In my post, Under My Control? The Wisdom to Know the Difference, I wrote of knowing which things are those we cannot change. While it is extremely helpful to know these things, the fact of the matter is that there is no 100% guarantee that things will turn out the way we think.
It is for this reason, that the Stoic acts with reservation. I wrote about this before in my “Unless…” entry, but this concept bears repeating.
There will always be “chance” in our future…
To maintain that sense of equanimity in our lives, while still pursuing that which we would like to attain (mainly for the sake of virtue, we hope) we must continue to act fully expecting that the outcome may not be to our liking.
For example, many years ago I was a student pilot in the military. Without conceit, I can tell you that I was one of the most conscientious students you could find. During this training there were 3 flying exams (called check rides), and despite my best efforts, I flunked one of them. I just could not land the airplane that day, and this particular test counted more than any of the others. In retrospect, the combined conditions of my own skill, flight conditions of the day, and the demands of the course arranged for failure to be my fate. Of course, this went into my class score, and I will tell you that a great majority of the class did not fail this check ride. Well, at the time not everybody was getting assigned to fly airplanes after graduation, and of course my class rank was low due to that failed check ride. So, there was really no way I was going to get an airplane assignment. In the end, I had to wait 3 years before I would be assigned an airplane. There was nothing I could do to change this, so I had to put my best effort forward, simply defending what I thought was my mediocre reputation.
Getting ready for another flight…I can fly!
Now, I would not call myself a Stoic at the time. However, I simply wanted to earn my wings as a pilot, regardless of whether I would fly right away. As a result, I carried on. If I were stoically inclined, it would have been helpful to my goal with two things in mind:
- Possibly, I might not attain that goal because of much of this outcome is out of my control
- I will put my best effort forward simply for the satisfaction that I did so
In the end, I did go on to fly, and every day I am grateful for the opportunities it provided me. Now that I have embraced the Stoic philosophy, I pursue yet another goal: to spread the ideas of the Stoics to those who need them. I think they are out there, we shall see.
Until then, I keep staring at my site’s traffic count, and I write for the sake of my own virtue.