Much of the advice we’ve been told about achievement is logical, earnest…and downright wrong. In Barking Up the Wrong Tree, Eric Barker reveals the extraordinary science behind what actually determines success and most importantly, how anyone can achieve it. You’ll learn:
• Why valedictorians rarely become millionaires, and how your biggest weakness might actually be your greatest strength
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
But what is philosophy? Doesn't it simply mean preparing ourselves for what may come? Don't you understand that really amounts to saying that if I would so prepare myself to endure, then let anything happen that will? Otherwise, it would be like the boxer exiting the ring because he took some punches. Actually, you can leave the boxing ring without consequence, but what advantage would come from abandoning the pursuit of wisdom? So, what should each of us say to every trial we face? This is what I've trained for, for this my discipline! ~Epictetus, Discourses, 3.10.6-7
They thought you didn't have control over anything but you choices. And if you can't control something you shouldn't worry about it.
Here's that Epictetus guy again:
Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and in one word, whatever are not our own actions.
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
Don't trust in your reputation, money, or position, but in the strength that is yours — namely, your judgments about the things that you control. For this alone is what makes us free and unfettered, that picks us up by the neck from the depths and lifts us eye to eye with the rich and powerful. — Epictetus, Discourses, 3.26.34-35
