ask yourself, “Is there a way I can use the differences between me and my opponent to my advantage? And if not, what can I do to be the best player I can be, regardless of the hand I was dealt at birth?” And of course, the most difficult question: “Given my circumstances, is it wise for me to pursue this cause? Should I focus my efforts elsewhere?” 

All of these questions are incredibly productive because they affect your decisions in the future and they allow you to best work within the constraints of reality. It’s easy to slip into irrational thoughts like, “I only won that game because I got lucky. My opponent will beat me next time.” However, you can temper that thought and make slight changes to turn a waste of energy into a useful question: “If I did get lucky this time, then I have to improve. How can I best do that, if at all?” These thoughts will take you very far, and you will be content even when divine happenstance lets you down. Remember, even whether you win a game at all is likely divine happenstance in many respects: how well your opponent is playing, weather conditions, previous events before the game, etc, so I would actually advise not to even stake value on the victories themselves: it’s the preparation and the progression that truly counts. If my opponent was born 10 times stronger than me, but we both become 100 times stronger by virtue of practice, he may be stronger than me in the end, but I can still hold great pride in how far I have come through my own efforts.