"It's better to conquer grief than to deceive it." - Seneca<ul><li>The Stoics intended to teach us to face, process and deal with emotions immediately instead of running from them. Distraction might be pleasant in the short term but focusing is better in the long term. </li><li>That means facing it now. Process and parse what you are feeling. Remove your expectations, your entitlements, your sense of having been wronged. Find the positive in the situation, but also sit with your pain and accept it, remembering that it is a part of life. That's how one conquers grief. </li></ul>

Don't Hide From Your Feelings - Day 124

When the problem arose for us whether habit or theory was better for getting virtue - Musonius thought habit to be more effective. <ul><li>There is no time to chop logic over whether our theories are correct. We are dealing with the real world here. What matters is how you're going to deal with this situation right in front of you and whether you're going to able to move past it. </li><li>Although theories are clean and simple, situations rarely are! </li></ul>

No Time For Theories, just Results - Day 5

<ul><li>Why did I do that? You've probably asked yourself. We all have. How could I have been so stupid? What was I thinking?</li><li>You weren't. That's the problem. Within that head of yours is all the reason and intelligence you need. It's making sure that it's deferred to and utilized that's the tough part. It's making sure that your mind is in charge, not your emotions, not your immediate physical sensations, not your surging hormones.</li><li>Fix your attention on your intelligence. Let it do its thing.</li></ul>

Think Before You Act - Day 192

<ul><li>Stoicism is not a religion. You're not obligated to save anyone - there's no risk of hell if a soul remains ignorant to the Stoic philosophy. </li><li>But now that you've learned a better path, you can be of service to others. You can share your wisdom or insight with a friend or stranger - remembering that behaviour is always a better example than a lecture. </li><li>Everyone deserves to benefit from "philosophy's principles" as Seneca put it. If you see someone who is in need of help, or has asked for guidance, provide it. You owe them that much. </li></ul>

Spread The Word - Day 71

<ul><li>After all you've read, it night be tempting to think: This stuff is great. I get it. I'm a Stoic. But it's not that easy. Just because you agree with the philosophy doesn't mean the roots have fully taken hold in your mind. </li><li>Fooling with books so you can sound smart or have an intimidating library is like tending a garden to impress your neighbours. The seeds of Stoicism are long underground. Do the work required to nurture and tend to them. So that they - and you - are prepared and sturdy for the hard winters of life. </li></ul>

A Garden Is Not For Show - Day 40

"There is no reason to live and no limit to our miseries if we let our fears predominant." - Seneca"Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." - RooseveltThe stoics knew fear was to be feared because of the miseries it creates. A tough situation isn't helped by terror - it only makes things harder. That's why we must resist it and reject it, if we wish to turn this situation around.

Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself - Day 34

<ul><li>In the morning, remind yourself of what is in your control and what's not.</li><li>Before lunch, remind yourself that the only thing you truly possess is your ability to make choices.</li><li>In the afternoon, remind yourself that aside from the choices, your fate is not entirely up to you.</li><li>In the evening, remind yourself again how much is outside of your control and where your choices begin and end.</li><li>As you lie in bed, remember that sleep is a form of surrender and trust and how easily it comes. And prepare to start the whole cycle over again tomorrow.</li></ul>

The One Path To Serenity - Day 159

"Leave the past behind, let the grand design take care of the future, and instead only rightly guide the present to révérence and justice. Révérence so that you'll love what you've been allotted, for nature brought you both to each other. Justice so that you'll speak the truth freely and without evasion, and so that you'll act only as the law and value of things require." - Marcus Aurelius <ul><li>Two words for life: persist and resist. But what principles should determine what we persist in and what we ought to resist? Marcus supplies that answer: reverence and justice. In other words, virtue. </li></ul>

Révérence And Justice - Day 65

<ul><li>It's something to think about when you consider whom to work with and whom to do business with in life. If you provide a bad example or something illegal or unethical advice to your employees, associates, or your children, might they betray you or hurt you down the road? What goes around comes around, is the saying. Karma is a notion we have imported from the East, along similar lines. </li><li>Seneca paid a price for his instructions to Nero. As has been throughout the ages, his hypocrisy - avoidable or not - was costly. So too will be yours. </li></ul>

We Reap What We Sow - Day 82

<ul><li>When people say change is good, they're usually trying to reassure themselves. Because instinctively we view change as bad - or at least we're suspicious of it.</li><li>The Stoics want you to do away with those labels altogether. Change isn't good. The status quo isn't bad. They just are.</li><li>Remember, events are objective. It's only our opinion that says something is good or bad (and thus worth fighting against or fighting for). A better attitude? To decide to make most of everything. But to do that you must first cease fighting.</li></ul>

Not Good Neither Bad - Day 90

"We are like pellets of incense falling on the altar. Some collapse sooner, others later, but it makes no difference."-Marcus Aurelius <ul><li>Measuring ourselves against others makes acceptance difficult, because we want what they have, not what we happen to have. But that makes no difference. </li><li>Some might see this line from Marcus as pessimistic, whereas others see it as optimistic. It's really just truth. We're all here and we're all going to leave this earth eventually, so let's not concern ourselves with petty differences in the meantime. We have too much to do. </li></ul>

The Altar Of No Difference - Day 112

<ul><li>Seneca was a Stoic. He had many material things, yet, as the Stoics say, he was also indifferent to them. He enjoyed them while they were there, but he accepted that they might someday disappear. What better attitude than desperately craving more or fearfully dreading losing even one penny. Indifference is a solid middle ground.</li><li>It's not about avoidance or shunning, but rather not giving any possible outcome more power or preference than is appropriate. This is not easy to do, certainly, but if you could manage, how much more relaxed would you be?</li></ul>

