Sections 20-25 Handbook Of Epictetus: Epictetus A Very Good Teacher

Never give up is a very common piece of advice that a person will give to you. I think this advice has been used so many times that it has essentially lost its meaning. Not giving up is not as easy as it sounds. The thought of giving up will eternally be around everyone when they have moments in sports, school, or life where they simply do not want to do what they are doing anymore. According to Epictetus: "And remember that if you hold to these views, those who previously ridiculed you will later be impressed with you, but if you are defeated by them you will be doubly ridiculed" (Section 22). Every time in life there will be persons that will try to bring you down for a selfish reason. The important thing is to always jump back and like a spring try to jump higher than before. This has happened to me many times in tennis when people start telling me that I should lose hope and that I will never be able to play good tennis. The thing I try to do after this is always to ignore their nasty thoughts and train way harder to become even better. It is as if the negative thoughts and the hate of other persons will make you stronger rather than hurt you. Epictetus might have done this with a clear reason to show that the more you persist and try in life the better it will go. This has been the first time I have read that Epictetus says that there is some kind of free will. I got the idea that he shows to us the free will to choose between being affected by people who try to bring you down or just ignore them. In the handbook Epictetus is referring to the teachings he preached but it can really be assembled into anything you do in life.

I sometimes have thoughts that involve my status in the world. Sometimes I like to reflect and see where I would like to be in a couple of years. There are a wide variety of answers to this question but the thing in which all answers coincide is in having good friends and being concerned about my reputation. What Epictetus is trying to tell me is: "And how will you be a nobody everywhere, if you need to be a somebody only in things that are up to you" (Section 24). After having read this I started to think about the importance of being someone. What I understood from what Epictetus is trying to teach us is that it doesn't matter what other people think of you because they are things that do not depend on you, but it is rather important for me to be recognized in the things that are up to me. Sometimes I see people that are too preoccupied on being the most popular persons on school and that they do not care how much they destroy other people's feelings. I have met many people that would do anything for being popular even laugh about their closest friends to be funny. People that can change a friend just because he doesn't have good looks or because the popular group makes fun of him are not true friends. I really prefer to have one single friend in the world that I know that I can trust fully in him than rather a big group of people in which I do not know if I am friends with them for the looks and my ego.