I originally stumbled across Ryan Holiday’s work several months into the COVID-19 pandemic. He has been one of my favorite authors ever since. Holiday’s books on Stoicism are digestible and practical. The main tenet of this school of philosophy is that we don’t control what happens to us, but we control how we respond.
Courage is Calling is the first in a four-book series on the cardinal virtues of Stoicism: courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. Interestingly enough, these are also the cardinal virtues of Christianity.
As someone who was brought up Roman Catholic, I appreciate the benefits of organized religion, but, admittedly, I oftentimes struggle with its mystical aspects. Getting a regular dose of Stoic insight from Holiday on his website, podcast, or YouTube Channel, all titled Daily Stoic, has helped me maintain a more secular, down-to-earth approach to those four virtues.
Facing Fear
“We are in a battle against fear. So we have to study fear, get familiar with it, grapple with its causes and symptoms.”
We are human beings. We all deal with fear and anxiety in some capacity. Every time we decide to shake things up in our lives, to break free from the status quo, we encounter these emotions. It is okay to be momentarily scared, Holiday writes, but we cannot allow fear to become our default state of being.
It’s also important to realize that fear is a necessary step on the road to success. “There is no one who has achieved greatness without wrestling with their own doubts, anxieties, limitations, and demons.” If a new challenge in life scares us, that’s a sign that we should do it.
In Part I, Holiday recounts Florence Nightingale’s struggles with fear and doubt. Raised in a well-to-do family, her parents were adamantly opposed to her leaving the confines of polite society to work in a hospital. This social pressure was enough to keep Nightingale stuck her cozy lifestyle for another eight years. Not even those who highlight the annals of history are completely sure of themselves when they first hear the call to action.
The opposite of courage is apathy
“We go through life in two ways. We choose between effective truths: that we have the ability to change our situation, or that we are at the mercy of the situations in which we find ourselves. We can rely on luck… or cause and effect.”
Although it would seem fair to say that fear is the polar opposite of courage, it’s actually apathy and nihilism that prevent courageous acts. The feeling that no amount of effort can change our situation. That everything is pointless or hopeless. Why try? It would be easier to just lay down and give up.
The antidote for apathy is reinforcing agency in our lives. Proving to ourselves that we are capable of great things, and that our efforts can have some influence on the final outcome. As Holiday explains, “The odds of you being born, some scientists have estimated, are in the realm of one in four hundred trillion.” That, in and of itself, is a miraculous feat. We have all already beaten the odds. We must have made it this far in order to achieve something special. “Just about the craziest, bravest thing you can do in this damned world of ours is to keep hoping.”
Action is courageous
“There is no one, [William James] said, more miserable than the person ‘in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.’”
The byproducts of fear and apathy are paralysis and stagnation. I am a self-diagnosed perfectionist, and this point hit home for me. Countless times in my life I have waited for the perfect moment to start a project. The “perfect” moment never came. Before taking a risk, I’ve waited until I was ready enough to avoid failure, but, of course, I was never 100-percent “ready.” Many times, the opportunity passed me by.
At some point, we just have to start small and keep working at it. We have to make a choice to begin, even if the conditions aren’t perfect. For Florence Nightingale, the choice of action over inaction was the difference between founding modern nursing and living in obscurity as an aristocrat.
“[O]ne must move or die. I have chosen to move; that does not exclude the possibility of also dying.” – Charles de Gaulle
In the case of de Gaulle, his decision to return to an occupied France to rally the nation during World War II put him at risk of being killed by the Nazis. Not everyone taking a leap of faith is facing such dire consequences. It took some courage for me to post my writing online. Will anyone threaten my life because I decided to start a book review blog? Probably not. (I hope not?) But I’m sure I will receive negative feedback at some point.
The point is, whatever backlash we face from being courageous is better than not being courageous at all. A life full of failure is far better than a life full of “what-ifs.” In the words of singer-songwriter Jason Isbell, “Be afraid, be very afraid. Do it anyway.”