What is an unbreakable mindset? Marcus Aurelius was something special, a philosopher-emperor. He spent most of his life in seriously troubled times, fighting against the barbarians, dealing with constant plots against him at home. Let's say he was kept a little busier than today's politicians
The most powerful man in the world at his time lived the life of a Stoic; he was able to reflect, access and improve.
I stumbled across Stoicism in the last year; there are some invaluable concepts which are applicable today as they were then.
So what is the Inner Citadel?
In simple terms, it's a fortress inside of us that no external adversary can break down. A fantastic description and story of building an inner fortress is a book by Viktor Frankl called Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor describes his desperate journey through the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.
This Inner Fortress is something that we are not born with, nor are we educated on how to build it. It is extremely useful if it is built and continuously reinforced. This is resilience and it's fundamental to keeping a strong mind set.
We can build it during the good times and then when the bad times hit we are conditioned and ready.
We protect our inner fortress so it, in turn, will protect us.
As part of the Invictus Project, we teach our Mentees how to raise their awareness and build such mental structures so they can be used as and when. How conditioned are you to deal with the worst things and keep moving forward with clarity and drive? Are you going to build the Inner Citadel and have the resilience needed when life changes?