It’s hard. It’s uncomfortable. It’s scary.
Deal with it anyway. Face it head-on.
The boring task. The difficult work. The necessary learning. The frustrating setback. The obstacle in your way.
The uncomfortable conversation. The anxiety-inducing performance. The fear that you’ll do it wrong.
The dreaded diagnosis. The painful treatment. The inevitable tragedy.
These things don’t get easier when you avoid facing them.
This is the ultimate message of Stoic philosophy: Face reality head-on.
The message is not that you shouldn’t be afraid or that you should enjoy the difficulty. Stoicism isn’t about being unfeeling. It’s about doing what needs to be done in spite of your feelings.
So don’t avoid it. Stop procrastinating. Get out of bed. Make the phone call. Figure it out. Do the work.
You can face this, whatever it is, but you’ll have to prove it to yourself by facing it. That’s the only way.
Chris Loper has been writing about self-improvement and helping busy adults with habit formation since 2017.
He also writes an education blog for parents and students for Northwest Educational Services.
Along with Greg Smith, Chris is the cocreator of Parenting for Academic Success, a series of transformative classes that create empowered parents, confident students, and harmonious families.
His most recent endeavor combines his academic and habit-formation expertise to help students thrive in college. Visit SmartCollegeHabits.com to learn more.
In 2021, Chris published a humorous memoir titled Wood Floats and Other Brilliant Observations, a book that blends crazy stories with practical life lessons.
He lives in Issaquah, WA where he is the owner of South Cove Tutoring.