Cultivating Indifference Where Others Grow Passion - Day 204

Whatever our case is today, let's align our minds along these four critical habits:<ol><li>Accept only what is true. </li><li>Work for the common good. </li><li>Match our needs and wants with what is in our control. </li><li>Embrace what nature has in store for us. </li></ol>

Four Habits Of The Stoic Mind - Day 104

<ul><li>Socrates used to say that "nobody does wrong willingly." Meaning that no one is wrong on purpose either. Nobody thinks they're wrong, even when they are. They think they're right, they're just mistaken. Otherwise, they wouldn't think it anymore.</li><li>How much more tolerant and understanding would you be today if you could see the actions of other people as attempts to do the right thing? Whether you agree or not, how radically would this lens change your perspective on otherwise offensive or belligerent actions?</li></ul>

Seeing Things As The Person At Fault Does - Day 217

<ul><li>Marcus Aurelius constantly points out how the emperors who came before him were barely remembered just a few years later.</li><li>The same goes for those driven to the heights of hate or anger or obsession or perfection. Alexander the great - one of the most ambitious and passionate men - was buried in the same ground as his mule driver. Eventually, all of us will pass away and slowly be forgotten. We should enjoy this brief time we have on earth - not be enslaved to emotions that make us miserable and dissatisfied.</li></ul>

The Smoke And Dust Of Myth - Day 202

<ul><li>It's dangerous to have faith in what you do not control. But your own reasoned choice? Well, for now that is in your control. Therefore it is one of the few things you can have confidence in. It's the one area of health that can't suddenly be given a terminal diagnosis. It's the only one that remains pristine and never wears down - it's only the user who quits it; never will it quit the user. </li><li>All philosophers lived this way - even while they had families and while they were struggling students. And so can you. </li></ul>

Everlasting Good Health - Day 132

<ul><li>Seneca has said, "Without a ruler to do it against, you can't make crooked straight." That is the role of wise people in our lives - to serve as models and inspiration. To bounce our ideas off and test our presumptions.</li><li>Who that person will be for you is up to you. Perhaps it's your father or your mother. Maybe it's a philosopher or a writer or a thinker. Perhaps WWJD (What would Jesus do?) is the right model for you.</li><li>But pick someone, watch what they do (and what they don't do), and do your best to do the same.</li></ul>

Watching The Wise - Day 175

<ul><li>Clarity of vision allows us to have belief. That's not to say we're always going to be 100 percent certain of everything. Rather, we're heading generally in the right direction - that we don't need to constantly compare ourselves with other people or change our minds every three seconds based on new information.</li><li>Instead, tranquility and peace are found in identifying our path and in sticking to it: staying the course - making adjustments here and there, naturally - but ignoring the distracting sirens who beckon us to turn toward the rocks.</li></ul>

Place Is In Staying The Course - Day 162

"Dig deep within yourself, for there is a fountain of goodness ever ready to flow if you will keep digging." - Marcus Aurelius <ul><li>Today, we could hope that goodness comes our way - good news, good weather, good luck. Or we could find it ourselves, in ourselves. Goodness isn't something that's going to be delivered by mail. You have to dig it up inside your own soul. You find it within your own thoughts, and you make it with your own actions. </li></ul>

The Fountain Of Goodness - Day 79

If you start something and right away feel yourself getting lazy and irritated, first ask yourself: Why am I doing this? If it really is a necessity, ask yourself: Whats behind my reluctance? Fear? Spite? Fatigue?Don't forge ahead hoping that someone will relieve you or someone will explain you why what you're doing matters. Don't be the person who says yes with their mouth but no with their actions. Quality is much better than quantity.

When You Feel Lazy - Day 24

"The person who does wrong, does wrong to themselves - making themselves evil" - Marcus Aurelius <ul><li>The next time you do something wrong, try to remember how it made you feel. Rarely does one say, "I felt great!"</li><li>We feel a version of sickness when we lie, when we cheat and when we screw someone over. In that split second before your ill-gotten gains kick in, ask: How do I feel about myself? </li><li>Self-awareness and wrongdoing rarely go together. If you need a selfish reason to not do wrong - put yourself in touch with these feelings. They're a powerful disincentive. </li></ul>

A Selfish Reason To Be Good - Day 62

<ul><li>Take a look at some of the powerful, rich people. Look at what success has cost them. Mostly? Freedom.</li><li>Their work demands they wear a suit. It will require - inevitably - realizing they are unable to say what they actually think. Worse, it demands that they become a different person.</li><li>Sure, it might pay well - but they haven't truly examined the transaction. As Seneca put it, "Slavery resides under marble and gold." Too many successful people are prisoners in jails of their own making. Is that what you want? Is that what you're working hard toward? Let's hope not.</li></ul>

Living Without Restriction - Day 216

<ul><li>I was shipwrecked before I even boarded... the journey showed me this - how much of what we have is unnecessary, and how easily we can decide to rid ourselves of these things whenever it's necessary, never suffering the loss. - Seneca</li><li>The stoics weren't being hypothetical when they said we ought to ACT with a reverse clause and that even the most unfortunate events can turn out to be for the best. The entire philosophy is founded on that idea! </li></ul>

Seeking Out Shipwrecks - Day 20

<ul><li>The leader convinced that he might be betrayed acts first and betrays others first. Afraid that he's not well-liked he works hard that it has the opposite effect. Convinced of mismanagement, he micromanages and becomes the Source of mismanagement. The things we dread or fear, we blindly inflict on ourselves.</li><li>The next time you're afraid of some outcome, remember that if you don't control your impulses if you lose your self-control, you may be the very source of the disaster you so fear. It has happened to smarter and more powerful and more successful people. It can happen to us too</li></ul>

