1: Sometimes life is going to be hard, Charlie Munger tells us.
“Another thing to cope with is that life is very likely to provide terrible blows, unfair blows,” he writes in Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger.
“Some people recover and others don’t,” he observes.
So how should we deal with “life and its various passages [which] can be hard, brutally hard”?
Charlie recommends four things to cope with life and its many challenges:
- Have low expectations
- Have a sense of humor
- Surround yourself with the love of friends and family
- Above all, live with change and adapt to it
2: Getting better at getting better is what RiseWithDrew is all about. Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations. To end the week for the past eighteen weeks, I’ve been sharing some of Charlie’s wit and wisdom.
Charlie then shares the story of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, who was born into slavery.
“He thought that every mischance in life, however bad, created an opportunity to behave well,” Charlie notes.
Life can be cruel. Things will not always go our way. We have the ability, however, to choose how we view these obstacles or difficulties.
Epictetus believed that when bad things happen, we can see the situation as “an opportunity to learn something useful, and one’s duty [is] not to become immersed in self-pity but to utilize each terrible blow in a constructive fashion,” he writes.
3: His ideas “were very sound,” Charlie notes, “influencing the best of the Roman emperors, Marcus Aurelius and many others over many centuries. . .
“And you may remember the epitaph that Epictetus made for himself: ‘Here lies Epictetus, a slave, maimed in body, the ultimate in poverty, and favored by the gods.’
“Well, that’s the way Epictetus is now remembered,” Charlie writes, “favored by the gods. He was favored because he became wise, became manly, and instructed others, both in his own time and over following centuries.”
More next week!
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Reflection: How can I shift my perspective to see life’s challenges as opportunities for growth rather than setbacks?
Action: Practice embracing change this week by identifying one difficult situation and consciously choosing to respond with humor, low expectations, or gratitude for support.
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