Why we don’t see much ‘spirit’ these days

Pushing through adversity–spirit–is rare because of how it’s made.

Seneca wrote, “This is the touchstone of such a spirit; no prizefighter can go with high spirits into the strife if he has never been beaten black and blue; the only contestant who can confidently enter the lists is the man who has seen his own blood, who has felt his teeth rattle beneath his opponent’s fist, who has been tripped and felt the full force of his adversary’s charge, who has been downed in body but not in spirit, one who, as often as he falls, rises again with greater defiance than ever.”

The great irony, then, is that spirit breeds spirit, much like strength breeds strength.

On teams doing important work, fear becomes spirit if you push through it. If we don’t push, it simply becomes more fear.