Excellence is Habitual
We Are The Lucky One!
The air in the quiet, sun-dappled courtyard felt thick with a sense of timeless calm. Sophia sat on a marble bench, her gaze as deep and knowing as a thousand-year-old river. She watched Aristotle approach, his brow slightly furrowed in contemplation, as was his habit.
Sophia: Hello, Aristotle. You seem to carry the weight of observation with you today.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
— Aristotle (384-322 BC)
Aristotle: Sophia. It is the nature of humanity I observe. So many aspire to greatness, yet few attain it. They search for a grand, singular moment of inspiration, a divine act that will transform them.
Sophia: And you have found that the grand moment is a deception. You’ve noted that the true shape of excellence is less dramatic—more akin to the slow, persistent work of a sculptor’s chisel.
Aristotle: Precisely. They pray for the fruit without tending the tree. They believe luck is the sudden strike of lightning. But I see luck differently. I see the one who rises each morning and commits to the thoughtful, difficult practice. Their success isn't a miraculous windfall; it's the inevitable culmination of choices made over and over. They have simply chosen to be the lucky one by building the habit of mastery.
Sophia: You've touched the heart of it. They feel they are waiting for a gift from the cosmos, a chance to be good, or strong, or wise. But the truth is, the cosmos only reflects the work they put in. The consistent effort—the small, daily dedication—that is the only true seed of fortune we can plant.
Aristotle: A seed that requires constant watering. The person who consistently practices virtue becomes virtuous; the one who consistently pursues knowledge becomes wise. It’s not about an innate gift, but about relentless repetition. The fortunate state is simply the result of their excellent habits.
Sophia: Then let us agree, Aristotle. The truly lucky ones are not those to whom something good happens without effort, but those who understand that they must repeatedly do the good, the hard, and the true until success is no longer an accident, but their natural state of being.
Aristotle: Indeed. It seems the greatest wisdom is knowing that we have the power to weave our own fortune, thread by thread, day by day.
What do you think is the most difficult excellent habit for people to maintain in the modern world?
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Heraclitus
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