The Sentinel Philosophy: Aristotle's Two Steps to Becoming a Better Person

Aristotle

How can you become a better person? How can you become the kind of person that succeeds, that is more resilient, and perhaps happier? Well, according to Aristotle, there are two steps to do just that.

Aristotle argued that a good life is defined by good virtue. Your life is like a deck of cards, and you need to collect a card for each virtue. There is a card of determination, of honesty, of kindness, of wisdom, of temperance, and so on. And so life is about intentionally finding or building these cards. And there are two ways to do just that.

First, you need to establish what virtue, what card, you need in any given situation. At work, you might need determination, and resourcefulness, and diligence. At home, you might need kindness, loyalty, and trust. With your friends, you might need honesty, gratitude, or respect.

Once you have isolated the virtue to work on, the card to collect, you need to ask yourself, 'What should I not do in this situation?' If you want to be kind, ask yourself what the cruel thing would be or the patronising thing would be. And don't do that. ( Here's where you say Duh Doy Sentinel :KEKW:)

If you want to be hard-working, ask yourself what too much work looks like or not enough work looks like, and find the middle ground. Over time, finding this golden mean becomes easier, and you will develop what is called phronesis, or practical wisdom. But it never becomes easy.

Finding growth is a constant effort. But according to Aristotle, if you know how, it becomes just a bit easier.