plato is one of the most famous

philosophers

of all time he represented the

philosophy of ancient greece

belonging to its classical period he was

born into an aristocratic and

influential family in athens where he

founded the academy the first

institution of higher learning in the

entire western world

along with his mentor socrates and his

student aristotle

plato is one of the most influential

individuals in the entire history of

humankind

it can even be said that he is one of

the pillars of western civilization

his philosophy is often referenced as

platonic idealism

and his biggest contribution is the

theory of forms or doctrine of ideas

which asserts that the physical world is

not the real world

instead ultimate reality exists beyond

our physical world

in the world of ideas plato was not only

a prominent figure of philosophy

but also of religion and spirituality

so-called neoplatonism deeply

influencing christian theology

plato invented the written dialogue and

dialectic form of philosophy

some of his most famous books are the

republic

the symposium the apology of socrates

allegory of the cave and the dialogues

of plato

in which the main character is socrates

who influenced plato's philosophy

to a great extent his entire work

has survived for more than 2 400 years

and has remained very popular the entire

time

like his mentor plato was a practical

philosopher

and there are many life lessons to learn

from his philosophy

to help you understand his philosophy

and how it can be applied to your daily

life

here are nine life lessons from the

philosophy

of plato number one

conquer yourself plato says

the first and greatest victory is to

conquer yourself

to be conquered by yourself is of all

things most

shameful and vile plato believed that

conquering yourself

is the greatest victory having a deep

impact in your life

to conquer yourself means according to

plato to not let your instincts and

desires dictate your actions

in his life plato has seen many

athenians taking irrational decisions

being driven by their passions and

desires and not

by good judgment one example is

described in the dialogue between

socrates and phaedras in which they talk

about a man who murdered his wife's

lover erathosthanes

although some passions are positive and

plato through socrates confirmed that

life's greatest blessings flow from the

madness of love

many of our passions are damaging and in

plato's view

the more we diminish our worst passions

the better

if you don't control yourself your

worldly passions and desires will blind

you

making you take irrational decisions

jeopardizing your future

you might get temporary satisfaction by

following your heart's desires and

impulses

but you'll suffer in the long term

before doing anything

ask yourself whether or not what you

intend to do

is beneficial to your life and to the

lives of others you care about

for example if you're a smoker and you

know smoking is detrimental to your

health in the long

run but you can't quit it means you're

not able to conquer yourself

your impulses make you buy and smoke

cigarettes every day

you lost the battle over yourself and

according to plato

this is the most shameful and vile thing

to regain control over your life to

reconquer yourself

you need to do everything you can to

resist the temptation

to buy new cigarettes there are many

methods to give up smoking

for some people nicotine gums and

patches help take the edge off gradually

for others the only way that works is

going cold turkey

and stopping entirely immediately

whatever works for you make a plan and

implement it in order to conquer

yourself

number two being angry solves

nothing according to plato

there are two things a person should

never be angry

at what they can help and what they

cannot

anger is a negative emotion which we

should avoid

it's much better to use reason and

calmly evaluate a situation

instead of getting angry and damaging

your relationships

by using reason you evaluate the problem

more objectively

when you use reason to analyze a

situation

you rise up to a superior level the

level of ideas

and you can come closer to the truth of

that situation

there are two types of problems in life

those which you can solve

and those which you can't regarding the

problems you can solve

there's nothing to get angry about just

make a plan to find the solution

implement it and go with it if the

problem cannot be solved

then the only thing you can do is to

accept it

and adjust your life accordingly for

example

if you have a small business and you

find out that your accountant has stolen

a lot of money from you

look at the situation and ask yourself

is there a way i can solve this problem

you might come up with the idea that you

can report the theft to the police

get him arrested and have him face a

court of law

but if you don't have enough written

evidence to prove the accountant stole

from you

and he refuses to return the money

you're left with just one

option to fire him never talk to him

again

and try to avoid similar people in

future

therefore when you're confronted with a

problem and you've exhausted

every possible solution don't waste time

and energy being angry

just accept the situation and move on

number three choose the people you spend

time with

wisely to quote plato

people are like dirt they can either

nourish you and help you grow as a

person

or they can stunt your growth and make

you wilt and die

spending his life in the public arena

being born into an aristocratic and

influential family descending from the

king of athens

codrus plato was a popular individual

with many acquaintances and friends

he rightly understood the tremendous

influence

other people can have on us a bad

alliance can destroy your life

a good alliance can lead you to the

greatest peaks of success

therefore there are few things as

important as the skill of choosing the

people

you spend time with you might think that

you don't have much control over this

for example when you have a job where

you meet the same people over and over

again

it's not in your power to choose who'll

be fired or employed

being in a long-term relationship one

can feel pressured to stick around

even when they mistreat and don't

respect you

similarly you cannot choose your

relatives yet for many of us it's a

given that you have a duty to keep in

touch with them and visit them

at least during the holidays but you

