March 3, 2018: Practice

Epictetus, Discourses, 2.9.13-14: “That’s why the philosophers warn us not to be satisfied with mere learning, but to add practice and then training. For as time passes we forget what we learned and end up doing the opposite, and hold opinions the opposite of what we should.”

It is not only enough to read read read read, even though I enjoy learning by reading myself, one must actually do hands on practice of the training process. If you want to start a business at some point you can not keep learning without 'street smarts' or actually just starting the business. In my work in medicine, you can also read much information, but not until you go through the training period and learn all the small differences in management and outcomes can you truly be an expert. There is a book that talks about the need of about 10,000 hours to be an expert in a certain field and after having gone through Medicine, I feel this is pretty accurate. I was not an expert even right out of training, it took me a few years afterwards to truly feel like an expert in my field.

I would say that to anyone in anything that they aspire to be whether its to be an expert in real estate, in medicine, in pizza making, or even shark expert! You need not only the reading, you need to do hands on practice.

Same with stoicism, you can read this blog, and other blogs, and other books, but you must actually practice it to become better, and no one is an expert to start. And like I stated, it takes time (10,000 hours!) to become an expert, so START today with one small aspect if you want, no need to get overwhelmed, just take it one hour at a time!