The Nicomachean Ethics Review (Change Your Life With Aristotle's Virtues)

What if I told you that you could completely change your life for the better in just 3 months?

In 3 months, you will have entered the elite.

You’ll be in better shape, looking and feeling the best you’ve ever felt.
You’ll have deeper friendships and relationships.
You’ll deal with challenges in healthier ways.
You’ll have pride for your work and your life.
You’ll be more charming and charismatic.
You’ll be less scared of life.
You’ll treat people better.
You’ll be less angry.
You’ll be happier.

This is a 12-week program structured week-by-week with challenges that will change your character, bring your core values to the surface, and result in you being a force for good in the world.

Change is a part of life.

You can either let it happen to you, which will result in feelings of being overwhelmed and anxious that life isn’t going the way you want.

Let life happen to you and disappointment is the only outcome, along with getting older every year and watching people around you fall away, try to cling to the same old habits, or change and surpass you.

Or you can admit it’s time to change.

It’s time to become like the phoenix.

It’s time to burst into flames and rise from the ashes.

A lot can happen in 12 weeks.

You can change your life. But you have to want it. And you have to want it right now.

You have to commit to making this either your number one or number two goal for the next 3 months.

That’s a season of the year. A season you’ll look back on fondly as a season of positive change.

We’re going to do it together. There’s a plan laid out for you. It’s called the Virtuous Life Challenge.

So much self-help is focused on trying to control externals. Faking it until you make it. But real change needs to come from deep within.

If you’re dissatisfied because you’re not reaching your goals, you need some different goals and a different approach.

It’s time to take back your character and become a principled, virtuous human being like all the greatest humans in history.

Whatever goals you currently have (financial, relationship, health), following this program will assist in the background with achieving these.

The Virtuous Life Challenge

We’re hungry for virtue.

Today, more than any other time in history, people have a lack of virtuous role models in their lives.

We lack meaning, yet crave it.

We’re hyper-aware that something is missing, and we want to do something about it.

We want to get better. Be better. We want to live good lives, be good people, and have a positive impact on the world.

We’re starved for meaningful connections but don’t know how to develop them.

Thousands flock to Dr. Jordan Peterson’s lectures. Ryan Holiday’s stoic writings top the bestseller lists. Man’s Search for Meaning is flying off the shelves.

There’s revolution in the air. People are sick of quick fixes. We’re tired of bullshit. We hate how fake the world has become. We want the real stuff and we want it now.

We want to live a virtuous life.

We need the virtues Aristotle outlined in The Nicomachean Ethics now more than ever.

You change the world by changing yourself. And you can change yourself for the better by habitually acting virtuously.

Aristotle lists 12 main virtues:

Aren’t you fucking tired of just passively accepting life?

Aren’t you sick to your stomach with how you behave each and every day of your life?

It’s your freaking life and you only get one of them.

But day in, day out you flee from responsibility, you let down the people you love, you act like a coward and rationalise your pussy behaviour later.

You lie. Not just to others, making yourself sound better than you are and being faux-humble with the things you actually do well, but you lie to yourself.

You tell yourself you’ll start tomorrow. You slouch when you walk. You let your emotions get the better of you – anger, jealousy, sadness, every passing mood dictating how you act in the world. You give in to shallow pleasure. You even get upset when you’re denied pleasure.

But you aren’t destined for this.

You’re destined for greatness.

You’ve been gifted with endless potential, the potential to be a light in the world, to be someone that others follow and look up to.

It’s time to stop putting it off.

The day to transform is today.

It’s time to stop being average, to stop lying to yourself, to stop falling short of your potential.

It’s time to burst into flames and morph into a new reincarnation, to rise from the flames like the phoenix, to rise from the grave like Christ, to rise like the sun after endless night.

It’s time to become virtuous.

How to become virtuous:

The only way to become virtuous is to do virtuous things on a consistent basis.

We are only what we do.

We are not what we think or feel.

It all comes down to action.

If a man does some DIY at home, in that moment in which he wields the hammer, he is a builder.

If that man builds things every day, he is a builder.