might be wrong

it is in your power to leave a job where

you don't like the people or culture

you can almost always find a better job

with a higher quality of people

or you can start your own business and

hire only people you like

equally it might be daunting but your

partner doesn't own you

and you can always leave and start again

no matter what

nor is it mandatory to meet with your

relatives with whom you don't have

anything in common beyond blood

we have more power to choose the people

we spend time with

than we think if we don't choose them

carefully their influence will affect

our lives in negative ways

a bad boss will diminish your

self-confidence and make you doubt your

abilities

a bad spouse can make you feel insecure

and insignificant

bad relatives can make you stressed and

miserable

by contrast a good boss will make you

feel like your skills are improving

daily

a good spouse will make you feel

attractive and loved

good relatives will make you feel like

you're a part of the family

respected and loved number four

find your other half the words of plato

each of us then is a matching half of a

human whole

and each of us is always seeking the

half that matches him

plato wrote that initially people had

four legs

four arms and a single head with two

faces

having a quasi-spherical shape and no

sex

they were androgynous but because they

started to become

very powerful zeus got angry and split

people in half to diminish their

strengths

since then people have felt incomplete

and they're always searching for their

other half

to complete them thus plato was the

first philosopher

to discuss the concept of a soulmate

aristophanes who is known as the father

of comedy in his speech from plato's

symposium

gave a detailed explanation of why

people in love

say they feel whole when they found

their partner

the love they feel for each other is not

only a physical attraction

led by the desire to physically reunite

to become a whole

it's something deeper also in

aristophanes speech

homosexuals are explained as people who

are split in half

but both halves happen to be the same

gender

in ancient greek society homosexuality

was generally seen in a favorable way

he also claims that when a person truly

finds their other half

that they never want to be separated

from them ever again

to apply this teaching in our own lives

we should never stop searching for our

soulmate

until we feel that we found somebody

from whom we never want to be separated

again

and we don't feel any desire to be

unfaithful to

as a checklist you can use the following

they're your best friend you have a

sense of calm and

ease around them you feel at home when

you're together

you have extreme empathy and respect for

them

you agree on the most important things

you share

similar life goals and you can be

totally yourself in their presence

you just want to be around each other if

they check

all these boxes chances are

you've found your soulmate number five

get involved in politics

plato notes one of the penalties for

refusing to participate

in politics is that you end up being

governed by your inferiors

although athens was the first democracy

in the world

plato never liked democracy when

socrates died after being imprisoned for

corrupting the youth of athens with his

philosophical wisdom

plato was deeply saddened concluding

that democracy is

antithetical to philosophy plato

described his distaste for democracy

with this analogy

imagine a ship where the owner is the

strongest man on the ship

but doesn't know how to sail there are

other sailors on board

but they're quarreling with each other

without coming to a conclusion

and then there's a navigator who knows

the direction but doesn't have any

desire for leadership

in plato's metaphor the owner is a

common citizen

the strongest the most powerful but

ultimately clueless

sailors are the politicians who keep

quarreling without coming to any

conclusion

and the navigator is the philosopher the

most

knowledgeable person but has no will to

take control of the situation

he identified that the real problem with

democracy

is that it gives equal chances to people

who are not equal in skills and

knowledge

and thus produces poor leaders who make

poor decisions that can destroy the

state

it was of the opinion that society

should be composed of three groups

first the plebs the most inferior then

the

soldiers to keep the society under

control and then

the rulers who should always be

philosophers

the lower classes should have no say

whatsoever in how the state was to run

and whether the philosophers the most

knowledgeable people at that time

should become the rulers although

athenian democracy is different from

modern democracy

plato's criticism of democracy remains

relevant even today

especially regarding the fact that in a

democracy the opinion of a less informed

and less educated person

weighs the same as the opinion of a

highly educated and informed person

if the educated and informed don't get

involved in politics

then the political roles will be taken

up by the remaining populace

and that can ruin a country so if you

have the reputation of a good citizen

and you have many years of professional

experience proving over those years that

you're a good leader

and capable of managing complex projects

you might consider running for mayor or

the equivalent in your community

be it a small town or bigger city

having achieved several accomplishments

in your life and knowing yourself as a

capable person

you should consider that it's your

responsibility to join the area of

politics

don't refrain from public life otherwise

you increase the chances of being

governed by people less capable than you

but more popular democracy offers great

opportunities for each of us

but it has its flaws in order to avoid

important roles being filled by the less

capable of us

the most capable should step up try to

be more popular

and take the responsibility of a

governing position

number six learn to be a follower

then a master plato tells us

he who is not a good servant will not be

a good master as a teacher in charge of

conducting the prestigious school he

himself founded

the academy plato knew that to be a

great teacher

you first need to be a great student

something that applies to any job to

reach a managerial position

first you need to be highly experienced

at the job you plan to manage

