Better Living Through Philosophy
I used to think that philosophy was a field of knowledge reserved for scholars in their ivory towers. That was until I discovered the Stoic philosophers about 7 years ago. Stoic philosophy began in ancient Greece around 300 B.C. by Zeno of Citium in Athens. Stoicism spread to Rome in the 1st century B.C., and the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was one of the best known Stoic philosophers. The thing that impressed me the most about Stoic philosophy was that it was meant to be a guide to living a better life and being a better person rather than a system of abstract ideas. Marcus Aurelius was the most powerful man in the world, and his work “Meditations” was a collection of his personal thoughts on how he could improve himself. I’ve found the Stoic principles very helpful in providing guidance in many of the challenges I’ve faced in my life from relationships, business, stress, health, and much more.
Image: Marcus Aurelius
While a complete overview of Stoicism is beyond the scope of this article, I’d like to introduce you to some of the ideas from the Stoics which have had a big impact on me.
Understand the difference between what is and what isn’t under your control. Spend your time and effort on what you can control, and don’t get upset or spend energy on what you can’t control. For example, you can’t control how other people treat you but you can control how you react to them.
Stay focused on the present moment. Don’t be paralyzed by the past or intimidated by the future. I discovered I was spending a lot of time dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. I call this “time travel”, and now that I recognize how fruitless it is, I’m more able to focus on what I’m doing in the present.
“ Amor Fati”. Literally “to love your fate”. Learn to love and accept everything that happens. This doesn’t mean to be passive or not to do anything when stuff happens to us. You don’t have to like it to work with it—to use it to your advantage. But it starts by seeing it clearly and accepting it unconditionally. Amor fati — a love of what happens. Because that’s your only option. Only by seeing things as they are can we deal with them effectively.
The Stoics embraced “ The Four Virtues” as guideposts to living a good life: Justice. Temperance. Wisdom. Courage.
If, at some point in your life, you should come across anything better than justice, truth, self-control, courage—it must be an extraordinary thing indeed.” —Marcus Aurelius.
Compared to these things, everything else is cheap, if not worthless. Every situation, every moment is an opportunity to exemplify these forms of human excellence. There is no challenge, no problem so big that it does not call for courage, moderation, justice or wisdom.
“Momento Mori”, or “Remember you are mortal”. The Stoics thought a lot about mortality, not in a morbid way, but to remember that life is short and not to waste our precious time. The Stoic philosopher Seneca said “we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill supplied but wasteful of it”. We live our lives as though we are immortal, and take everything in our lives for granted rather than understanding that it will all pass eventually.
Control your anger. The Stoics understood how harmful anger is to us. Marcus Aurelius said “ How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it. When we get angry we can’t think clearly and we just make things worse for ourselves. One of the primary ways to get anger under control is to take responsibility for everything that happens to us, and not blame circumstances or other people. By taking responsibility we don’t take what happens to us personally, and that diffuses anger.
Know what’s most important to you. If you haven’t figured out what that is you will be easily distracted by things and events. This is different for all of us, but deep down inside we know what’s really important to us and what isn’t. That should be the filter that we run all our decisions through, and how we prioritize our time. Eliminate what isn’t important so you can focus on what is.
These are just a few of the principles of Stoicism that have helped me. To me wisdom is useful only if I have applied it in my own life and found that it works. The other way I look at things is by asking the question “has this stood the test of time?” Stoicism has certainly passed that test being over 2000 years old and still used by many today. Athletes, entrepreneurs, military leaders and ordinary folks like you and I have seen great benefits from applying Stoic principles in their lives.
Perhaps no one has done more to spread the wisdom of the Stoics than author Ryan Holiday. I’ve featured one of his excellent videos below. I highly recommend his book “The Daily Stoic” which offers 366 days of Stoic insights and exercises. You’ll find that taking a few minutes to read these daily bits of wisdom in the morning is a great way to start your day. You can also get daily emails from Ryan on Stoicism by subscribing here. You can also see Ryan’s recommended reading list for Stoic authors and the best translations here.
I’d also like to offer you the 3 volume series titled the “Tao of Seneca” from Tim Ferriss, a world renowned podcaster and author, as well as a modern day Stoic. You can download them as PDF’s here. These are selections from Seneca, one of the most prolific and well known of the Stoics.
Invest a little time in getting to know the Stoics and their wisdom about life and living. I think you’ll find this investment of time will pay big dividends.
