“I made a prosperous voyage when I suffered my shipwreck.” — Zeno of Citium
The founder of Stoicism was a man named Zeno of Citium. He was a rich merchant, but he lost everything he owned when his ship got hit by a storm and sank.
After Zeno made it back to shore alive, he decided to study philosophy. He eventually realized that the greatest power we have as human beings is our ability to choose how we respond to stuff that we can’t change.
Zeno didn’t have control over the storm that sank his boat, but he did have the ability to choose how his fate would define him. He decided that losing everything would be an opportunity, not a tragedy.
As a human being, you have the exact same ability to choose how you’re going to define every challenge that you face. Don’t get distracted or discouraged by stuff happening around you that you have no control over.
Remember: ships don’t sink because of the water that surrounds them; they sink because of the water that gets inside of them. Don’t let what’s going on around you get inside and weigh you down.
Viktor Frankl, who faced extraordinary suffering during his years in a Nazi concentration camp, provides some inspiring advice about utilizing our ability to define challenges:
“We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one’s predicament into a human achievement. When we are no longer able to change a situation — just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer — we are challenged to change ourselves.”