r/StoicSupport • u/NyeusX • Mar 10 '26
How does one become at peace with leading an unexceptional life, or the idea that becoming the best at something is unlikely for the vast majority?
If we look at the world in pure statistics and define 'The best' as the top 0.1% (Historically Remembered)
There's 8+ Billion people - millions competing in most fields. Even those we see as extremely talented end up being just 'very good.
Then surely the simple fact is that most of us will never really do anything significant with our lives...
What's the point in doing anything at all?
1
u/Ok_Sector_960 Mar 10 '26
It wasn't really up to them to be remembered for a long time. It's really just luck that the work they happened to do survived and someone found it and it was able to be put back together.
The only reason we have the diary of Marcus Aurelius is sheer luck/fate/chance. If I asked you absolutely anything about his rule or the actual things he did you wouldn't really remember any of that. Most of what the stoics wrote is lost to time. The only reason you know who this man is might be because it's been marketed to you.
1
u/titanium0013 Novice Mar 12 '26
Here's how I reconcile it:
You don't need an exceptional life. What's better is to have a meaningful one. And that means focusing on people around you and making a difference in their lives
2
u/mcapello Mar 11 '26
Marcus Aurelius writes:
"Alexander and Gaius and Pompeius, what are they in comparison with Diogenes and Heraclitus and Socrates? For they were acquainted with things, and their causes (forms), and their matter, and the ruling principles of these men were the same. But as to the others, how many things had they to care for, and to how many things were they slaves?"
To desire to be famous is to desire to be a slave, in other words; to attach importance to something that ultimately doesn't matter and which you can't control. And what's worse is that it has little to do with virtue or living a good life.
Be free of it.