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Elle Montoya

ARETE : Sixteen virtues to enrich your life

Text and paintings copyright © Mara-Elsa Montoya [Elle Montoya]

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

First published 2021

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Editorial design by Quiero Studio, UK

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library and the Swiss Library

Professor Fumiya Iida, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge

Every life starts from a single cell, an egg or a seed. There are hundreds of those, perhaps thousands or even millions, but only one of them is chosen to start a life, the one landed at a right ground and at a right time. All others just disappear.

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1. Take time to contemplate 112. Ambition 133. Presence 154. Beauty 175. Have confidence 19

Part One: Harness Your Potential

Part Two: Self-Mastery

Part Three: Collective Responsibility

Author’s Note 8

6. Darkness and light 227. Wisdom through acceptance 258. Authenticity 279. Nurture your dignity 2910. Make a leap of faith 3111. One model of mystery 33

12. Morality : Examine yourself 3713. Wit and radiance in komorebi 4114. Reparation 4315. Be prudent - have patience 4516. Coexist in a bending space 47

11:22 52

Acknowledgements 54

Endnotes 57

About the autor 59

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Arete is a concept from ancient Greece, meaning excellence, having moral virtue and living one’s potential.

Each chapter in the book is an exploration, reflection or story about one of life’s virtues. Virtues that, I believe, are worthy of our consideration and practise. The chapters are presented in three parts: Harness Your Potential, Self-Mastery and Collective Responsibility.

Reading the book, I hope, will encourage you to contemplate your life and your place in the world. For Aristotle, contemplation was the highest activity available to humans, having the potential for enhanced virtue and greater contentment. I see it as ‘an unfolding spiralling-up process’ – something with the power to impact on us, and everyone and everything around us, for the better.

I hope you will find the book an immersive experience. Read it and dip into it however you wish. Be ready to be challenged and to re-read any ideas if they are new to you. Overall, I hope it will inspire you to transcend your fears – encouraging you to free yourself and to strive to become the ‘best’ version of yourself, over and over.

Author’s Note

Elle Montoya

HarnessYour Potential

Part One

AMBITION

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Part One - Harness Your Potential

My parents educated us to strive for excellence – not perfection – in every aspect of our lives, especially in the matters that made us joyful and offered opportunities for flourishment. One day, when I was probably four or five years old, I realised that our teachers, mainly women, would praise the boys over the girls for similar types of behaviours and results.

Somehow, it dawned on me that ‘we’ [the girls] had to work harder than the boys to achieve just a little recognition. That day, I was seriously disappointed. When I saw my father in the evening, I told him: ‘I do not want to be a girl anymore; I want to be a boy!’ [Yes, I threw a mini-tantrum at him, and do not regret it.] My father looked straight into my eyes and enquired: ‘Why are you saying this to me?’ I shared my observations and provided him with some examples from school. He listened patiently and looked at me with tenderness.

After I had finished ranting, my father shared one of his most empowering messages, if not the most impactful one. He said to me: ‘You can think and imagine. Hence, you can do anything you wish to do. Anything. You are a beautiful, strong and noble person. Because of this, you can conquer the entire world in that girl body of yours. Do not compete with anyone. Do not compete with either boys nor girls, no one. Compete with yourself. Become the best version of yourself, over and over. That’s it. Do you understand what I am saying?’

That conversation shaped me for the better. My father possessed the capability to make me believe in myself and to embrace my self-worth; his words washed away my frustration and provided me with hope for bearing up inequality. As a result, I have become conscious of whom I share my presence with; and I have aspired to become a better version of myself by applying his practical wisdom. Over the years, I have learned to cope better with inequality and injustice by not taking things nor terms too personally.

Are you pursuing your own path, and do you rise above the daily jolt?

Ambition