“Virtue is nothing else but right reason” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Seneca was born over 2000 years ago in Spain and was subsequently educated in Rome. He had a highly successful, and quite dramatic, political career in Imperial Rome. In his essay, On the Happy Life, Seneca talks about happiness and how a person must live to achieve it. Seneca believed that happiness is not attained through pleasures but through VIRTUE.
A person striving for happiness cherishes honor, accepts his fate, and realizes that they help create the greatest good. Seneca also said that a truly happy person has the right judgment, which meant that they do not follow the crowd and do not imitate what others do; the happy person finds out the best thing to do, not the most popular or common thing. In other words, Seneca believed that true happiness is established through virtue, not pleasures.
I believe Seneca would be proud of our INVICTUS family, because to a person we all strive for happiness, but we get there through the path of integrity, honor and commitment to our families, our fellow man and our great Nation. That said, our country still has challenges ahead and it will be people like the Unconquered of Invictus, who always do “the best thing to do” who can make a difference and help guide others to true happiness based on our virtuous natures.
In fact, 300 years before Seneca, Aristotle himself described the following 12 virtues to live by:
| 1. | Courage – bravery | 7. | Patience – calm | |||
| 2. | Temperance – moderation | 8. | Friendliness – social IQ | |||
| 3. | Liberality – benevolence | 9. | Truthfulness – honesty | |||
| 4. | Magnificence – charisma | 10. | Wit – humor | |||
| 5. | Magnanimity – generosity | 11. | Modesty – ego | |||
| 6. | Ambition – pride | 12. | Justice – sense of right | |||
So, following Aristotle and Seneca’s lead, I challenge all the Spartans of Invictus to approach your lives with bravery of conviction, temperance in your interaction with others, be benevolent and accepting of those around you, be charismatic in your influence, while being generous to a fault. Be ambitious in your careers and strive for success, but keep your pride in check, while maintaining a calm within the storm of life’s daily encounters. Be friendly and respectful of others and approach all with an honesty in your actions and speech. Live with humor, no ego and always strive up the path of the righteous.
If indeed you embrace this approach, I believe we will all find true Happiness through VIRTUE!
As we are positively affecting change with our clients and have become their go-to Spartans helping to Defend the Gates…so too can we magnificently influence those around us toward a brighter and better future…always together…always Remaining Unconquered.
I am so proud of all of you. God bless and keep you all healthy, happy and safe.
Jim