ERIC KIM

Endure

A thought:

Success is nothing — it’s about endurance.

Endurance is simply “not dying”:

Etymology of “endure”

Endure means to harden. Latin: in-duro (durable). Durus means “hard”, firm, fixed.

Stoic self-hardening

My critique of modern society is that it has made us soft and flabby. We prefer a life of comfort and predictability. However, I believe living a difficult, challenging, and fun life is far more interesting. I like this notion of “going hard”, instead of the opposite (going soft).

You have the control to grow a harder skin

In life, we cannot control the shit that happens to us, but we do have the ability to harden ourselves, to grow a thicker skin. Think about the “harden” move that we can do in Pokémon.

Naturally we harden when we stress and challenge ourselves. For example, the calluses on my hands grow harder in response to deadlifting heavy stuff. My soul hardens and becomes stronger in response to difficulty, pain in my life (antifragile).

To grow stronger, we NEED difficulty, challenge and stress.

Endurance tactics in real life

To endure can mean many things:

  1. Endure difficulty (khó khăn, in Vietnamese; which is actually synonymous with “success”). Thus success can be defined as, “Your ability to endure difficulty”.
  2. Endurance: Endurance as an artist, parent, individual. To stay true to your vision, to not lose courage or heart, and to nor compromise.
  3. Endure: Make artwork, books, ideas, and essays that endure after your death.

Play the long game

What if you lived to be 120 years old in excellent mental and physical health?

How can you play the long game, and endure? How can you stay strong (or get stronger) as you age?

Endure!
ERIC