The Daily Stoic Key Idea #5: Stoicism helps us live life action by action, one decision at a time.

The Daily Stoic Key Idea #6: Stoics manage expectations when dealing with problems and setbacks.

The Daily Stoic Key Idea #7: A sense of duty gives you purpose and helps you do the right thing.

The Daily Stoic Key Idea #9: Stoics rely on themselves, remaining resilient to changing circumstances.

Stoics believe that no matter what happens to us, we always remain in control of who we are

The Stoics called this interconnectedness sympatheia. It helped them envisage everything as part of a larger whole.

In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius described how everything in the universe was interconnected. He even explained through an analogy how people should be imagined as bees living in the same hive: what is bad for the beehive will ultimately be bad for the bees. To put it the other way around, anything that isn’t harmful to the community can’t ultimately harm the individual.

It’s a common tendency to think of hope as good, and fear as bad. But Stoics are skeptical of both. After all, both hope and fear involve attaching value to future events which are, by definition, out of our control.

So instead of focusing on wishes and worries, Stoics prefer amor fati, “a love of fate.” In other words, they go a step further than throwing up their hands saying “que sera sera.” They embrace the vicissitudes of fate.

The Daily Stoic Key Idea #12: Stoics do not fear death – they accept and embrace its power.

The once mighty Roman Empire fell in the West after 500 years. The longest human lifespan recorded is just 122 years.

Everything and everyone must eventually come to an end. That’s why Stoicism teaches us to accept the fact of our ultimate demise. Death isn’t something to worry about, but ignoring its inevitability won’t get us anywhere.

Death can be a great motivator, and it might seem helpful to push yourself to live life to the fullest as though you only have a few weeks left to live. But the truth is, we all live with the same diagnosis. Someday, like it or not, we’re all going to die. That should be motive enough without entertaining hypotheticals!