You are not a builder if you merely think about building something.

You are not a writer if you don’t write consistently.

Take a year off from making art because you’re blocked creatively and you cease to be an artist.

We are what we do.

We are what we practice.

We are our habits and actions.

And for most of our lives we’ve been practising the wrong things.

If you don’t consciously practice the virtues until they become habitual, you are not virtuous.

And if you’re not practicing the virtues, you’re practicing the opposite – the vices.

We’ll rationalise lying in the moment if it gets us out of trouble.

No big deal, right?

But once you’ve lied once, you’ve practiced lying. You become better at it. It becomes your default, your go-to for hard times. It becomes harder to be truthful.

And the more you practice, the more you become that which so many abhor: a liar.

If you practice doing cowardly things, you’re a coward.

If you routinely give in to your foul moods, you are a self-indulgent person.

Habits are hard to form but harder to break.

So every time you practice something, you dig a deeper ditch in your soul.

The trenches through which your life-blood flows become harder to escape from.

Here’s what we’re going to do.

We’re going to become virtuous one day at a time by focusing single-mindedly on mastering and making just one virtue habitual.

If we say there are twelve virtues, it’s impossible to become virtuous in all of them at the same time.

But if we designate one week to each virtue, within one year we would have given four weeks of attention to each virtue and we will feel like a cohesive whole.

We’ll be strong.

People will marvel at our transformation.

You would have become a virtuous person.

This is what Benjamin Franklin did a couple of centuries ago.

He designed a self-improvement program for himself so that he could become virtuous.

Franklin had thirteen virtues, many of which were close to Aristotle’s virtues and some of which were particular to Franklin’s personality and where he saw room for personal improvement.

This is what we wrote about his scheme of virtues in his autobiography (bolded text by me):

I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into […] But I soon found that I had undertaken a task of great difficulty, and I therefore contrived the following method. I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurred to me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which expressed the extent which I gave to its meaning […] My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I determined to give a week’s strict attention to each of them successively, thus going through a complete course in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year. I had a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues; the page was ruled into days of the week, and I marked in it, by a little black spot, every fault I found by examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day […] I was surprised to find myself much fuller of faults than I had imagined, but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish. After a while I went through one course only in a year, and afterwards only one in several years, till at length I omitted them entirely; but I always carried my little book with me.

Simply put, Franklin drew up a schedule with the virtues he wanted to acquire.

He concentrated on one virtue per week.

Each day he made a mark next to the virtue whenever he failed in it.

For example, if he failed the virtue of sincerity he would put a little black mark.

He was surprised to see his pages dirtied with black marks, but was also satisfied to see the longer he went through the cycles the less black marks stained his paper – until he would have weeks where he wouldn’t have to put a mark at all, a sign that he was acquiring that virtue.

Franklin also asked himself two questions each day.

At the beginning of the day, he asked himself, “What good shall I do this day?”
At the end of the day, he asked himself, “What good have I done this day?”

It would be at these periods of time that, in addition to looking over the plans for the day, he would have acquainted himself with the virtue to be exercised that day.

He set his intention in the morning. And before he went to bed he gave himself a review.

We’re going to follow Franklin’s example, using the original virtues outlined by Aristotle.

Every week you will get a guide to ONE of Aristotle’s virtues.

We’ll talk you through it, what it means, what the opposite of the virtue is, and we’re going to give you a plan of action so you can focus on that one virtue for the week.

These won’t be big emails, just a few sentences to get you thinking a little bit about the virtue. And you’re encouraged to reply back with your answer or write your answer down somewhere else (in a document or a journal or vocalise it in an audio recording or video).

For example, during the week in which we focus on truthfulness, each day I’ll send you a question on the nature of truth to ponder.

You might want to journal a response.

You might want to just think about it during your commute.

It’s basically just a little reminder to keep you focused.

You can sign up to the Virtue Newsletter to keep accountable.

If you’re interested in going real deep on this, I recommend you check out this translation of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.

It’s not a complete requirement though, because the book is pretty heavy and I’m going to break down the important stuff in easy-to-understand chunks here anyway.

