One of my favorite things about Harry Browne’s book How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World is how he repeatedly shows that we all have a myriad of options in our lives even if we don’t initially see them. That is exactly the same message in this entry from The Daily Stoic. It’s sometimes difficult to find alternatives and pursuing them can involve paying a high price, but those alternatives do exist. And it’s up to each one of us to decide when they’re worth pursuing.
“Apply yourself to thinking through difficulties – hard times can be softened, tight squeezes widened, and heavy loads made lighter for those who can apply the right pressure.”
-Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 10.4b
Have you ever been hopelessly losing a game that suddenly broke wide open and you won? Remember that time when you thought you were certain to fail the test, but with an all-nighter and some luck you managed to eke out a decent score? That hunch you pursued that others would have given up on – that turned out brilliantly?
It’s that kind of energy and creativity and above all faith in yourself that you need right now. Defeatism won’t get you anywhere (except defeat). But focusing your entire effort on the little bit of room, the tiny scrap of an opportunity, is your best shot. An aide to Lyndon Johnson once remarked that around the man “there was a feeling – if you did everything, you would win.” Everything. Or as Marcus Aurelius put it, if it’s humanly possible, you can do it.