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Changeability and Growth

When we were a child, we grew up unconsciously – we neither resisted nor purposely accelerated the process (of course, our parents probably did the latter)

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When we get older, growth now requires conscious efforts. 

And this is probably the reason behind the widespread phenomenon: the older one gets, the more one resists change. Because as we get older, our ability to adapt naturally declines.

Change is a fundamental ingredient of growth. To fear change means to stop growing, to close our mind to a finer reality and to stop getting closer to truth.

Young people, by definition of the word ‘young’, are well equipped for growth.

But why so many of them decide not to grow, by not leaving any room for change?

Free vs Cheap vs Valuable

In general, we seem to give a lot of credit to “free” stuffs.

This is obviously a mistake in our mind’s processing. Upon a closer examination, what’s important is the difference between the benefit and the price, not just the price:

Value (x) = Benefit (x) – Price (x).

Getting a free rotten tomato is not going to be valuable.
Paying 25$ to buy a book that boosts our morale or inspires us to think is indeed valuable.

No, it’s invaluable.

 

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Free things usually cost us more in the end. Mostly because their benefits are negative. And sometimes because their actual price is > 0, which means it’s practically a loan, not a purchase.

Similarly, being cheap in terms of price is not what really matters, logically speaking. Value is.

Being a big fish

It’s good to be a big fish.

Of course, it’s the small pond that makes the fish look big. A small pond makes us believe we are quite good. And that invariably makes us feel good.

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And that usually traps us into believing that we’re really….big, big even out of the context of the small pond. Absolute big.

And one day, we happen to see bigger better fish. Oh… it’s the pond(!), not the fish, that actually provides meaning for “big”.

But being used to being “big”, a terrible thing then happens: we become defensive, to keep the status quo, which has never been real – except in our mind.

 

Being blind

Most of us are blind in certain areas of life: some are blind in music, some in Maths, some in philosophy.

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Being blind means of course that we don’t know we’re blind.

What’s the cure?

I figure the only cure for this is the acceptance of our fallibility: that although we believe very much in our view, it’s possible that we are wrong.

Only when we haven’t closed the door may sunlight one day reach our mind.

(I always see the light, of course!)

2 Stoic Practices

You might have heard of Stoicism, or you might not. If you did, there is a good chance that what you perceive about Stoicism is not what you would learn if you read A Guide to the Good Life by William B. Irvine.

But whether your knowledge of Stoicism is the same as the author’s is also not that important to you. What you would be interested, however, are the principles, regardless of the -ism, that would help you live a better life, whatever you take better to mean.

And there are 2 Stoic foundational practices that I think you would be interested to learn about and to apply. I have been using them unaware they are also part of Stoicism.

Let’s start with the first one.

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