Month: July 2024

Judge Not, Lest… – The Daily Stoic – Part 21 of 366

When philosophy is wielded with arrogance and stubbornly, it is the cause for the ruin of many. Let philosophy scrape off your own faults, rather than be a way to rail against the faults of others.

— Seneca, Moral Letters, 103.4b-5a

It pleases me to find this particular quote in the section on acceptance. You can not and should not set out to change and judge others. People come with many faults, and I think people dwell on that very deeply without reminders from others. Sanding down your rough edges does not make you better than anyone else. We are all works in progress, and the only garden to which you can actually tend is your own.

This lesson applies well outside the realm of philosophy as well. Your lifestyle is not better or worse than most others. The books you read are not superior to others. Your hobbies are not, the media you consume is not, your schooling is not, and so on. Your lived experience differs from those around you, but that does not diminish or enhance anyone. Given long enough, we all share the same end regardless of how the time was spent.

Focus your energy internally instead of externally. Chase your goals and your truths. Live the life you want and are proud of. Refine your thinking, build up your strengths and scrape off your own faults as best you can. This is a continual process done over the course of a life time.

Along the way you must accept others where they are and as they are. Do not wield your wisdom like a sword or a bludgeon. Instead you must offer it freely and without judgement in the hope it may be of some use to others.

Effort Is Attractive

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

~Heraclitus

Life is hard, and for most of human history it was much harder. There is no doubt that advances in technology have come with many pros and cons. As a society we have become used to comfort, distraction, and immediate gratification. We have also become inundated with constant, incessant access to the best among us. We constantly see and share those who have seemingly impossible, unachievable skills, wealth, knowledge, lifestyles, experiences, and so on. This is demotivating for most humans since you do no see the years of work that goes into producing 30 seconds of greatness on TikTok, and the primal brain thinks, “I could NEVER do that!”

But you can, and you should. Nothing is more attractive than people who love the game they play and give it their all. People who are on their grind because they want to see what they can achieve and what they are truly capable of. People who want to know that, at the end of the day, they left nothing on the table in pursuit of the things they actually care about.

Success and growth requires a willingness and dedication to experience prolonged discomfort, and the human mind actively does not like to do hard things for long periods. This is actually extremely smart biologically and extremely dumb mentally and spiritually. Your biology does not know that its time on this planetary spaceship is limited, but your brain does and so do the brains of others. This is why people putting in the effort stand out in our distractable and comfortable world.

Overnight success is based on luck, and durable long run success is based on effort. You must have the right skills and confidence to capitalize on the opportunities life provides you, and someone relentlessly chasing their passions will be best positioned to make this magic happen.

Put down the phone and chase what matters to you.

You don’t need to the be the best to ever do it. Just be the best you can be and let that be enough.