So let’s talk a bit more about virtues.

Firstly…

Why live a virtuous life?

Because you only get one life.

Do it right.

It’s the key to happiness.

And happiness is the art of living well.

Living a virtuous life is the same as living a life of principle.

When you lose everything else, when everything else crumbles, when life turns to shit, when people betray you, when loved ones die, when you feel the harsh reality of being alone in a cold uncaring world, your virtues, your principles, your inner compass will comfort you.

It’s the spirit inside you that will keep you warm.

Religious people call this God. Christians talk about the Holy Spirit. You don’t need to be religious, you don’t even need to be spiritual, to feel the grace of God within you.

You can be a complete atheist and still feel the presence of God surging through you – you do this by accessing your inner power.

Your inner power is your invincible ability to choose.

You can be a force for good in the world, to use a phrasing from Dr. Jordan Peterson.

You can be better tomorrow than today, meet better quality people and have better relationships, put work into the world that you’re proud of and have a positive impact.

And all you have to do is live each day as it comes and focus on one virtue per week.

Some might argue, “Why me? Why do I have to do this stuff when others get by living like shitty people?”

There’s a Bible quote that answers this (to emphasise, I am not religious but the Bible is one of the greatest self-help books ever written and I believe everyone would benefit from some acquaintance with it):

The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blow. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (Luke 12:47-59)

You’re here because you already know what you need to do.

You know what your “master’s will” (that fire within you, your conscience, your soul) is commanding you.

You have been given much, therefore much is demanded of you.

You have been entrusted with much, so much will be asked of it.

With great power comes great responsibility, to paraphrase a quote from Spiderman.

If you turn away now, you will suffer.

You are what you repeatedly do.

I cannot emphasise this enough. It bears repeating again and again.

Aristotle said, “to virtue belongs virtuous activity.”

You are not virtuous if you don’t do virtuous things.

Many people see themselves as good people because they don’t wish people any specific harm or they wish people well, but without action it’s pointless.

You might as well be asleep because, in Aristotle’s words, “the state of mind may exist without producing any good result”.

Activity, on the other hand, can produce good results.

This is why Gracian in How to Use Your Enemies advises, “good words, better deeds”.

There’s a great passage in C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. The book is a collection of letters written from one devil to a younger apprentice devil giving advice about how to corrupt humans, make them evil, and secure their place in hell. The older devil gives the younger devil this advice concerning his man, the one the devil is in charge of ruining. For clarity, the “Enemy” is God:

Think of your man as a series of concentric circles, his will being the innermost, his intellect coming next, and finally his fantasy. You can hardly hope, at once, to exclude from all the circles everything that smells of the Enemy: but you must keep on showing all the virtues outward till they are finally located in the circle of fantasy, and all the desirable qualities inward into the Will. It is only in so far as they reach the Will and are there embodied in habits that the virtues are really fatal to us.

Virtues mean nothing when you fantasise about them.

It’s only when you will them into existence that you have a shot at destroying the evil in your life.

Aristotle says that “those who act win, and rightly win, the noble and good things in life.”

All you have to do, in Matthew’s words, is “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you”.

How to achieve happiness:

During this virtue program, you might need to rewire that which you find pleasurable.

Aristotle says:

for most men their pleasures are in conflict with one another because these are not by nature pleasant, but the lovers of what is noble find pleasant the things that are by nature pleasant; and virtuous actions are such, so that these are pleasant for such men as well as in their own nature.

You must rejoice in noble actions because:

the man who does not rejoice in noble actions is not even good.

Do you seek happiness?

Nothing wrong with that, but how do you define happiness?

If you define it as noble and virtuous actions and taking pleasure in noble and virtuous actions, then pursue it with all your might.

Happiness then is the best, noblest, and most pleasant thing in the world.

Happiness, though seemingly a god-given product of luck and chance, is actually something you need to learn and achieve through habits.

People complain that they’re not happy, but these people aren’t trying to learn how to be happy, nor are they taking actions that will increase their happiness.

You need to strive consciously to be happy.

