How shall we describe “progress”?
It is the state of him who having learned from philosophers that man wills to get what is good, and wills to avoid what is evil, and having learned also that peace and calm come to a man only if he fails not to get what he wills, and if he falls not into that which he avoids, has put away from him altogether the will to get anything and has postponed it to the future, and wills to avoid only such things as are dependent on his will.
For if he tries to avoid anything beyond his will, he knows that, for all his avoidance, he will one day come to grief and be unhappy.
And if this is the promise that virtue makes to us—the promise to produce happiness and peace and calm, surely progress toward virtue is progress toward each of these. For to whatever end the perfection of a thing leads, to that end is progress an approach.
How is it then that, though we admit that this is the nature of virtue, we search elsewhere for progress and display it elsewhere?
To many people, the tenets of Stoicism can seem alien and confusing, as if they are asking us to be the exact opposite of everything we believe we are. I know the frustration well, having spent so much time struggling with a single step forward, only to find that I have somehow managed to take two steps back.
A simple and direct explanation, like this one from Epictetus, can help me to recognize that it isn’t my nature itself that is getting in the way at all, but rather my own terrible confusion about my nature, the weight of all those misguided habits, that is dragging me down.
I must commit to a fundamental change in my judgments, one that casts aside all the clutter and the diversions, in order to point myself in the right direction. Once that is done, in however unassuming a manner, I am now making progress.
I can start with the basic awareness that I want to go after what is good, and to stay away from what is bad, and yet I get myself in trouble as soon as I make hasty assumptions about what will actually benefit or hurt me.
If it is something good for me, it will have to be mine to possess, and not subject to being lost. If it is something bad for me, it will have to be within my power to fend it off, and not able to inflict any harm.
And so, my happiness depends upon forming a mastery over what can be under my control, and of leaving aside what cannot be under my control. I will only find misery when I surrender my will to what I am not able to determine.
It makes perfect sense to say that I should cling to what is reliable and constant, though I am usually doing quite the opposite, aren’t I? I lust for property, reputation, and objects of pleasure, all of which come and go through outside forces. Is it any wonder that I am restless, anxious, and dissatisfied?
Virtue, the excellence of my own thoughts, words, and deeds, is the key to progress.
Now some will speak of virtue as a form of moral posturing, an air of superiority, a need to dictate to others, or a cold conformity to soulless rules, but that is not what the Stoic means.
I am on my way to becoming a better man when I concern myself, first and foremost, with working on my own sense of awareness, commitment, discipline, and respect; everything else that I do then proceeds from that inner source.
“I will only be happy when the world gives me all of these things!”
No, it would be better to say, “I will only be happy when I learn to give all of these things!”
“I am making progress, because I have finally received this or that circumstance!”
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