Jocko Willink on Amor Fati

4 min readJul 10, 2018

“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.”
Friederich Nietzche

Amor Fati is a complex and difficult concept to grasp, much more to accept. To love everything that happens seems counterintuitive when you first hear about it, but it’s the simply greatest piece of advice we can follow.

Love the fact that you and everyone you know is going to die.
Love getting fired.
Love feeling tired and having to work still.
Love your hangovers.

Not only being grateful but to actually love it.

Why do Amor fati works?

It works because it turns calamity upside down. It turns problems and adversities into blessings, blessings we welcome out of our own accord. This, obviously, requires mental strength, nobody is denying that. It requires to be strong enough to think logically and to boldly accept whatever situation or circumstance befalls upon us.

By loving everything that happens to you, you are preparing yourself to improve life and yourself in the process. You are changing your perception, the one thing that is within your power.

Intellect (perception)

Intellect has made of us the most dangerous and advanced creature on earth. Intellect is the power to bend perception to your benefit, to understand reality in a higher order. Currently, there is no stronger force in the planet than our capacity to mold reality to our benefit and this is where dear Jocko enters into the equation. In the next video, you’ll understand why:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTMDpizis8&t=78s

This is Amor Fati at its best, it almost seems as a sort of twisted perversion, coming from Jocko, but it does the job nevertheless. Accept everything that happens, love it, for it is the seed of opportunity.

Life is dynamic

There is no “rest” in life. When you are sleeping, you are breathing, dreaming, digesting, you are always moving and changing. Amor Fati is accepting this reality, the reality that change is always happening and that reality will not stay static.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
― Winston S. Churchill

By saying “good” you are already preparing yourself for the next step. You are already looking for the lesson that you can learn from the bad experience. This is how Amor Fati becomes priceless advice.

Become Frictionless

Amor Fati enforces you to become frictionless.

What do I mean by frictionless?

The moment you say “good”, you are already preparing yourself for the next round. In life you are going to go as far as you decide. Things need to get done, whatever happens, things need to get done. When something bad happens, like not getting promoted or not getting the funding you expected, there are two ways of dealing with it, with friction, or without friction.

Friction

This is focusing on the problem and on the “why” it can not be fixed, dreading it (not loving it). This, obviously creates friction, it creates friction on your endeavours because you will be stuck for a while. You will be stuck until you realize the frictionless amor fati mode.

Frictionless Amor Fati

You could say, that living according to nature is living in a dynamic mode, just as life is. When you say “good” to a problem or situation and you focus on your next step you are moving forward with life. This is going with life instead of against life.

The Ubermensch

The Ubermensch from Nietzche has to be Amor Fati exemplified, there is no higher order for a human being than living in accordance to the higher order which is nature. Fortunately, this superpower is available to every human being.

Love life, be strong, say “good” more often.

Written by

Ricardo Guaderrama