1 00:00:01,070 --> 00:00:05,490 Your character is the part of your personality that can be changed. 2 00:00:06,230 --> 00:00:08,269 How can you change your character? 3 00:00:08,990 --> 00:00:13,429 You can if you modify your habits, what you regularly do every day. 4 00:00:14,130 --> 00:00:18,769 Aristotle, who was a Greek philosopher, insisted on the importance of this. 5 00:00:19,449 --> 00:00:23,969 He said that if you want to become a happy person, to have a good life, 6 00:00:23,969 --> 00:00:28,370 you should get used to doing every day what is correct. 7 00:00:28,370 --> 00:00:39,850 That's what he called virtues. Virtues are good habits, like, for example, telling the truth, being sincere, or being generous. 8 00:00:40,509 --> 00:00:45,570 On the other hand, vices are bad habits, like telling lies. 9 00:00:46,530 --> 00:00:52,509 Aristotle thought that it is extremely important to get used to practicing virtue. 10 00:00:52,509 --> 00:01:00,509 If you practice sincerity, if you tell the truth every day, you will eventually become a sincere person, 11 00:01:01,310 --> 00:01:06,810 as telling the truth will, with time, be part of your personality. 12 00:01:07,730 --> 00:01:10,549 But how do we know where virtue is? 13 00:01:11,209 --> 00:01:16,290 Aristotle thought that virtue is in the middle ground between two extremes. 14 00:01:16,290 --> 00:01:22,569 One extreme is a deficiency, it is not enough, and that is bad 15 00:01:22,569 --> 00:01:28,670 The other extreme is an excess, it is too much, and that is not good either 16 00:01:28,670 --> 00:01:33,150 I'll give you an example to make clear what Aristotle meant 17 00:01:33,150 --> 00:01:37,989 He thought about a soldier who is at war 18 00:01:39,409 --> 00:01:44,569 If the soldier is a coward, he isn't brave enough 19 00:01:44,569 --> 00:01:50,109 So that is a deficiency. He doesn't have enough courage and that is a vice. 20 00:01:51,049 --> 00:02:02,030 But it is also a vice if the soldier is reckless, meaning he's too brave and he tries to attack the enemies all alone without the help of his friends. 21 00:02:02,969 --> 00:02:04,810 That is also a vice. 22 00:02:05,030 --> 00:02:14,210 What is correct for a soldier is to be brave, to have courage in the middle way between recklessness and cowardice. 23 00:02:14,569 --> 00:02:22,509 The same happens with everything. How much should I eat? If I eat too much, that is bad, 24 00:02:22,509 --> 00:02:29,250 it is a vice. I will get fat. I will have health problems. But if I don't eat enough, 25 00:02:29,250 --> 00:02:37,750 that is also bad. I will also suffer problems like anorexia. So the right thing is in the 26 00:02:37,750 --> 00:02:44,650 middle way not too much not too little that is virtue of course this middle 27 00:02:44,650 --> 00:02:49,810 ground may depend on the person it's not the same if you are an adolescent or an 28 00:02:49,810 --> 00:02:56,830 old person you don't need the same kind of food or the same amount so if you are 29 00:02:56,830 --> 00:03:03,550 prudent if you are intelligent you will know how to find the middle way between 30 00:03:03,550 --> 00:03:13,090 two extremes and you will know where your middle ground is that is virtue for you and that is what 31 00:03:13,090 --> 00:03:19,370 you should get used to doing if you want to have a happy and good life according to Aristotle