Fear Is A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy - Day 185

<ul><li>Our reaction is what actually decides whether harm has occurred. If we feel that we've been wronged and get angry, of course, that's how it will seem. If we raise our voice because we feel we're being confronted, naturally a confrontation will ensue.</li><li>But if we retain control of ourselves, we decide whether to label something good or bad. In fact, if that same event happened to us at different points in our lifetime, we might have very different reactions. So why not choose now to not apply these labels? Why not choose not to react?</li></ul>

The Real Source Of Harm - Day 201

<ul><li>You messed up a little. Or maybe you messed up a lot.</li><li>So? That doesn't change the philosophy that you know. It's not as if your reasoned choice has permanently abandoned you. Rather, it was you who temporarily abandoned it.</li><li>Remember that the tools and aims of our training are unaffected by the turbulence of the moment. Stop, regain your composure. It's waiting for you.</li></ul>

When You Lose Control - Day 205

"Consider who you are. Above all, a human being, carrying no greater power than your own reasoned choice, which oversees all other things, and is free from any other master." - EpictetusYour hidden power is your ability to use reason and make choices, however limited or small. Think about the areas of your life where you are under duress or weighted down by obligation. What are the choices available to you, day after day? Are you taking advantage? Are you finding the positives?

Your Hidden Power - Day 32

<ul><li>It's easier to quote, to rely on the wise words of others. Especially when the people you're deferring to are such towering figures. </li><li>It's harder (and more intimidating) to venture out on your own and express your own thoughts. But how do you think those wise and true quotes from those towering figures were created in the first place? </li><li>Your own experiences have value. You have accumulated your own wisdom too. Stake your claim. Put something down for the ages - in words and also in example. </li></ul>

Stake Your Own Claim - Day 138

Inwardly, we ought to be different in every respect, but our outward appearance should blend in with the crowd. <ul><li>Diogenes the cynic was a controversial philosopher who wandered the streets like a homeless person. It's tempting to take philosophy to the extremes, but who does it serve? </li><li>Outward transformation - in our clothes, cars and in our grooming - might feel important but it's superficial compared with the inward change. That's the change that only we know about! </li></ul>

Where It Counts - Day 14

<ul><li>Cato the younger had enough money to dress in fine clothing. Yet he often walked around Rome barefoot. He chose this way because he was training his soul to be strong and resilient. He was learning indifference: an attitude of "let come what may" that would serve him well. </li><li>His training prepared him for any conditions, any kind of luck. If we undergo our own training and preparations, we might find ourselves similarly strengthened. </li></ul>

A Strong Soul Is Better Than Good Luck - Day 26

<ul><li>At the beginning or end of each day, the Stoic sits down with his journal and reviews: what he did what he thought, what could be improved.</li><li>Keep your own journal, whether it's saved on a computer or in a little book. Be unflinching in your assessments. Notice what contributed to your happiness and what detracted from it. Write down what you'd like to work on or quotes that you like.</li><li>By making the effort to record such thoughts, you're less likely to forget them. An added bonus: you'll have a running tally to track your progress too.</li></ul>

The Day In Review - Day 169

<ul><li>The next time someone gets upset near you - crying, yelling, or breaking something, watch how quickly this statement will stop them cold: "I hope this is making you feel better." Because of course, it isn't.</li><li>It's worth applying that standard to yourself. The next time you find yourself in the middle of a freakout, moaning and groaning with flu-like symptoms, or crying tears of regret, just ask: Is this actually making me feel better? Is this actually relieving any of the symptoms I wish were gone?</li></ul>

Did That Make You Feel Better? - Day 186

<ul><li>At 5'-3" tall, Muggsy Bogues was the shortest player to play professional basketball. Against all odds, he succeeded. He saw his height as his strength when others saw it as his weakness. In fact, small size has many advantages: speed and quickness, ability to steal the ball from unsuspecting players, to say nothing of the fact that players just underestimated him.</li><li>Could this approach not be useful in your life? What things do you think have been holding you back that, in fact, can be a hidden source of strength?</li></ul>

Anything can be an advantage - Day 10

We're all complicated people. We have multiple sides to ourselves - conflicting wants to be desires, and fears. The outside world is no less confusing and contradictory. If we're not careful, all these forces - pushing and pulling - will eventually tear us apart.We have a choice: to stand with the philosopher and focus strenuously on the inside of the or to behave like a leader of a mob, becoming whatever the crowd needs at a given moment.If we do not focus on our internal integration - on self-awareness - we risk external disintegration.

(Dis)Integration - Day 208

<ul><li>In all circumstances - adversity or advantage - we really have just one thing we need to do: focus on what is in our control as opposed to what is not. Right now we may be facing struggles but in just a few days we might do well that success is actually a burden.</li><li>Ultimately, this is clarity. Whoever we are, wherever we are - what matters is our choice. What are they? How will we evaluate them? How will we make the most of them? Those are the questions life asks us, regardless of our station. How will you answer?</li></ul>

Wherever You Go There Your Choice Is - Day 166

"By planning to the end you will not be overwhelmed by circumstances and you will know when to stop." - Robert Greene<ul><li>Having an end in mind is no guarantee that you'll reach it - but not having an end in mind is a guarantee you won't.</li><li>How will you know what do to in a day, where to say yes/no, when you've had enough of something, when you've gotten off track, if you've never defined what those things are?</li><li>The answer is that you cannot. And so you are driven into failure - or worse, into madness by the oblivion of directionlessness.</li></ul>

Clarify Your Intentions - Day 152

<ul><li>Remember, the proper direction of philosophy - of all the things we're doing here - is focused inward. To make ourselves better and to leave other people to that task for themselves and their own journey. Our faults are in our control, and so we turn to philosophy to help scrape them off like barnacles from the hull of a ship. Other people's faults? Not so much. That's for them to do. </li><li>Leave people to their faults. Nothing in Stoic philosophy empowers you to judge them - only to accept them. Especially when we have so many of our own. </li></ul>

