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Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?

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Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?

#241

I approach it the same way rocket engineers did: Well now I know another way not to do it And I am a big stoic fan, the only adversity I face is that I wish to control me. I choose to not let it control me and realize that I can overcome or learn what I need to. The key to things is discipline, spend a certain amount of time focusing each day, commit to it in small batches at first and continue each day. If you go of…

Is choosing not to control oneself part of Stoicism? Would like to read about that...

I might be forgetting but not that I recall directly. My only issue is I also approach all this with a bit of buddhism as well.

The general gist of both Stoicism and Buddhism are generally the same in principle. The only things that can control us are what we allow to control us.

That doesn't really mean that we have free will or the ability to control our world. More we have the ability to change how we interpret the world we live in.

And if you approach adversity as a bad thing, you're already losing from a thought perspective. You have to look at adversity as a friend, gently nudging you along to an easier path. Or a friend that needs to be bulldozed over or through to get to the goal. Or perhaps avoided entirely.

Looking at adversity that way what you realize is the only control you have is how you respond to it.

I recommend reading Epictetus, the eponymous Marcus Aurelius, any other early stoic philosopher. Note, take some of what they say with a mountain of salt. Their views on things like the overall universe are... a product of their time.

For more things I'd say also read The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. And read up on Buddhism possibly with more modern views in the theravada traditions. Feel free to ignore any of the things that make no sense, even the buddha himself said to abandon any practices that turned out wrong.

I approach all of this philosophy in the style of Bruce Lee, take what works from wherever you find it. Leave what doesn't aside.

Good luck in your journey!

Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?

#243
post #79
post #48

I realized a while ago that inspiration isn't very helpful for getting you through adversity. Inspiration gets you going, but grit and discipline ultimately help you push through. I'm going to go against the grain of most of what's being said in this thread and say that the best way to get through adversity is to discard a goal-based mentality entirely, in favor of a system-based mentality. Figure out the stuff you h…

This is right. Business is a suffering contest. Life ends in death. There are beautiful things in both, but more times than not, despite all signals and urges to stop or give up, you must will yourself to keep moving your feet. Those few who do give themselves the best chance to overcome adversity.

Relevant. Watch Jordan Peterson's talk on "The Necessity of Virtue", goes deep into psychology, philosophy, history, to deliver the point that: life is suffering, not in a pessimistic way, but by recognizing your "being" has limitations. This gives meaning to this adversity, because its far too easy to sink into a state of resentment and "why me". I'm currently dealing with adversity in terms of losing a job right now and this really shone a light forward for me, resonating much deeper than any self-help material I've come across.
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