A TRAINED MIND IS BETTER THAN ANY SCRIPT

“In this way, you must understand how laughable it is to say, ‘Tell me what to do!’ What advice could I possibly give? No, a far better request is, ‘Train my mind to adapt to any circumstance.’ … In this way, if circumstances take you off script… You won’t be desperate for a new prompting.” - Epictetus, DISCOURSES, 2.2.20b-1;24b-25a

Everyone is worried about the future. Am I going to be enough? Am I going to be successful enough in the things I was born for to live a great life? Well, that kind of question can be answered simply by asking yourself “Will I be prepared ?”

The thing I’d like to discuss here is the fact that being prepared can be quite blury. You can be prepared for an exam, knowing exactly what to expect and what to answer in any cases. You can be prepared for an important event, having spent hours on it beforehand. You can be prepared for any sports game, knowing your opponent better than he does. But what if?

What if on that special day, everything goes off-script? What if the opponent you prepared yourself for is sick that day and you face someone completely different?

If we take a step back here, it’s not hard to realize that our whole life gravitates around those scripts. The concept of school and university is exactly it. Saving for or anticipating some arbitrary point in the future. The thing is, as Myke Tyson pointed out once, plans only last until you’re punched in the face.

That’s where Epictetus steps in. He tells us that stoics, people that are not emotionally affected by external factors, do not seek to have an answer to particular questions, or a plan for every situation. For example, the greatest football coaches in the world are stoics, always adapting to any situation, not letting their emotions kick in. Bill Belichick is a stoic and if you’re doubting about it, just look at a picture of him when he was down 3-21 at the end of the first half of the 2017 Superbowl, and look at a picture of him at the end of the game when he got the score up to 34-28. His facial expressions are EXACTLY the same. But in the first situation, he is loosing the most important sports event in the world. And in the second, he’s winning it. I thought it was a great image to illustrate what I mean, but it’s definitely not the only one. What did Andy Reid, the Kansas City Chiefs coach and 2019 SB winner answer when a reporter asked him what he did after winning the 2019 AFC Championship? “I had a burger and went to bed”. I’m not saying that if you succeed at anything in life you should just get a burger and go to bed, but remember that it goes both ways.

If you can let yourself drive insane because you did something great, what is it going to be when the situation will not be something you planned for?

So I’ll just end that one by saying that the big thing to remember today is that it’s better to be taught than to be simply given, and it’s better to be flexible than stick to a script.

Thanks for reading until the end, I really appreciate it.

I hope you liked today’s post, don’t hesitate to shoot me a DM @JBDX_ for any recommendation, if you spot a spelling mistake or if you simply want to discuss it.

Tomorrow’s post will be “Life is a battlefield”. So for all of that, and more, see you tomorrow :)