Judge Not, Lest... - Day 103

<ul><li>As the Stoics have said many times, getting angry almost never solves anything. Usually, it makes things worse. We get upset, then the other person gets upset - now everyone is upset, and the problem is no closer to getting solved.</li><li>Some say anger is a good fuel. The desire to "prove them all wrong" has made many a millionaire. But those people ignore the side effects and the wear and tear caused by anger. When the initial anger runs out - now more and more must be generated to keep the machine going (until, eventually, the only source left is anger at oneself)</li></ul>

Anger Is Bad Fuel - Day 188

<ul><li>Watching other people succeed is one of the toughest things to do - especially if we are not doing well ourselves. In our hunter-gatherer minds, we suspect that life is a zero-sum game - that for someone to have more, means that we might end up less. </li><li>But like all parts of philosophy, empathy and selflessness are a matter of practice. The stoics teach themselves to actively cheer for other people - even in cases where that might come at their own expense - and to put aside jealousy and possessivess. You can do that too. </li></ul>

Looking Out For Each Other - Day 61

"But the wise person can lose nothing. Such a person has everything stored up for themselves because they invest well" - Seneca<ul><li>Some people put their money in assets - stocks, bonds, property. Others invest in relationships or accomplishments, knowing that they can draw on these things just as easily as others can draw funds from a bank account. But a third type, Seneca says, invests in themselves - in being a good and wise person. </li><li>Which of these assets is most immune to market fluctuations and disasters? Which is most resilient during trials and tribulations? Which will never abandon you? </li></ul>

The Most Valuable Asset - Day 57

<ul><li>Seneca is making a point that goes unheard in a society or ever bigger houses and ever more possessions: that there's a hidden cost to all that accumulating. And the sooner we're aware of it, the better.</li><li>Remember: even what we get for free has a cost, if only in what we pay to store it - in our garages and in our minds. As you walk past your possessions today, ask yourself: Do I need this? Is it superfluous? What's this actually worth? What is it costing me?</li><li>You might be surprised by the answers and how much we've been paying without even knowing it.</li></ul>

Cutting Back On The Costly - Day 210

<ul><li>Warren Buffet, whose net worth is $65 billion, lives in the same house he bought in 1958 for $31,500. There're many people like him.</li><li>Their lifestyle is the result of prioritizing. They cultivate interests below their financial means, and as a result, any income would allow them the freedom to pursue the things they most care about. This kind of clarity - about what they love most in the world - means they can enjoy their lives.</li><li>The more things we desire and the more we have to do to earn or attain those achievements, the less we actually enjoy our lives - and the less free we are.</li></ul>

The Only Prize - Day 172

<ul><li>What we consider to be harmless indulgences can easily become full-blown addictions. The little compulsions and drives we have not only chip away at our freedom and sovereignty, they cloud our clarity. We think we're in control - but are we really? As one addict put it, addiction is when we've "lost the freedom to abstain." Let us reclaim that freedom.</li><li>What that addiction is for you can vary: Soda? Drugs? Complaining? Gossip? Internet? Pornography? Biting your nails? But you must reclaim the ability to abstain because within it is your clarity and self-control.</li></ul>

Seeing Our Addictions - Day 155

<ul><li>People tend to get ahead of themselves, thinking they've got it all figured out and are better than those that don't. It becomes so unpleasant when someone has to drop some knowledge on them. </li><li>But this is entirely avoidable. If the bubble is never inflated, it won't need to be popped. Overconfidence is a great weakness. But if you are already humble, no one will need to humble you - and the world is much less likely to have nasty surprises in store for you. If you stay down to earth, no one will need to bring you - often times crushingly so - back down. </li></ul>

Be Down To Earth, Or Be Brought Down - Day 37

<ul><li>We're making money and we're stimulated and busy. But the busier we get we drift further and further from philosophy.</li><li>Eventually, stress builds up, our mind gets clouded and we forget what's important. When that happens it's needful that we tap The breaks - put aside all the momentum and the moment. Return to the practices that we know are rooted in clarity and good judgment.</li><li>Stoicism is designed to be medicine for the soul. It relieves us of the vulnerabilities of modern life. It restores us with the vigor we need to thrive in life. Check-in with it today, and let it do its healing.</li></ul>

Philosophy As Medicine Of The Soul - Day 178

<ul><li>Today, see if u can go without blaming a single person or thing. Someone messed up your instructions - it's on you for expecting anything different. Your stock portfolio takes a big loss - what did you expect making such a big bet? </li><li>Whatever it is, however bad it may be, see whether you can make it a whole day laying it all in your reasoned choice. </li><li>Start where u need to. Even 1 minute without playing the blame game is progress in the art of living. </li></ul>

Take Responsibility For Your Choices - Day 11

<ul><li>Heraclitus would shed tears whenever he went out in public - Democritus laughed. One saw the whole as a paradise of miseries, the other of follies. And so, we should take a lighter view of things and bear them with an easy spirit, for it is more human to laugh at life than to lament it. </li><li>Like Democritus, we can make that same choice. There is more humor than hate to be found in just about every situation. And at least humor is productive - making things less heavy, not more so. </li></ul>

Laugh, Or Cry? - Day 21

<ul><li>In the hiring process, most employers look what jobs the candidates have held in the past. This is because past success can be an indicator of future success. But is it always? </li><li>Of course not. This is why character is a far better measure of a man or woman. Not just for jobs, but for friendships, relationships, for everything. Heraclitus put it as a maxim: "Character is fate." </li><li>When you seek to advance your own position in life, character is the best lever - perhaps not in the short term, but certainly over the long term. And the same goes for the people you invite in your life. </li></ul>

