Virtue is learned by unlearning one's own faults

all of us at least every now and then imagine what our ideal selves would look like and should look like and we come to the conclusion that everything that's wrong with us is because we lack something it's because we don't have that good trait that I that would make us ideal and that we instead have some bad habits bad traits maybe even things that we can't we think we can never change and so consequently we we think that we need to add something to ourselves to make ourselves better but what we do not realize is

that we don't so much lack something as we are weighed down by something that we have put on ourselves and that were prevented from being that ideal self by those things that we us which we even though we don't know have put on ourselves and think about it like this um a statue whatever those really ancient Greek statues that that everyone admires those are not made by putting something on but by taking Material off not by taking putting material on and that's sort of the analogy that I want you to think of throughout this it's

that marble block that on its own is nothing that is taken from the earth as is and it's made into a statue into a work of art that evokes emotions and and even certain ideals by chiseling away exactly the right amount and when we look at our own lives every single belief every single thing that we think is right or something to strive for either now or at some point has been given to us by someone else cuz we come into the world knowing pretty much nothing and we grow up in a community maybe in

a family or around other humans for sure who by their Acts or by their words and by their opinions tell us how the world should be how we should be and the things that we should desire the things that we should want and the things that we should go after and make it essentially a mission of Our Lives to attain and much like a little child who would open their hands to anything that you would give them we thought that those people who wanted us to have whatever they were giving us knew better the adult

knows better I don't know anything and I should listen to them and of course these things that they gave us these desires that they gave us these Ambitions that they gave us generally center around career wealth popularity success of some form and this is the material that's added to us these are the rocks that we take from others and we put in our pockets and we're weighed down by them and it's sort of encourages a life of heft and and downward movement it's not easy to go higher with rocks in our pockets but that's exactly

what they are they're in our pocket they're not intrinsic we have put them there and we can take them out in fact we must take them out and this is the material that we're talking about that is added to us and the flaws of often that we think our in situations are really flaws in us but we project them onto situations we think that they're external and that we have to fight external battles and of course what are these faults we mentioned before career popularity Fame wealth success of some sort these are things that are

indoctrinated into us not with any evil intent or anything like that these are things that our family tells us our parents our friends um everyone who wishes us well tells us because they want to see us in a position that they think is the best position for anyone especially for us and the people they care for so there's no bad intent here but what it does to us is that it makes us think that happiness is something that can only be given to us if the good things are success if the good thing is career

if the good thing is wealth and and being popular these are all things that someone else needs to give us we cannot promote ourselves we cannot hire ourselves we cannot just decide to be popular and have everyone else think so we cannot have success in anything without others who are the givers of the success the keepers of that wealth and and popularity and career whatever it may be they need to like us they need to approve of us and they need to give us what we want so we're constantly fighting for these things we and

if we don't get them we think that we are lesser that we that we are lacking something and that we can never improve without the help and affirmation of someone else and just look around you and even in your own life how many times people compliment people that they really don't like how many times you had to compliment someone who you really think was a bad person just because you wanted something from them because you saw doing that as a means to a good end and how many times you have gone into competition for something

like that a job uh being popular in a certain group where there's only one job or one opportunity or one person that needs to be impressed and more than one person who wants to achieve that so you go into competition with others who want this and what do you do you do things that you're not proud of you become like your enemy like for like they do something to hurt you now you think it's only fair that you do the same to balance it out because you can't let someone get away with something like that

right that's always what we think and that's how we become our enemy that's how we do the exact same thing that we uphor someone else for doing that we we really think is not right and never imagined we would do it but step by step it gets us there and it's all because of the thing we want it's all for the prize and since others have thrown out the rule book since others have thrown out ethics to get that prize we think we have to do the same just to stay competitive and these are the

rocks that we have in our pockets and of course we become dependent we become dependent on all those people that we think or those really the ones that really are the ones that are giving out these jobs these careers this popularity this Fame this wealth and we look to them for our happiness we look to them for our self- fulfillment and we look to them for becoming our ideal self which is a recipe for absolute disaster and depression of course what do we do in this situation what should we do Socrates he said an unexamined

life is a life not worth living what does he mean by that examining your own life is self-education no one can show you these things but yourself no one can can make you realize what you've been chasing but yourself who better to convince you than you if you never examine these beliefs that that have been handed down to you from when you were a child you will just keep chasing them and keep acting in accordance with those beliefs and you'll be amazed to see once you do really examine those beliefs that have been handed down

to you that you've been living according your life according to pretty much since you can remember how long you've held those beliefs how long you've thought something that you learned or thought you learned when you were a teenager when you were 16 when you were 20 and you still live your life according to it because you've never examined it and that's how an an unexamined life becomes a life not worth living because you're living under the rule of a child of a teenager's mind of whatever it is you required that belief and almost certainly it

won't it's probably not a belief that's still serving you so that's what we must do we must examine ourselves we must chisel away that material that is preventing us from becoming that ideal self to become lighter not heavier and when you examine your your beliefs you will see like I said earlier how The Faults Are Not in the situations but in yourself you will see that your thought colors every event even though these things are external and they're meant to happen or at least you have no control over them how you think some are good

some are bad when really they're neither good nor bad they're indifference they're external things happening to you but if you don't realize that you will be pushed and pulled your entire life by uncontrollable external and mostly random events and we really must realize that nothing external is either good or bad the thinking makes it so and if you engage in this work every day or as much as you can every time a belief comes up every time something you've thought and held true for a long long time seems to become relevant again in a situation

examine it look at it turn it inside out look at it and see how long you've held it and if it still holds up for you if it's still true or if it's become outdated even though you are still living your life according to it and as you do this little by little step by step you will chisel away all the unnecessary material and the statue will reveal itself and eventually the chiseling will be done the statue will be complete and you will be your ideal self sooner or later but the thing with this is

each step step of the way even if you don't get there each step of the way is rewarding and important and major progress on its own and will make your life that much happier that much more fulfilled and that much better all around