목요일 2026년1월8일	-	Progress

Discourses 1.4.13

	So, where is progress to be found? If any of you turns
	away from external things to concentrate his efforts on
	his own power of choice...this is the person who is truly
	making progress.

Epictetus has a good analogy where he compares the philosopher, the
aspiring virtuist, to the athlete. Both of them need to exercise newly
learned skills when they start out, and neither of them is immediately
excellent. It takes work and diligence to see growth in these capacities.
However, unlike the athlete, the philosopher can practice at any time,
and life supplies us with unending opportunities to hone our craft and
become the kind of person we can respect and admire.

As I said, though, it takes diligence, a watchful eye cast inward to
observe how it is we react to the world around us and to measure these
responses with the standards that Stoicism has given us, then, to seek to
correct them as opportunity arises. 

Also, it is important to show ourselves grace, for just as a newcomer is
ignorant of a competitions techniques and must first start with the
fundamentals of the sport, so we too need to be patient with ourselves and
focus on the fundamentals.  For Epictetus, this is the dismissal of desire
entirely and the redirecting aversion to what is up to us, along with approaching our
impressions with caution and some measure of distrust until we can verify
their accuracy.