{"id":58577,"date":"2022-01-19T12:27:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T16:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=58577"},"modified":"2022-01-26T11:42:25","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T15:42:25","slug":"stoic-resilience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/stoic-resilience\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Holiday: The Art of Stoic Resilience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How does one develop resilience<\/a>? What can you do to become better at handling the curve balls that life throws at you? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the cornerstones of Stoic philosophy is to be invulnerable to hardship and any external stress. Most modern people don\u2019t have this kind of Stoic resilience because our powerful technology lulls us into thinking we can control everything that happens around us\u2014we forget that life is unpredictable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s how to build Stoic resilience, according to Ryan Holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Prepare for Long-Term Hardship<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To live a Stoic life<\/a>, you need something far more powerful than the strength of will: You need resilience woven into your DNA as a permanent feature of your character. The Stoics called it the \u201cInner Citadel\u201d\u2014a secure space you build within yourself that can withstand any external disturbance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most modern people lack this kind of Stoic resilience because they overestimate how much control they can exercise over their circumstances. As a result, when things inevitably fall apart, they\u2019re likely to become emotional wrecks and may give up on pursuing a virtuous life<\/a>. Long-term strength of character allows us to conquer and ultimately find happiness in a world of disorder and uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holiday asserts that it\u2019s possible to build this kind of emotional strength with practice over time.<\/strong> Decide where you need to go and resolve that you will do anything it takes to get there, no matter what obstacles get in your way\u2014then do it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A More Pleasant Path to Resilience<\/strong>

Holiday\u2019s advice on how to cultivate perseverance can be boiled down to \u201cToughen up and do it.\u201d On the other hand, in Grit<\/em><\/a>, Angela Duckworth advocates for a gentler path to resilience<\/a>, one that doesn\u2019t require as much sheer willpower.

Duckworth defines \u201cgrit\u201d as the intersection of perseverance and passion\u2014it\u2019s applying Holiday\u2019s concept of long-term resilience to a specific, consistent goal<\/strong>. People with grit can weather a great amount of pain to achieve their purpose. Developing grit, however, is easier than just muscling through the pain, as Holiday makes it out to be. Instead, Duckworth asserts that you can develop grit in stages, initially pursuing something fun<\/em> that interests and gratifies you, then practicing to achieve superiority, and finally merging your skill with an altruistic purpose. In other words, resilience develops naturally as you pursue satisfying goals<\/strong>.

Duckworth would argue that once you reach this stage of purpose and mastery, you won\u2019t even want to live the fragile life of technology-swaddled comfort Holiday warns about. You\u2019ll be instinctively drawn to big selfless goals<\/a> and will derive pleasure from overcoming challenges. In contrast to the Stoic ethos of \u201crationality over passion,\u201d Duckworth frames the path to resilience as the natural blossoming of innate human potential.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How does one develop resilience? What can you do to become better at handling the curve balls that life throws at you?  One of the cornerstones of Stoic philosophy is to be invulnerable to hardship and any external stress. Most modern people don\u2019t have this kind of Stoic resilience because our powerful technology lulls us into thinking we can control everything that happens around us\u2014we forget that life is unpredictable. Here’s how to build Stoic resilience, according to Ryan Holiday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":31034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,43],"tags":[259],"class_list":["post-58577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philosophy","category-self-improvement","tag-the-obstacle-is-the-way","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nRyan Holiday: The Art of Stoic Resilience - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Resilience is an essential attribute of Stoic character. 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