You Were Given This For a Reason

📜 Wednesday’s Quote of the Day 📜

There’s one thing I can guarantee that has happened to you: you’ve never not been in an argument or a debate. At some point in all of our lives, we’ve been involved in a verbal dispute advocating for our beliefs.

And whenever we’re in an argument or a debate, the natural human inclination is to prove the other side wrong. Or prove them wrong according to our standards, at least.

But to fall in line with the Stoic Philosophy, we must remember that there should only be two avenues during this type of situation: calm persuasion and patience.

If you’re supporting a side in a discussion, calm persuasion is what we should invoke with the emphasis on ‘calm’. Calmly control your emotional responses and do not allow anger or resentment to transpire simply because the persuasion was unconvincing.

There should be no reason to become angered as a result of a failed persuasion, and that’s why we’re given patience for a reason. We won’t be able to convince everybody we come across and as a result, we have to bear with that reality.

The next time you catch yourself beginning to argue unnecessarily or debating with the objective of winning rather than the truth, ask yourself if you can convince them. If you can, go ahead, but only do so calmy and non-excessively.

If you can’t, enact the patience and control to not let your emotions get the better of you.

Cheers,

Adam