Dave Martin | Sports + stupidity ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
One of my friends is a crazyass Richmond supporter. He was born in November 1982 and the last time Richmond Football Club won the AFL premiership was September 1980. Today the club has a chance to break the drought when they play Adelaide in the AFL Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. So not only will a premiership be so sweet…
If you can’t have your cake and eat it too, instead of despairing and thinking ‘Fuck…If only [1 of the things you love here] wasn’t here/wasn’t happening/didn’t exist.’, is it possible to think ‘Excellent. A chance to see how tough I am.’? This is something I may be facing soon. It might still be hard, but it’ll definitely make you…
There’s no degrees of contentment –you either have it or you don’t. But what if there was also no degree of ‘difficult’. Things can always get more difficult. If you’re worried about how you’re going to do something hard, or are faced with a tough challenge, imagine it was even harder, with even more obstacles. Need to apply for a job…
You are unfortunate in my judgement, if you have not been unfortunate. – Seneca, from On Providence When anything difficult, trying or challenging (whether small or massive) comes along, embrace it. Life is a series of tests designed to make us appreciate the good times and stronger during the tough. Next time, you think ‘I hate this. This sucks’ Or…
The optimist taking an exam believes ‘I will definitely pass the exam’. And if they don’t it leaves them completely devastated, not being prepared for the chance they wouldn’t)t prepared for not passing it). A pessimist thinks ‘There’s no way I’ll pass’ and spends their whole time wasting life in a disgusting and repulsive bog of negativity. And Stoic thinks, the result,…
Epictetus once placed an iron lamp in his home next to his household gods (valuables). He heard a noise at the door and next thing it was gone. He reflected on it and wasn’t fussed about it. He said: To-morrow, my friend, you will find an earthenware lamp; for a man can only lose what he has. – The Philosophy…
6 weeks ago, my copy of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations looked like this: And yesterday, after consciously taking my time to read as little of it every day as possible (so as to think about and most importantly try put it into practice) I finished. Just over a month later (not 20 years, as a student of mine thought), now it looks like this:…
Going through adversity? Good. Embrace it, pay close attention to it, how you feel during it, learn from it and it’ll make you tougher. Going through a favourable period? Also good. Appreciate it, pay close attention to how you feel during it and be grateful for it. Either way, shit is exactly as it should be right now. Just like…
A friend wrote to me today telling me it’s been an ‘interesting’ time for me lately. Now, you don’t need to know what ‘interesting’ means in this case, but interesting is the right way to put it. There is no good, no bad, no sad, no tough, no difficult things that happen. Everything just is –we exist as part of humanity and…
If you find yourself thinking, ‘This is really hard…’ it’s a sign that you’re probably on the right track. Any progress, any learning, growth, improvement or mastery comes not as a result of comfort and ease, but difficulty, challenge and even (and sometimes especially) hardship. As long as you know how you want to do something (or you have guidance from a…