Character Is Fate - Day 84

<ul><li>We could look at the upcoming day and despair at all the things we don't control: other people, our health, the outcome of a project once it leaves our hands. </li><li>Or we could look out at that very same day and rejoice at the one thing we do control: the ability to decide what any event means. </li><li>The second option offers the ultimate power-a true and fair form of control. While you don't control external events, you retain the ability to decide how you respond to those events. </li><li>This includes the difficult one in front of you now. You'll find, if you approach it right, that this trump card is plenty. </li></ul>

You Hold The Trump Card - Day 53

<ul><li>Try to remember that anger is not impressive or tough - it's a mistake. It's a weakness. Depending on what you're doing, it might even be a trap that someone laid for you.</li><li>Fans and opponents call boxer Joe Louis the "Ring Robot" because he was utterly unemotional - his cold, calm demeanor was far more terrifying than any crazed look or emotional outburst would have been.</li><li>Strength is the ability to maintain a hold of oneself. It's being the person who never gets mad, who cannot be rattled because they are in control of their passions - rather than controlled by their passions.</li></ul>

For The Hot-Headed Man - Day 179

<ul><li>Think about all the upsetting things you don't know about - people talking behind your back, the valuable things you would've lost without your knowledge. What's your reaction? You don't have one because you don't know about it.</li><li>It is possible to hold no opinion about a negative thing. Apply this to all scenarios. Practice the ability to have absolutely no thoughts about something - act as if you had no idea it ever occurred. Or that you've never heard of it before. Let it become irrelevant or non-existent to you. It'll be a lot less powerful this way.</li></ul>

You Don't Have To Have An Opinion - Day 187

<ul><li>We're all addicts in one way or another. We're addicted to our routines, to our coffee, to our comfort, to someone else's approval. These dependencies mean we're not in control of our own lives - the dependency is. </li><li>Our routines can be disrupted, the doctor can forbid us from drinking coffee, we can be thrust into uncomfortable situations. That is why we must strengthen ourselves by testing these discrepancies before they become too great. </li><li>Make yourself invulnerable to your dependency on comfort and convenience, or one day your vulnerability might bring you to your knees. </li></ul>

The Vulnerability Of Dependence - Day 50

"Don't lament this and don't get agitated." - Marcus Aurelius <ul><li>There's that feeling we get when something happens. It's all over now. All is lost. What follows are complaints and pity and misery - the impotent struggle against something that's already occurred. Why bother? We have no idea what the future holds. We have no idea what's coming up around the bend. It could be more problems, or this could be the darkness before the dawn. </li><li>If we're Stoic, there is one thing we can be sure of: whatever happens, we're going to be OK. </li></ul>

You Are Going To be OK - Day 115

<ul><li>Seneca tells us that we should each have our own Cato - a great and noble person we can allow into our minds and use to guide our actions. It doesn't have to be an actual person, just someone who, like Seneca said, can stand witness to our behavior. Someone who can quietly admonish us if we are considering doing something lazy, dishonest, or selfish.</li><li>And if we do it right, and live our lives in such a way, perhaps we can serve as someone else's Cato when they need it.</li></ul>

Find Yourself A Cato - Day 215

"Don't trust in your reputation, or position, but in the strength that is yours - namely, your judgements about the things that you control and don't control. For this alone is what makes us free and unfettered, that picks us up by the neck from the depths and lifts us eye to eye with the rich and powerful." - Seneca <ul><li>Once Alexander's way was blocked by a philosopher. "This man has conquered the world. What have you done?" asked one of his men. The philosopher replied, "I have conquered the need to conquer the world". </li><li>This just means focusing inward on acquiring power rather than outward. </li></ul>

How To Be Powerful - Day 93

<ul><li>A powerful perspective lies in ordinary or seemingly unbeautiful events. It takes an artist's eye to see that the end of life is not unlike a ripe fruit falling from its tree.</li><li>It takes a poet to notice the way "baking bread splits in places and those cracks, while not intended in the baker's art, catches our eye and serves to stir our appetite" and find a metaphor in them.</li><li>There is clarity (and joy) in seeing what others can't see, in finding grace and harmony in places others overlook. Isn't that far better than seeing the world as some dark place?</li></ul>

See The World Like A Poet And An Artist - Day 165

<ul><li>The first person you meet today - passing acquaintance or friend - no matter the context - positive or negative - is an opportunity for kindness. For both of you. You can seek to understand who they are, and what forces might be acting on them. And you can treat them well and be better off for it. </li><li>The same is true with the second person you encounter, and the third. Of course, there is no guarantee that they will return the favor, but that's not our concern. As always, we're going to focus on what we control: in this case, the ability to choose to respond with kindness. </li></ul>

The Benefit of Kindness - Day 72

"Meditate often on the swiftness with which all that exists and is coming into being is swept and carried away. For substance is like river's unending flow, its activities continually changing and causes infinitely shifting so that almost nothing stands still." - Marcus Aurelius <ul><li>Life is a contant state of change. To get upset by things is to wrongly assume that they will last. To blame ourselves or others is grabbing at the wind. To resent change is to wrongly assume that you have a choice in the matter. </li><li>Everything is change. Embrace that. Flow with it. </li></ul>

Everything Is Change - Day 101

<ul><li>Epictetus shows us the themes of tolerance and acceptance. Cleanthes and Euripides evoke destiny and fate as concepts that help ease acceptance. When one has a belief in a greater power, then there is no such thing as an event going contrary to plan. </li><li>What happens to us can seem random or upsetting, when in fact these events make perfect sense when our perspective is zoomed out, even just slightly. </li><li>Let's practice this today. Pretend that each event - whether desired or unexpected - was willed to happen, willed specifically for you. You wouldn't fight that much would you? </li></ul>

Maxims From Three Wise Men - Day 105

"Don't behave as if you're destined to live forever. What's fated hangs over you. As long as you live and while you can, become good now." - Marcus Aurelius <ul><li>The reality is, a sword is hanging over all of us - life can be taken from us at any moment. And that threat can send us in one of two directions: we can fear and dread it, or we can use it to motivate us. To do good, to be good. Because the sword is dangling, and there's nothing else to be concerned with. Would you rather it catch you in the middle of some shameful, selfish act or during your wait to be good in the future? </li></ul>

The Sword Dangles Over You - Day 122

<ul><li>Marcus read all of Epictetus's ideas and he absorbed them wholly with a deep understanding. They became part of his DNA as a human being. He quoted them at length over the course of his life, finding real clarity and strength in words, even amid the immense luxury and power he would come to possess.</li><li>That's the kind of deep reading and study we need to cultivate as well, which is why we're reading just one thought a day instead of a book at a time. So we can take the time to read attentively and deeply.</li></ul>

Push For Deep Understanding - Day 171

<ul><li>The Stoics seek steadiness, stability, and tranquility - traits most of us aspire to but seem to experience only fleetingly.</li><li>These can be achieved by filtering the outside world through the straightener of our judgment. That's what our reason can do - it can take the crooked, confusing, and overwhelming nature of external events and make them orderly.</li><li>If our judgments are crooked because we don't use reason, then everything that follows will be crooked and we will lose our ability to steady ourselves in the chaos and rush of life. Proper judgment is the best way to steadiness.</li></ul>

If You Want To Be Steady - Day 157

<ul><li>According to Seneca, philosophy shouldn't have to accept what time or energy is left over from other occupations but instead we should graciously make time for those other pursuits only once our study is finished. </li><li>If real self-improvement is what we're after we why do we leave our reading until those few minutes before we shut off the lights and go to bed? Why do we block 8 to 10 hours to stay at office, but block out no time for thinking about the big questions? The average person manages to squeeze in 28 hours of television per week-but if asked about philosophy they'll say they're too busy.</li></ul>

Who Gets The Lion's Share - Day 85

<ul><li>We resent the person who comes in and tries to boss us around. This is because we are independent, self-sufficient people. Or at least that's what we tell ourselves.</li><li>Yet if someone says something we disagree with, something inside us tells us we have to argue with them.</li><li>We would never let another person jerk us around the way we let our impulses do. It's time we start seeing it that way - that we're not puppets that can be made to dance this way or that way just because we feel like it. We should be the ones in control, not our emotions because we are independent, self-sufficient people.</li></ul>

A Proper Frame Of Mind - Day 180

"To bear trials with a calm mind robs misfortune of its strength and burden" - Seneca <ul><li>You can take a bite out of any tough situation by bringing a calm mind to it. But considering and meditating on it in advance. And this is not true for just our day-to-day adversities but for the greatest and most unavoidable trial of all: our own eventual death. </li><li>Death could come tomorrow or in another forty years. It could be quick and painless or excruciating. Our greatest asset in that ordeal will not be religion or the wise words of the philosophers. It will be, simply, our calm and reasoned mind. </li></ul>

Taking The Bite Out Of It - Day 146

<ul><li>Today, we have forecasters and experts who can fairly accurately predict storm patterns. Today, we're defenseless against a hurricane only if we refuse to prepare or heed the warnings.</li><li>If we don't have a plan, if we never learned how to put up the storm windows, we will be at the mercy of these external - and internal - elements. We're still puny human beings compared with one hundred miles per hour winds, but we have the advantage of being able to prepare - being able to struggle against them in a new way.</li></ul>

Prepare For The Storm - Day 196

<ul><li>It is essential for you to remember that the attention you give to any action should be in due proportion to it's worth, for then you won't tire and give up. </li><li>If you give things more time and energy than they deserve, they're no longer lesser things. You've made them important by the life you've spent on them.</li><li>And sadly, you've made the important things - your family, your health, your true commitments - less so as a result of what you've stolen from them. </li></ul>

Don't Sweat The Small Stuff - Day 16

<ul><li>Instinctively, we protect our physical selves. We don't let people touch us, push us, control where we go. But when it comes to the mind, we're less disciplined. We hand it over willingly to social media, to television, to what other people are doing, thinking, or saying.</li><li>We don't realize how much waste is in it, how inefficient and distracted it makes us.</li><li>To the Stoics, this is an abomination. The mind is ours. We must protect it. Maintain control over your mind and perceptions, they'd say. It's your most prized possession.</li></ul>

Don't Unintentionally Hand Over Your Freedom - Day 213

<ul><li>Why are you reading these entries? Not to pass your time - there are plenty of easier choices than reading. Because you are learning how to live. Because you want to be freer, fear less, and achieve a state of peace. Education - reading and meditating on the wisdom of great minds - is not to be done for its own sake. It has a purpose.</li><li>Remember that imperative on the days you start to feel distracted, when watching television or having a snack seems like a better use of your time than reading or studying philosophy. Knowledge - self knowledge in particular - is freedom.</li></ul>

Education Is Freedom - Day 149

<ul><li>Philosophy attracts introverts. The study of human nature can make you aware of other people's faults and can breed contempt for others. So do struggle and difficulty - they isolate us from the world. </li><li>But none of that changed that we are, as Aristotle put it, social animals. We need each other. We must be there for each other. We must take care of each other (and to allow others to care for us in return). To pretend otherwise is to violate our nature, to be more or less than what is means to be a human being. </li></ul>

We Were Made For Each Other - Day 83

"You are not your body and hairstyle, but your capacity for choosing well. If your choices are beautiful, so too will you be." - Epictetus<ul><li>You might look beautiful today, but if that was the result of vain obsession in the mirror this morning, the Stoics would ask, are you actually beautiful? A body built from hard work is admirable. A body built to impress gym rats is not.</li><li>That's what the Stoics urge us to consider. Not how things appear, but what effort, activity, and choices they are a result of.</li></ul>

The Beauty Of Choice - Day 222

<ul><li>I'll be happy when I graduate when I get this promotion when I do this or that. Psychologists call this conditional happiness. Like the horizon, you can walk for miles but you'll never reach it.</li><li>Eagerly anticipating some future event, passionately imagining something you desire, looking forward to some happy scenario - as pleasurable as these activities might seem, they ruin your chance at happiness here and now. Locate the yearning for more, better, someday and see it for what it is: the enemy of your contentment. Choose it or your happiness, because these two are not compatible.</li></ul>

The Enemy Of Happiness - Day 195

Do now what nature demands of you. Get right to it if that's in your power. Don't wait for the perfect timing.<ul><li>There is plenty that you could do right now, today, plenty of small steps, were you to take them, would help move things forward.</li><li>Don't excuse yourself from doing them because the conditions aren't right or because a better opportunity might come along soon. Do what you can, now!</li><li>And when you've done it, don't overblow the results and always keep it in perspective. Shun both excuse and ego, before and after.</li></ul>

Start where the world is - Day 2

"You know what wine and liqueur tastes like. It makes no difference whether a hundred or a thousand bottles pass through your bladder." Senca <ul><li>As fun and exciting pleasures are, it's worth putting them in their place. You don't get a prize at the end of your life for having consumed more, worked more, spent more, collected more, or learned more about the various vintages than everyone else. You are just a conduit,a vessel that temporarily held or interacted with these fancy items. </li><li>If you find yourself lusting over them, this might help reduce their luster just a smidge. </li></ul>

Meaningless... Like A Fine Wine - Day 140

<ul><li>All things die. Not just people but companies, kingdoms, religions, and ideas - eventually. The Roman republic lasted 450 years. The Roman Empire lasted 500 years. The longest recorded life of a human being is 122 years. </li><li>The average life expectancy in the United States is over seventy-eight. In other countries and eras, it has been more and it has been less. But in the end, we all succumb, as Marcus said, to the rhythm of events-of which there is always a final, determined beat. There is no need to dwell on this fact, but there is no point in ignoring it either. </li></ul>

The Beat Goes On - Day 128

<ul><li>It's never great to judge other people, but it's worth taking a second to investigate how a life dedicated to indulging every whim actually works out.</li><li>Ever wonder what God thinks of money? Just look at the people he gives it to. The same goes for pleasure. Look how quickly the partying of a young starlet turns to drug addiction and a stalled cancer.</li><li>Ask yourself: Is that really worth it? Is it really that pleasurable?</li><li>Consider that when you crave something or contemplate indulging in a "harmless" vice.</li></ul>

The Grand Parade Of Desire - Day 198

<ul><li>At a Roman triumph, everyone would keep praising the victorious general. Only a few would notice the aide whispering into his ear, "Remember, thou art mortal." What a reminder at the peak of glory. </li><li>In our lives we can train to be that whisper. When there is something or someone we love, whisper that it is fragile and mortal. No matter how strong something feels, it never is. We must remind ourselves that it can break, die and leave us. </li><li>Loss is one of our deepest fears. Ignorance and pretending don't make things any better. They just mean the loss will be all the more jarring when it occurs. </li></ul>

Train To Let Go Of What's Not Yours - Day 110

<ul><li>We have an irrational fear of acknowledging our own mortality. We avoid thinking about it because we think it will be depressing. In fact, reflecting on mortality often has the opposite effect - invigorating us more than saddening us. Why? Because it gives us clarity. </li><li>If you had only a week to live, what changes would you make? If you died but were resuscitated, how different would your perspective be? </li><li>There's no risk of getting caught up in petty matters or distractions. Instead of denying our fear of death, let's let it make us the best people we can be. Today! </li></ul>

The Cards We're Dealt - Day 123

<ul><li>The notion of original sin has weighed down humankind for centuries. In reality, we're made to be good to each other.</li><li>You were born good. All of us have been made by nature, so that we can live free from error and nobly - not that one can and another can't, but all. You were born with an attraction to virtue & self-mastery. If you've gotten far from that, it's not out of some inborn corruption but from a nurturing of the wrong things and ideas. As Seneca has pointed out, philosophy is a tool to strip it all away - to get back to our true nature.</li></ul>

You Were Born Good - Day 86

"But I haven't at any time been hindered in my will, nor forced against it. And how is this possible? I have bound up my choice to act with the will of God. God wills that I be sick, such is my will. He wills that I should choose something, so do I. He will that I reach for something, or something be given to me-I wish for the same. What God doesn't will, I do not wish for." - Epictetus<ul><li>And so it goes will all our ventures. No matter how much preparation, how skilled or smart we are, the ultimate outcome is with God or fate or luck or whatever you want to call it. The sooner we know the better.</li></ul>

Binding Our Wishes To What Will Be - Day 88

<ul><li>There is only one thing that causes unhappiness. It's attachment. Attachments to a specific person, place, time, job or a lifestyle.</li><li>Attachments are what make it so hard to accept change. Once we have them, we don't want to let go. We become slaves to maintaining the status quo. </li><li>But everything is in a constant state of change. We have certain things for a while and then lose them. The only permanent thing is our reasoned choice. They are resilient and adaptable. The sooner we become aware of this the better. The easier it will be to accept and adapt to what does happen. </li></ul>