leadership roles are usually earned

through hard work and dedication

people must first proof their skills

demonstrate their knowledge before

they're put in charge of other staff

of course in the modern world there are

many exceptions where managerial

positions are awarded

without the appropriate skill set or

experience

but in an egalitarian less corrupted

society

it's through hard work and dedication

that one gets a leadership

position for example if you work in an

industrial company as a general worker

you can acquire a leadership position

if you prove every day that you're very

reliable

can work autonomously always fulfill

your obligations

you're polite but tough in your work and

you keep yourself and your colleagues

accountable

if this describes you an occasion may

well arise for a promotion

for example your manager leaving the

company or changing roles

your employers might select you if

you've proven to be the best follower

thus to be a master one must learn to be

a great

follower number seven

be content with little nato teaches us

the greatest wealth is to live content

with little

according to plato if you have a roof

over your head

food in your mouth and you can walk to

work you're wealthy enough

any excess of these will not make you

happier

too often we're chasing the material

things in life

but these things will not make us

happier plato was a wealthy individual

but he understood that it's not the

richness that made him happy

sometimes only when you're rich do you

really understand that money doesn't

bring lasting happiness

being happy with little will assure you

happiness

therefore it's very important to

cultivate gratitude

to bless everything we have in our lives

no matter how

insignificant it may appear for example

if you live in a studio in a poor

neighborhood be content that you have

shelter

be grateful for the bed you sleep in for

the window through which you see the

morning sun

be happy to live in a neighborhood where

you can find anything you need

the supermarket the pharmacy and so on

don't be resentful of people with a lot

of money living in expensive villas and

having expensive cars

their wealth is only apparent it's

impossible to know

how happy they really are they might

have vast debts and financial

commitments

a miserable family life or suffer from

drug abuse

you with your little happy family living

in a tiny house

and using the subway to go to work might

actually be

much happier than those seemingly

wealthier people

as long as you learn to be grateful for

every little thing and you have shelter

enough food and you're able to walk and

work

your happiness is assured you have

enough wealth

in your life number eight

be in charge of your own happiness

as we learn from plato the man who makes

everything that leads to happiness

depend upon himself

and not upon other men has adopted

the very best plan for living happily

plato was not a hedonist he didn't

believe that the pursuit of pleasure is

the most important thing in life

rather he was interested in knowing the

true essence of reality

emphasizing the importance of wisdom

moderation

and hard work however he acknowledged

the importance of living a happy life

which he thought is a life lived in

moderation and in which your happiness

does not depend on

other people but on yourself if you make

your life depend on somebody or

something else for example

you say to yourself i'll be happy when i

marry this or that person or

i'll be happy when i get rich and famous

then you're dooming yourself to live an

anxious life in which you'll always be

afraid of losing the person you love

or not attaining the material success

you wish for

if by contrast you construct your

happiness based on a set of routines

which

makes you happy on a daily basis you

won't experience the extreme ups and

downs of life

you'll have a peaceful and much happier

life than other people on average

to apply this teaching to your life make

a list of every activity which makes you

happy

for example walking in the park with

your dog or

going hiking in nature close to where

you live listening to music while

cleaning the house

going to a museum reading great books

every day and so on

after making this list make sure you

check each activity

every week making your happiness

independent of what happens in your

personal relationships or

in your career will secure a safety net

for your emotional well-being

and will help you avoid having too many

low moments

in your life number nine

work hard to accomplish great things

in our final quote from plato for this

video he says

i never did anything worth doing by

accident

nor did any of my inventions come by

accident

they came by work

although he was a promoter of living a

simple life and being content with

little

during his lifetime plato was a

hard-working individual

he believed that it's important to

contribute to society as much as you can

as long as your work is not motivated by

ambition for ambition's sake

during his lifetime plato accomplished a

great number of things

he was the innovator of written dialogue

and dialectic forms in philosophy

and he's considered the founder of

western political philosophy

being one of the most famous thinkers in

the entire history of humankind

it would have been impossible for him to

achieve all of this without working hard

usually nothing worth doing can be done

easily

you can't get a great sense of

accomplishment by doing trivial things

like binge watching tv

endlessly scrolling through social media

or partying with your friends

the things you're proud of the things

that are worth doing

those take plenty of planning and no

small amount of effort

to apply plato's lesson in our lives we

need to focus more on challenging

projects

and work hard to accomplish great things

with these projects

for example imagine you have a stable

job as a delivery driver but you find it

repetitive

monotonous and unfulfilling in order to

feel some satisfaction in your life

you might decide to start a new project

for example

learning a new skill or language by

signing up for online classes

or joining a community group such as a

theater company or choir

all of which can open you up to new

opportunities and ideas you'd never

considered before

hard work when doubled by great planning

will lead to great rewards

and satisfaction

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