Reignited Passion, Responsibility for Character, Making Effort Feel Good
Existential Espresso Vol. 28
What I’ve been reading:
"Real" by Takehiko Inoue
"Real" is a Japanese manga series about wheelchair basketball. The author, Takehiko Inoue, also created Vagabond, one of the most critically acclaimed manga series that follows a fictionalized account of the life of Miyamoto Musashi. You may be familiar with Vagabond since I often feature its artwork in my instagram posts.
What brings the main characters together is their passion for basketball. However, the story starts out with two of them having given up on their passion and leading empty or even miserable lives because of that. Towards the end of the first volume of the series, we see a fire reignited in both of them. How? Challenge. They are far from best friends at this point in the story. They challenge each other. By doing so, both of them feel more alive than they’ve felt in a long time.
So far, this seems like a heavy but beautiful story, and I cannot remember the last time I started truly caring about the characters in a fictional story so quickly after starting to read or watch it.
What I’ve listened to:
"Aristotle on Responsibility for Character" from the "Philosophy Core Concepts" YouTube Series by Gregory B. Sadler
Gregory B. Sadler is a philosophy professor with one of the longest-standing, most consistent, most valuable, and yet most underrated philosophy channels on YouTube.
"Philosophy Core Concepts" is a video series where he tries to give his audience a bite-sized but still comprehensive enough lecture on one main concept from a philosophical text and thinker.
In this video, he discusses Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, more precisely Book 3, and Aristotle’s assessment of our responsibility for our character.
I think the concept is interesting enough and the lecture short enough for you to give it a chance and then browse through other lectures from the "Philosophy Core Concept" series. I hope you enjoy it.
You can listen to it here.
What I’ve been thinking about:
A simple reframe to make effort feel good.
One of the most challenging things about effort is that, while you are doing something that’s difficult, you are aware that you will have to keep doing it for an extended period of time and on a consistent basis in order to achieve any results with it.
And sometimes, the activity or pursuit where you are putting in the effort is such that you are not guaranteed success even after consistent and long-lasting effort.
But what if you were getting results for every second of effort that you put in? It would surely make it easier to keep going, right?
Well, that’s already the case.
For every second of effort that you put in, you are developing your capacity to produce more effort and higher-quality effort in the future.
Putting in the effort is such a thing that you cannot help but instantly grow and develop because of it.
Thank you for reading.
Stay strong, love life, and never feel sorry for yourself.
If you are interested in my book recommendations list, you can download it here for free.
I also wrote a free ebook for you, “The Lost Art of Reading.” You can download it here.
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I really enjoyed this volume! Looking forward to watching more Philosophy Core Concepts, as it seems like a very informative and easily digestible series. Thanks for all of the wisdom and resources you share!! Your words and work are appreciated 🌟