This principal’s "amor fati"

“Think progress, not perfection.” -Ryan Holiday

Amor fati is the love of one's fate. From Epictetus to Nietzsche, this concept has been around for centuries and is one that I would like to reflect on today. I remember starting as a principal hoping to arrive one day at work and encountering a utopian school with no problems. I remember countless times driving back home wondering why problems kept coming up. At many instances during those first tumultuous years as a principal, I thought of quitting many times. 

I would go home complaining of how I wished things were and on how much better I could do the things I kept failing at repeatedly. 

But the day arrived when I learned that I was attracting all those problems in my life. I was completely rejecting the role and responsibility in my life because I was afraid.

You see, fear is a self-fulfilling prophecy:

"Many are harmed by fear itself, and many may have come to their fate while dreading fate. -Senaca

In The Daily Stoic, we are reminded that "the paranoid often destroy themselves quicker and more spectacularly than any enemy." They also state that "the combination of power, fear, and mania can be deadly" if not controlled.

So one day I let go of fear and started focusing on things I can control. I did learn that the obstacles are the way and decided to tackle them. I learned that one can find beauty in everything and that a truly meaningful life is possible. 

The other day, a group of my peers and I laughed and talked like human beings. Learning sessions from parents jumped from maybe 10 parents present to 30 parents learning virtually. Conversations are more likely to find a positive outcome because people get to see each other when they talk (thus avoiding miscommunications like the one on this sketch). My mother in law gets to see her adult children via plastic screens and she even gets to see her doctor without leaving home.

This principal's love for my own fate has allowed me to come out of Plato's Cave in order to appreciate life's glows and grows.