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Reading Quotes

Sometimes you come across a quote that seems like God was sending wisdom your way because how badly you need it. For me a few days ago it was “Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting — Sun Tzu

While I am neither dealing with a specific enemy's resistance nor seeking to achieve supreme excellence, these are the words that I still needed to process. The equivalent of the enemy in my situation are a set of circumstances I have going on - some of my own choice and making, others not as much. Since they make me quite restless and uncomfortable, they could be construed as adversarial or inimical. 

My initial instinct is to run away from things that make me feel this way and when that is not an option the situation becomes hard to tolerate - much like if were an enemy putting up a strong resistance and thwarting my desired action. So there is the question of how to cope instead of what my natural tendencies dictate. That is where the idea of supreme excellence as an aspirational goal is very helpful. Reading this made me think of all the ways I could break down that resistance and it turns out that I can make some headway. It will not solve all issues but I would have still progressed towards excellence. 

The only other way I have come across random pieces of well-timed wisdom is by chatting with young kids whenever I meet them. It seems like they see more than they can explain, are wise in ways that we forget as we get older. Often they will say things that brings me a lot of clarity.

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