Difficulties show a person’s character. So when a challenge confronts you, remember that God is matching you with a younger sparring partner, as would a physical trainer. Why? Becoming an Olympian takes sweat! I think no one has a better challenge than yours, if only you would use it like an athlete would that younger sparring partner.
—Epictetus, Discourses, 1.24.1-2
The Stoics loved to use metaphors from the Olympics, especially wrestling. Like us, they saw sports as both a fun pastime as well as a training ground to practice for the challenges one will inevitably face in the course of living. As General Douglas MacArthur once said, in words later engraved at the gymnasium at West Point:
UPON THE FIELDS OF FRIENDLY STRIFE
ARE SOWN THE SEEDS
THAT, UPON OTHER FIELDS, ON OTHER DAYS
WILL BEAR THE FRUITS OF VICTORY.
Everyone has found themselves outmatched by an opponent, frustrated by some skill or attribute they have that we don’t—height, speed, vision, whatever. How we choose to respond to that struggle tells us about who we are as athletes and who we’ll be as people. Do we see it as a chance to learn and get stronger? Do we get frustrated and complain? Or worse, do we call it off and find an easier game to play, one that makes us feel good instead of challenged?
The greats don’t avoid these tests of their abilities. They seek them out because they are not just the measure of greatness, they are the pathway to it.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman