Enduring hardships
In my last post, I mentioned my hope that the sacrifices of parenthood contribute at least somewhat to my growth as a person. I’ve found some support that they do, in the same way that all hardships can, in the Stoic tenet that you should welcome life’s difficulties as opportunities to strengthen your character.
Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths.... Dig deeply. You possess strengths you might not realize you have. Find the right one. Use it. – Epictetus, The Art of Living
My preliminary understanding is that a Stoic would say hardships — including those of parenthood, caretaking, physical exercise, etc. — are worth enduring solely for the purpose of training yourself to endure them. The healthy kids, the surviving elder, the better body, they are secondary.
Disclaimer: I’m a Stoicism neophyte and probably getting it wrong. But I think I’m close, and this strikes me as a profound idea.
I’ve bounced off of Stoicism a couple times over the years. I rediscovered it last week through listening to Donald Robertson’s Mindful Stoicism series on the Waking Up app, and I intend to give it a more deliberate effort this time around. I bought and am reading Robertson’s Stoicism and the Art of Happiness book, and I’m working on a new habit of reading The Daily Stoic (which I bought long ago) each morning.
Toodles. 👋