Amor Fati. Join @Ryan Holiday live in conversation in Canada and Europe this November for The Stoic Life Tour. Learn more and get tickets at ryanholiday.net/tour

I've been reading a lot recently about this species of conifer tree, what's the enemy of a forest? It's a forest fire. So these trees burn up, and you'd think it'd be the worst thing that could happen to them. But the pine cone of this tree, it has to be subjected to extremely high temperatures to be able to unlock. So in fact, it is the fire that unlocks the pine cone that allows the new stand of trees to grow. It's a reminder to me of this very stoic idea of Amor Fati. Amor Fati says that we don't just accept adversity or difficulty, but we embrace it because it unlocks something in us. It's a love of fate, right? Not just to bear what is necessary, Nietzsche said, but to love it.