The Antifragile Stoic
Telos over achievement
Today’s piece is taken from our new High Performance Stoicism course in the Stoa app.
Epictetus reminded us that even though you may train to be an Olympic champion for years, after all that work, you might still fail.
Success is not up to you. Even if you do everything in your power. Even if you are realistic, consistent, inspired, resilient and focused - you can still fail any external goal.
If you are a runner, unless you are world champion, you only won your race because someone better than you did not register. And you only came in last because no one worse than you was there.
The Stoic is not discouraged by failure, or made cocky by success. Instead, they use success or failure as feedback. It becomes information, an input into the process.
Marcus wrote in his meditations:
That which rules within, when it is according to nature, is so affected with respect to the events which happen, that it always easily adapts itself to that which is and is presented to it. For it requires no definite material, but it moves towards its purpose, under certain conditions however; and it makes a material for itself out of that which opposes it, as fire lays hold of what falls into it, by which a small light would have been extinguished: but when the fire is strong, it soon appropriates to itself the matter which is heaped on it, and consumes it, and rises higher by means of this very material.
To paraphrase Marcus in more plain language, the philosopher pursues a goal or purpose and turns whatever failures or hardship it encounters into material that benefits that goal.
Their character is like a fire that has achieved enough size and power to consume whatever is thrown into it, instead of being snuffed out.
Inspired by the Stoics, the contemporary author Nassim Taleb described this ability as antifragility. The antifragile person is made stronger by disruption, failure, and challenge - they are the opposite of the fragile person, who is ruined by chaos.
High-performers are antifragile. They incorporate failure into the process. They learn from their mistakes. Being antifragile, like all things, required effort and focus. You must practice finding the lesson in each failure.
But it also requires a flexibility of purpose. If your goal is to make the 2032 Olympics, or get accepted into a specific medical school, or have a specific amount of money by a certain age - you can’t be antifragile about these goals. They are binary. You either reach them or you fail. They have no flexibility.
The Stoic’s ultimate goal is to make the right choice in every moment with what they have available to them - so their purpose is maximally flexible.
But - that goal is a bit abstract. Specific goals can be framed more flexibly too. Instead of making the olympics, aspire to achieve your potential as an athlete. Instead of being accepted at medical school, aspire to become someone that helps people with their health. Instead of a certain net worth, aspire to be financially responsible.
Antifragility comes from practice and focus, and reframing your goals as a purpose rather than a specific achievement.
Today, consider how you can make your goal a purpose - so that you can be antifragile to anything outside your control.
As always, if you cannot afford the Stoa app but want to use it nonetheless, send an email to stoa@stoameditation.com and we will set you up with a free account.