Hi, this is Brian.
Welcome back to another Areté +1°, a micro-chapter from my new book, Areté: Activate Your Heroic Potential.
451 of my all time favorite ideas in seven Objectives.
We are now looking at a few of my favorites in Objective II: Forging antifragile confidence.
Here we go.
ANTIFRAGILITY
ARE YOU FRAGILE, RESILIENT, OR …
Now that we’ve established Rule #1 of the ultimate game, it’s time to define some key terms.
Let’s start with one of my all-time favorite words: antifragile.
I picked this word up from Nassim Taleb.
He wrote a whole book on the subject, appropriately called Antifragile, in which he walks us through the fact that there’s a big difference between being fragile, being resilient, and being antifragile.
Although Taleb focuses primarily on macroeconomic, technological, and cultural systems, we’re going to focus on YOU and your life.
Here’s the short story.
You can be fragile and break easily. You can be resilient and withstand more stress before breaking down (and then bouncing back a little quicker than most). OR… You can be the OPPOSITE of fragile.
What would happen if, the MORE you got kicked around, the STRONGER you got?
Seriously.
What would that be called?
You’d be ANTIFRAGILE.
And, frankly, if there’s ONE THING I hope you get from this book, it’s THIS idea.
Those obstacles? When you view them from the right perspective, they can (and should!) make you stronger. Period.
Taleb gives us a great metaphor to bring the point home. Imagine the wind. It’s a strong wind.
Now…
That strong wind will EXTINGUISH a candle.
But…
It will FUEL a FIRE.
The question is, when you face the inevitable (emphasis on INEVITABLE!) “winds” of life, are you showing up like a candle and getting blown out by the first breeze OR are you showing up with a HEROIC FIRE such that those winds FUEL your fire?
Helping you rub your hands together with a smile as you laugh with the Heroic gods and thank them for the challenges they’ve blessed us with is one of my primary intentions with this book.
Which is why the Heroic mantra isn’t “OM.” It’s “OMMS.” As in: “OBSTACLES MAKE ME STRONGER.”
Chant it with me now: “OMMS!”
And, if you feel so inspired, chant it to YOURSELF every single time YOU face an obstacle in your life.
TODAY.
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