If you want to have the best marriage then you need to be the best version of yourself. You need to continually strive to improve yourself and overcome your weaknesses.
The best way to do this is to work on becoming more magnanimous.
Magnanimity is often misunderstood as meaning “generous.”
It actually means “greatness of soul.”
Magnanimity is a virtue in which you strive to be great.
However, this is not about ambition or pride or seeking honour for its own sake.
Magnanimity is about the noble pursuit of excellence in proportion to the gifts and talents you have been given. It is the secret to having a great life and a great marriage.
Magnanimity means:
- Being the best that you can be in everything that you do
- Developing your talents and your character but doing it humbly and at the service of others
- Having the combination of humility and rightly ordered ambition.
- Constantly striving to better yourself for the sake of developing the virtue, even when it is difficult and challenging.
The opposite of magnanimity is pusillanimity or “smallness of soul.” Pusillanimity means taking the easy path and shying away from difficult but necessary challenges in life.
It often accompanies a false humility that is a handbrake on rightly ordered development and growth.
Becoming magnanimous means tackling your weaknesses. These include:
- Physical weakness
- Emotional weakness
- Mental weakness
- Spiritual weakness
In order to have greatness of soul you’ve got to overcome all of those. You can’t operate at your optimum with weakness in any of those areas. And you’ve got to gain control of yourself such that the spiritual governs the emotional, mental and physical.
We all have weaknesses and you will never fully overcome them. But you need to try and bring them under control.
Most personal development advice is quite self-centred. The difference with magnanimity is that you are doing this personal development and becoming strong in all areas in order to serve your spouse, serve your family, serve your community, serve your workplace and serve your nation.
The core pillars of growing in magnanimity are:
- Building character
- Building a strong mindset
- Overcoming weakness
- Working on your physical fitness
- Mastering your emotions
- Building a spiritual life
About This Website
This website exists to help you grow in magnanimity so you can have a great marriage or prepare for a great marriage.
Our culture does not recognise and promote being magnanimous. We have a deficit in all the virtues but especially this one.
Our culture celebrates ambition. But it encourages you to seek honour, glory and wealth not because of any virtuous reason or the development of your character but for status and pride and for the approval of others.
This leaves people feeling hollow.
At the other extreme our culture also celebrates the smallness of soul. If you want to check out of the challenges of life and take a ride on easy street few people will see anything wrong with that. Mediocrity is accepted in the name of equality.
This too leaves people feeling unfulfilled.
The rightfully ordered state that we all desire but often don’t know how to access is magnanimity.
It is the appropriate middle ground between the extremes of selfish ambition and a mediocre life devoid of necessary challenges.
Striving to grow in the virtue of magnanimity satisfies our natural desires for progression and building our skills, character and talents but doing so in a humble way. It is the best way to become the best version of yourself, so you can have an amazing relationship.
This website aims to give you an education in magnanimity so you can orient yourself in a positive way. It hopefully can assist you in filling a few gaps in your character development that you might have missed along the way.
About The Author
My name is Thomas. I have a strong interest in helping people building character and virtues. I believe that we can make a better world and lead better lives with stronger marriages if we can grow in the virtue of magnanimity.