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Virtues of Fortitude and Resilience

  • Writer: Deric Hollings
    Deric Hollings
  • 2 hours ago
  • 6 min read

Photo credit, Designed by Freepik, fair use

 

I invite you to imagine that a current problem you’re facing is akin to a metaphorical cliff which you’re climbing. Other people are also ascending the rock face, as some individuals appear to have an easier time with the climb. What is it you tell yourself during this imaginary journey?

 

One figurative tool you can use along your ascent, which relates to a form of self-narrative, is virtue (a quality or characteristic that has positive connotations in a particular society and that is considered beneficial to psychological health). In fact, this tool comes in different varieties.

 

Just as there are claw hammers, ball peen hammers, sledgehammers, and other such hand tools predominately used for pounding, virtue can function as a diverse set of tools which may help you on your proverbial climb along a cliff.

 

For example, you can make use of fortitude (strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage—the ability to meet a difficult challenge despite the physical, psychological, or moral risks involved in doing so).

 

Similarly, you could use resilience (the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands).

 

“I’ll use virtue regarding fortitude to establish resilience,” you could tell yourself when watching other people ascending the cliff with ostensibly little effort at all, “because this climb is mine and mine alone!” Up you go!

 

Virtues of fortitude and resilience may help you when climbing your cliff, even if others who face similar problems appear to have benefitted from luck (the events or circumstances that operate for or against an individual). With this in mind, I now turn toward s a book.

 

As Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is informed by Stoic philosophy, this blog entry is part of an ongoing series regarding a book entitled The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman.

 

The authors quote ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca who stated, “Success comes to the lowly and to the poorly talented, but the special characteristic of a great person is to triumph over the disasters and panics of human life” (page 284). Some people ascend their cliffs without virtue.

 

Even if you don’t believe in the concepts of luck, divine intervention, etc., which favor some people the ability to achieve success while apparently not favoring others, I’ve asked you to imagine a current problem you’re facing—one in which you aren’t favored to succeed.

 

Can you humanistically apply virtues of fortitude and resilience regarding the axiomatic cliff you’re facing? Regarding this matter, authors of The Daily Stoic state (page 284):

 

Perhaps you know people who’ve been extraordinarily lucky in life. Maybe they hit the genetic lottery or have skated through classes and careers with ease. Despite never planning, making reckless decisions, jumping from one thing to the next, they’ve somehow survived without a scratch. There’s a saying: “God favors fools.”

 

It’s natural to be a bit envious of these folks. We want the easy life too—or so we think. But is the easy life really that admirable? Anyone can get lucky. There’s no skill in being oblivious, and no one would consider that greatness.

 

You’ll invariably face many metaphorical cliffs within your lifetime while observing other people whom gravity seems to favor. When faced with similar problems, these individuals appear to float up their cliffs with little (if any) effort at all. Too bad! They aren’t you!

 

Why make your challenging journey more difficult than it already is by watching how other people maneuver up their allegorical cliff? Why not use the tools at your disposal so that you can achieve success on your own? Of this view, authors of The Daily Stoic conclude (page 284):

 

On the other hand, the person who perseveres through difficulties, who keeps going when others quit, who makes it to their destination through hard work and honesty? That’s admirable, because their survival was the result of fortitude and resilience, not birthright or circumstance.

 

A person who overcame not just the external obstacles to success but mastered themselves and their emotions along the way? That’s much more impressive. The person who has been dealt a harder hand, understood it, but still triumphed? That’s greatness.

 

Virtues of fortitude and resilience are the tools I encourage you to use when facing a metaphorical cliff at present. Bear in mind that unhelpfully expecting an easy climb has little (if anything) to do with this topic. And in your case, luck apparently doesn’t either.

 

Therefore, pull yourself up inch by inch, despite the hardship of the problem you face, until you achieve success with your interests and goals. After all, this isn’t the only cliff you’re likely to face. Use the virtue of fortitude to establish resilience, and climb to greatness. Climb on!

 

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

 

As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.

 

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

 

 

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

 

References:

 

APA Dictionary of Psychology. (2018, April 19). Courage. American Psychological Association. Retrieved from https://dictionary.apa.org/courage

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Holiday, R. and Hanselman, S. (2016). The daily stoic: 366 meditations on wisdom, perseverance, and the art of living. Penguin Random House LLC. Retrieved from https://www.pdfdrive.com/the-daily-stoic-366-meditations-on-wisdom-perseverance-and-the-art-of-living-d61378067.html

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