Most people don’t realise this and just passively accept their states and moods, thinking some external thing will come along to temporarily make them “happy”.

But, as Aristotle says, “To entrust to chance what is greatest and most noble would be a very defective arrangement.”

You create your own happiness.

What are virtues?

Moral virtue, like the arts, is acquired by repetition of the corresponding acts.

There are two kinds of virtue: moral and intellectual.

You get intellectual virtues through teaching and learning.

But moral virtue is achieved through habit.

Moral virtue comes about as a result of habit.

We acquire virtues by habit.

Interesting lexical point – habit in greek is ēthikē which is where we get ‘ethics’ from. Virtue/ethics is acquired by habit.

Fix your habits and you can become morally virtuous.

It’s not about learning anything but rather implementing things regularly that you already know.

You can also practice well and badly.

If you get habituated to bad behaviour you become a bad person. Like a musician who is practicing their scales badly becomes a bad musician.

the virtues we get by first exercising them, as also happens in the case of the arts as well.

Make your life an artistic performance.

You will only get the virtues by doing them/acting in accordance to them.

Virtues don’t come to you by nature without you having to do anything.

You have the tools with which to accept the virtues, but it’s up to you to get them going and implement them.

the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them, e.g. men become builders by building and lyre-players by playing the lyre; so too we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

Do you feel cowardly?

Doesn’t matter if you do brave acts, you’re brave.

Do you feel like you have an anger problem?

Doesn’t matter if you act in a calm manner, you are calm, solid, unshakeable.

Basic main principles of Aristotle’s virtues:

The first principle to keep in mind is that living virtuously is more an art than a science.

You must listen to your inner sense of correct reason and, in the words of Aristotle, “in each case consider what is appropriate to the occasion.”

Although we say virtuous living is more art than science, even looking to the scientific realms you can see where this is the case too.

Aristotle gives the examples of medicine and navigation.

In learning how to live virtuously, you must become your own physician, your own pilot, and navigate as you see best fit in each unique instance.

YOU are the programmer, the pilot, at the helms of the ship of your virtuous life, turning with the waves as they crash and fall around you.

The next main principle of the virtues is the idea of “the mean”.

You exercise a virtue by avoiding the “excess and defect”.

Think of a line with the virtue being bang in the middle (the mean) and the vices on either ends of the extreme.

You want to get as close to the middle as possible and try to hit that virtue.

Just remember: virtues = the mean.

Excess and deficiency are both bad, the virtue is in the middle between too much and too little.

If you run in fear of everything, you’re a coward.

If you go guns blazing into every dangerous situation without any fear, you’re reckless.

If you’re between those two extremes, you’re BRAVE.

Why are virtues in the middle?

Because excess and defect is destructive by nature.

Aristotle gives a few examples:

Excessive and defective exercise both destroy strength
Excessive and defective food destroys health
Proportionate exercise and food increases and preserves health

So just in the same way we would construct a sensible workout and nutrition plan for ourselves to become stronger and healthier, we are devising a strength training program for the soul.

Along the way, you will need to learn to take pleasure in doing virtuous acts.

Aristotle says that this is “a sign that the virtuous disposition has been acquired”.

First, we will establish the habits of acting virtuously, and then we will learn to love acting virtuously, gaining pleasure and happiness from doing the right thing.

This is the difference between doing virtuous things and being virtuous.

For example, according to Aristotle:

the man who abstains from bodily pleasures and delights in this very fact is temperate, while the man who is annoyed at it is self-indulgent, and he who stands his ground against things that are terrible and delights in this or at least is not pained is brave, while the man who is pained is a coward.

How do you know when you’ve become virtuous?

You take pleasure in virtuous actions.

If you delight in taking brave actions, and are not pained by them, you have acquired the virtue of bravery.

If you take pleasure in abstaining from bodily delights, you have acquired the virtue of temperance, but if you are annoyed at having to forgo physical pleasure, you aren’t temperate, you don’t have that virtue, you are merely self-indulgent.

Why?

Because “moral virtue is concerned with pleasures and pains; it is on account of the pleasure that we do bad things, and on account of the pain that we abstain from noble ones.”

