Amor Fati - How to harness the power of loving your fate

Amor fati is a Latin phrase that translates as “love of fate”. It describes an attitude in which one accepts the events or situations that occur in one’s life.

Let’s find out how doing the opposite of what we naturally tend to be hard wired to do (to avoid pain and complain) can help you thrive.

The concept has been linked to Epitectus as well as Marcus Aurelius. Indeed, in his Meditations, Aurelius would say: “A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.”

While Epictetus echoed the same: “Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens to happen the way it happens: then you will be happy.”

Amor fati is the Stoic mindset to make the best out of anything that happens. It allows you to treat every moment, as something to be embraced, instead of avoided. It encourages you to consider obstacles and adversity as fuel for your potential. Indeed, when we accept that what happens to us is outside of our control, the only thing that remains is to love whatever happens to us and to face it with strength and pragmatism.

The Stoics had a term for this: the Art of Acquiescence.

Roman playwright Terence says that “life is a game of dice. Even if you don’t throw the number you like, you still have to play it and play it well.”

Acceptance plays an essential role in this practice. You don’t have to like what is happening to work with it and use it to your advantage. It starts by seeing clearly and accepting it unconditionally. It is the love of what happens because that is the only option.

As Friedrich Nietzsche describes it: “My formula for greatness in a human being is Amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it… but love it.”

According to Nietzsche, it is a mindset that you take on for making the best out of anything that happens. It allows you to embrace rather than avoid, no matter how challenging the situation.

You can’t control what happens; you can only control your deliberate actions and thoughts. It can feel like you are powerless, but instead, you end up feeling genuinely empowered. Being able to embrace, accept, love and make the most of what does happen is indeed a precious gift.

In a fast-paced and unpredictable environment, the practice of Amor fati is, in my opinion, one of the most beneficial skills to develop if you want to thrive under pressure.