Don't Talk, Show
Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better.
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“Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents.” - Epictetus
“For sheep don’t throw up the grass to show the shepherds how much they have eaten; but, inwardly digesting their food, they outwardly produce wool and milk. Thus, therefore, do you not show theorems to the unlearned, but the actions produced by them after they have been digested.”- Epictetus
In medicine, what you know doesn’t matter that much if it doesn’t help the patient. You could have the latest clinical guidelines memorized word for word, you could know every technique from the textbooks, you could even carry the prestige of a great university behind your name- but until you’re with the patient, with their unique presentation or when you encounter a hydra of problems as you try to apply what you’ve learned, that’s when you know storing information and living it out are quite different, yet intertwined.
The same applies to Stoic Philosophy. Reading Marcus Aurelius doesn’t make you Stoic. Only through the back-and-forth of theory and real life, can you reach a full understanding of practicing philosophy- of living the good life. It’s a clinical practice for the soul. And today’s entry begs the question, are you living a life of substance or performance?
the sizzle, performance
You know the sound. It's the loud, attention-grabbing display of pre-meditated grand declarations of intent without substance. It's the talk without the walk. The profile without the portfolio. The promise without the proof. We live in a world that celebrates this sizzle. It rewards the curated post, the virtue signaling, the performance of success. And it's tempting, isn't it? To post your ambitions and your favorite quotes on social media and feel that instant rush of validation.
It feels like progress. It feels like you're doing something. But as you've felt yourself, it's often just spiritual hemorrhage. You're expending precious energy and getting a cheap dopamine hit in return, without the real, nourishing satisfaction of the actual achievement. You're letting the fickle court of public opinion dictate your sense of worth, making your happiness dependent on a 'like' rather than on your own lived reality, leaving you as hollow as you are loud. The sizzle promises a feast- it smells good and sounds delicious, but ultimately, it's just hot air. It leaves you hungry.
the steak, substance
Then, you make a choice. You choose to be the steak. This is the profound, daily commitment to become a man of substance than one of show. Being the steak means understanding that real power and strength isn't proclaimed with positive affirmations, hopes and delusions- you demonstrate it. It’s the seamless domination of your craft- letting your actions speak with a thunder that makes your words unnecessary. It’s the inevitability of your success because you've done the work when it became hard and sometimes it didn’t make sense to keep going. It’s the deep, unshakeable confidence that comes from more than believing you're ‘meant to be great,’ and actually building that greatness, piece by piece, through disciplined action and seeing your improvement.
“Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.”- Marcus Aurelius
This is where the practice of philosophy truly begins. It starts by focusing your entire being on what you can actually control- your effort, your standards, your priorities. You stop worrying about the pizzazz outside and get to work on your aesthetic lifestyle. You trade the desire to be seen as someone for the much harder, much more rewarding work of becoming your most authentic and powerful self. You nourish your highest and most weird aspirations, not the banal, alien ones that society tries to sell you. You win, and then you simply move on to what's next, because the victory was just a byproduct of the process, and it's the process you're in love with.
how to live a fulfilling life
"Show me what you have achieved so far. If you were an athlete, I would want to see your shoulders. Don't tell me, 'Look at all my training weights.' Get out of here with you and your gigantic weights!…What I want to see isn't the weights but how you've profited from using them." - Epictetus
To be a person of substance, you must be comfortable with the fire and the pressure. You deliberately put yourself in the cold and the suffering- to strengthen your mind, to build calluses against the daily stresses of an active, meaningful life. You practice being non-reactive, doing what’s necessary of your duties without complaint, using everything- the setbacks, the criticisms, the obstacles- as fuel. You stop taking things personally because you realize the universe isn't happening to you; it is happening for you- and sometimes it’s just happening. And you can use all of it to stack up your growth.
This is what it means to be truly powerful. Not just having power over things, but the power to transform any circumstance into a tool for your own betterment. You add more meat to back up who you claim to be. You get comfortable with your own greatness, never watering yourself down or absconding your chance to be magnificent, because you know your purpose is bigger than the petty matters that scare you. You are working for yourself, to be the strong parent your child deserves, for the community you serve, for the glorious destiny you feel stirring inside you.
And in the end, what is the reward? The reward is the life itself. A state of being. A life of focus, solitude, books, and deep engagement with the community around you with your skills, your wisdom, and on your own terms. It's the profound excitement of knowing that what you have is real- which is much cooler and badass than a fantasy; you're no longer performing for an audience that, frankly, doesn't care and wouldn't understand the depth of how you think anyway. It's the powerful feeling of your consciousness expanding, of becoming a creative force in your own right, of soaring far beyond what you thought possible. For you were meant to be beautiful. Philosophy meant to make you beautiful.
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The strongest proof of growth is not what you show others, but what you no longer need to prove to yourself. When silence feels more natural than explanation, that is when inner work becomes real.
"Preach the gospel at all times; use words if necessary."