If you do just and temperate acts, you are just and temperate.

You are just and temperate in the moment in which you are performing those acts.

If you do just and temperate acts consistently and habitually you can be said to be a just and temperate person. A virtuous person.

According to Aristotle, you must also be in a certain condition when taking the virtuous actions:

You must have knowledge
You must choose the acts
You must choose them for their own sakes
Your actions must come from a solid and unchangeable character

Virtues are states of character, not passions or emotions.

the virtue of man also will be the state of character which makes a man good and which makes him do his own work well.

No one’s saying it’s easy to be virtuous.

In fact, it’s very hard.

It’s difficult to hit the mean, but so easy to hit the defect or excess.

Aristotle says:

men are good in but one way, but bad in many.

It’s hard to hit the intermediate position, but we are praised and successful when we do.

No one praises those who drink excessively, likewise no one is praised for starving themselves – but between the two extremes, hitting temperance, is praised.

When you strive after a virtue, think about what actions and choices would be praiseworthy in your particular situation.

Virtues are doing things “to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way.”

And this kind of goodness “is both rare and laudable and noble.”

Virtue is voluntary action.

If you do something because a tyrant has your wife and kids chained up and they will be put to death if you don’t do it, your actions can’t said to be voluntary.

So if you’re doing something because you fear a greater evil, rather than doing it voluntarily and with choice, it could be argued that you are not being virtuous, even if you do a virtuous act.

Remember that “virtue and vice are in our power.”

You always have the power to choose between good and evil.

And that’s what this program is all about.

We’re going to start exercising our power to choose the right thing.

We’re going to get stronger.

We’re going to live a life of virtue and become virtuous people.

That about covers the introduction to this virtue series.

That’s the main stuff you need to know.

You’ll learn a lot more in the weeks ahead.

Not just from the twelve parts to come in this virtue series but through putting it all into action yourself.

You’ll learn more about yourself, other people, and the nature of the world in these twelve weeks than you ever had before.

It’s going to be uncomfortable.

You’re going to stretch yourself.

But it will be so rewarding and you will feel yourself walking the right path.

It’s time to be beacon of light in the world.

Ready to get started?

Of course you are.

Grab yourself a schedule/planner/calendar/something to keep track of the days and pencil in your virtues for each week.

The virtues we’re going to focus on week by week are:

Once you’ve done that, sign up to the virtue email newsletter if you want extra reminders and accountability.

You’ll get an email each week for the next virtue you will concentrate on.

You’ll also get mini daily meditations and reflections about each virtue – something to keep you thinking throughout your day. And you’re encouraged to reply to them, either by emailing me back or writing it down in your own journal.

There are three components to this virtue challenge:

Some sort of wristband. There’s a popular challenge where people try to stop complaining by moving a wristband from one arm to another whenever they complain. They attempt to keep the wristband on the same arm for as long as possible. We’ll do the same thing but we’ll move the wristband whenever we catch ourselves slipping in the virtue.
A journal. This can be a paper journal, a video log, or a word document. Just have something so you can keep yourself thinking about what you’re doing. You’ll learn so much more this way. Reflection will cut down the amount of time it takes to acquire these virtues.
The article series. You can join the newsletter if you want or just bookmark the articles so you can return to them whenever you need. They will be your guide. You will get assignments related to the virtue you’re focusing on for the week. You’ll also get a reading assignment that will help you integrate the virtue and improve your life. If you following the reading homework, you’ll have read at least 12 new life-changing books in addition to becoming a better person by the end of the program.
Optional: a buddy. Get a friend or loved one involved. Having someone you can share the experience with will be so much deeper and more rewarding. You can debate with each other, pick each other’s brains, and motivate each other. If you can’t find one, don’t worry. You still have my words as your guide. I’m going through the entire 12-week program myself right along with you and will be documenting my pains and successes.

Done that?

Great. Now proceed to the first virtue and the first week of your new life.

We’re starting with courage.

I wish you all the best. Let’s rise together from the ashes.

Benjamin McEvoy