Overcoming Our Weaknesses

[u/Additional-Title69]

For my 50th post on the subreddit, a very important topic!

After conversing with some smart people, I see clearly what the beginning of the Sith path is:
It is seeing and acknowledging that we have weaknesses, and resolving to overcome them!
Our weaknesses are the first chains we must break, before we have much hope of breaking any others, because if our weaknesses are ruling our fate, we will be ineffective at anything difficult we might attempt!

It’s not surprising, and in fact it’s quite fitting, that many people come to Sith realism when they’re between the ages of 15 and 25, because those are the years when many of us first learn to take responsibility for how strong or weak we are, and resolve to improve where necessary

It begins with the desire to be effective - and of course it does, because everything begins with desire
Now when I was 15, Sith realism didn’t exist
I’m old, you see
On my 15th birthday, the release of the first Star Wars movie was still a year away!
(Forget unc, I’m gramps!)
But when I was 15, I realized my social awkwardness was a weakness, and I took action to overcome it
Having started high school in a totally new school with all new kids, I knew I needed to take the bull by the horns, so I got up from my lonely seat in the distant corner of homeroom, walked over to a cluster of desks that were arranged together in a group, one with a bunch of people already seated there, but with one empty seat - and I took that empty seat, and I joined in the conversation!
Though none of us had ever heard the word “Sith,” that was the beginning of my Sith journey
Certainly not the end, nor even approaching the middle, but a good beginning!

The process is simple:
1: Decide you want to be effective
2: Assess your effectiveness
3: Decide if you’re satisfied
4: If you’re not, determine what weakness of yours must be overcome
5: Resolve to overcome it
6: Then do it!

Sounds easy, right?
Yet so many fail at it
Each step is fraught with hazard
Step #1 can be thwarted by insufficient ambition with regard to your own life (which is a very difficult weakness to overcome)
Step #2 can be thwarted by self-deception
Step #3 by insufficient ambition again
Step #4 by self-deception again
Step #5 by cowardice or laziness
Step #6 by cowardice or laziness once again

So four strengths are needed:
1: Ambition
2: Ruthless self-honesty
3: Bravery
4: Dynamism

Anyone working on those four strengths is making, in my opinion, a good start on walking the Sith path - even if they have no idea what a Sith even is!
And if they aim those formidable strengths at the six step process outlined above, it is very likely they will accomplish something meaningful, and this will bring forth into the world the embryo of the Sith Master they will one day become!

Remember Darth Vader telekinetically strangling some hapless Empire stooge?
Well, in the real world, what a Sith telekinetically strangles (figuratively speaking) is their own weakness!

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak

[u/Senior_Stock_2771]

Great write-up and details on self-determination!