Stoicism and its importance in my life

A few years ago I found the work of Robert Greene. I have become a very large fan. Some writers have a greater impact than others on our lives. His work “The Laws of Human Nature” had quite a large impact on me. Still does.

Knowing why people do things, their motivations behind their actions and identifiable body language that can give clues to what people are feeling. These are things discussed at great length, with examples, in the work.

I had always felt that a great weakness of mine was the ability to read people. Whenever there is a weakness in my life, discovered either by self-awareness or is pointed out to me. I rarely get offended, and just see it as an opportunity to grow as a person. If you can put ego to one side you can really take valuable things from the lessons that life hands us.

I have thought about this a great deal lately. that there appears to be two types of people generally. People who get offended when their shortcomings are pointed out to them and people who take something from it.

Through the work of Robert Greene I also found the author Ryan Holiday. His work “The Obstacle is the Way” is a modern day adaption of the philosophy of Stoicism. A philosophy I have always liked and studied. I have always been drawn to outlooks that cherish the difficult and hard. Turning hard times and difficulties into a positive result. Some of the worst and hardest experiences that I have encountered in life I now cherish. They have actually turned out to be some of the best moments I can remember.

The ability to turn the harshest lessons into good things is almost a superpower in the modern world. In the modern world you require very little resilience to even be above average in this area. I have noticed that people shy away from any kind of discomfort or difficulty. Ryan (and Robert) would argue that you should actually dive into these situations head-first and see what you can take from the experience.

All this may seem irrelevant to plein-air painting. It is actually a core aspect of my work. When I begun painting outdoors, a naturally shy person (always was) I found sitting out in public drawing/painting a particularly challenging activity. For some reason though, even with my early attempts being not of great quality, I kept going out. I tried to get people to come out with me, via sketching groups I had joined. People didn’t turn up or gave excuses, which at the immediate time hurt. Something happened though when I continued to go out anyway. The need for other people’s participation or approval of what I was doing faded. This was a big thing for me. I had also hoped to meet a girl as part of it (joining an art group or go dancing is always standard advice!). In the process of learning to paint outdoors, I actually found love somewhere else than I expected. I could not function in life without going out to paint now. I do some of my best thinking whilst painting and actually have found it to be a kind of therapy. I actually miss the days when going out seemed like such a challenge. There was a certain amount of excitement involved.

I have encountered both threats of violence and actual violence. I have encountered legal battles with organisations (the Bullring for example) and had that many disagreements as to the legality of painting out in public, that I have forgotten many of them. Looking back at the drawings/paintings sometimes brings back forgotten incidents.

I wouldn’t want to remove any of them from my experience. Every one of them has contributed to getting me to where I am. Wherever that is it is closer to where I want to get than where I started. I cannot wait to experience other hard/difficult/trying situations. Avoidance is just delaying the pain, not removing it. That might be a quote that gets attributed to me one day :)