{"id":380,"date":"2023-08-18T11:06:15","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T18:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/?p=380"},"modified":"2023-08-18T11:06:15","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T18:06:15","slug":"reasoned-choice-is-invincible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/the-daily-stoic\/08\/18\/reasoned-choice-is-invincible\/","title":{"rendered":"Reasoned Choice Is Invincible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;A good person is invincible, for they don&#8217;t rush into contests in which they aren&#8217;t the strongest.  If you want their property, take it \u2014 take also their staff, profession, and body.  But you will never compel what they set out for, nor trap them in what they would avoid.  For the only contest the good person enters is that of their own reasoned choice.  How can such a person not be invincible?&#8221;<\/p><cite>EPICTETUS, <em>DISCOURSES<\/em>, 3.6.5-7<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>If you &#8216;take on all comers&#8217;, if you meet every challenger on the battlefield no matter the odds and without hesitation \u2014 well, you&#8217;re going to lose a lot of battles and suffer some heavy damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today&#8217;s quote in The Daily Stoic advises <em>against<\/em> this course of action.  Instead, think twice.  <em>Don&#8217;t<\/em> join every battle.  <em>Don&#8217;t<\/em> accept every challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We all have weaknesses \u2014 don&#8217;t allow them to be exploited.  Don&#8217;t allow yourself to be taken advantage of.  Don&#8217;t put yourself in situations where you&#8217;re not likely to succeed.  &#8220;Choose your battles&#8221; is the common phrase here, and it is the wise choice and not at all dishonorable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You do have a secret weapon to help you choose wisely!  It&#8217;s your <strong>reasoned choice, and it is the only part of you that can be invincible<\/strong> in this arena.  Use it to your advantage in helping you choose which contests to enter, and which to avoid.  Your reasoned choice will help you dodge unnecessary risk and protect your interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don&#8217;t take all challenges and accept every request to do battle.  Your reasoned choice is the discretion you need to choose wisely and be invincible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[214,298,74,193,297,284,300,241,299,42],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2361,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions\/2361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}