Attachments Are The Enemy - Day 109

"You are afraid of dying. But, come now, how is this life of yours anything but death?" - Seneca <ul><li>Most of us are afraid of dying. But sometimes this fear begs the question: To protect what exactly? For a lot of people the answer is: hours of television, gossiping, wasting potential, reporting to a boring job, and on and on and on. Expect, in the strictest sense, is this actually a life? Is this worth gripping so tightly and being afraid of losing? </li><li>It doesn't sound like it. </li></ul>

What Are You So Afraid Of Losing - Day 139

<ul><li>Marcus Aurelius didn't want to be emperor. Epictetus lived his life like a slave. Our station in life can be as random as a roll of dice. Some of us are into previlage and others adversity. Sometimes opportunities, other times a lucky break, but to us it feels like a burden.</li><li>Whatever happens, our job is not to complain but to do the best we can to accept it and fulfill it. Is there still room for ambition? Of course! History tells us stories with bit parts turned into starring roles in future adaptations. But all this begins with acceptance - and a desire to excel at what we have been assigned.</li></ul>

Actors In A Play - Day 94

"He was sent to prison. But the observation 'he has suffered evil', is an addition coming from you" - Epictetus <ul><li>This is classic Stoic thinking, as you've gathered by now. An event itself is objective. How we describe it - that it was unfair, or it's a great calamity - is on us. Malcolm X went into prison a criminal, but he left as an educated, religious, and motivated man who would help in the struggle for civil rights. Did he suffer an evil? Or did he choose to make his experience a positive one? </li></ul>Acceptance isn't passive. It's the first step in an active process toward self-improvement.

You Choose The Outcome - Day 100

Wherever a person can live, there one can also live well;<ul><li>Abraham Lincoln is the most renowned politician of his time. Even at a profession like that, he was able to be compassionate, humble, open-minded and purposeful.</li><li>Principles and pragmatism are not at odds. Whether you live in the white house or in a jail or in a closed-minded small town, you can live well if you choose to. Plenty of other have! It's your principles that govern your way of life.</li></ul>

Pragmatic and Principled - Day 1

"An old man has no other evidence besides age to prove that he has lived a long life" - Seneca<ul><li>One day, our hours will begin to run out. It would be nice to be able to say: "Hey I really made the most of it." Not in the form of achievements, not money, not status - you know what the Stoics think of all that - but in wisdom, insight, and real progress in the things that all humans struggle against. </li><li>What if you could say that you really made something of this time that you had? What if you could prove that you really did live [insert number] years? And not just lived them, but lived them fully? </li></ul>

What Do You Have To Show For Your Years - Day 137

<ul><li>All of us have used phrases like, "I'm going to be straightforward with you here... ", "I'll be honest with you... ", "No disrespect but..." Empty expressions or not, if you say you're being honest now, does that mean you usually aren't? </li><li>What if, instead, you cultivated a life and a reputation in which honesty was as emphatic and explicit as a contract, as permanent as a tattoo? Not only would it save you from needing to use the reassurances that other, less scrupulous people must engage in, it will make you a better person. </li></ul>

Honesty As Our Default - Day 66

<ul><li>Today there will be endless interruptions: calls, mails, visitors. A philosopher knows that their default state should be one of reflection and inner awareness. That's why they protect their personal space and thoughts from the intrusions of the world. </li><li>Senaca reminds us that while we might be good at protecting our physical property, we are far too lax at enforcing our mental boundaries. Property can be regained - some of it still untouched by man. But time? Time is our most irreplaceable asset - we cannot buy more of it. We can only strive to waste as little as possible. </li></ul>

Spendthrifts Of Time - Day 125

<ul><li>Think of all the things you can be grateful for today. That you are alive, you live in a time of peace, you have enough health and leisure to read these entries. What of the little things? The person who smiled at you, that song you like on the radio, the pleasant weather. </li><li>Gratitude is infectious. It's positivity is radiant. </li><li>Even if today was your last day - would there still be plenty to be grateful for? How much better would your life be if you kicked off every day like that? If you let it carry through from morning to night and touch every part of your life? </li></ul>

Give Thanks - Day 145

<ul><li>It's pretty obvious that one should keep away from the wicked and two-faced as much as possible. Marcus is reminding us to avoid false friends.</li><li>But what if we turn it around? We've all been frenemy at one point or another. We've been nice to their face - usually because there was something in it for us - but later, in different company, we said how we really felt. Ore we've strung someone along, cared only when things were going well, or declined to help even though someone needed us.</li><li>This behaviour is beneath us - and worth remembering the next time we accuse someone else of being a bad friend.</li></ul>

Frenemies - Day 73

"That which isn't good for the hive, isn't good for the bee. That which doesn't harm the community can't harm the individual." - Marcus Aurelius Just because something is bad for you doesn't mean it's bad for everyone. Just because something is good for you definitely doesn't mean it's good for everyone. A good stoic understands that proper impulses, and the right actions that arise from them, naturally carry the good of the whole, which is the wise person's only good. Conversely, good and wise actions by the whole are what's good for the individual.

All For One, One For All - Day 59

Try praying differently, and see what happens: instead of a 'way to get rid of him,' try asking for 'a way to not crave his demise.' <ul><li>Prayer has a religious connotation, but in life we all find ourselves hoping and asking for things. </li><li>We want divine intervention so that our lives will magically be easier. But what about asking for fortitude and strength so you can do what you need to do? What if you sought clarity on what you do control, what is already within your power? You might find your prayers have already been answered. </li></ul>

A Different Way To Pray - Day 39

<ul><li>What's the meaning of life? Most of us struggle with this question. Rarely do we find much in the way of direction. But that's because we miss the point. As Viktor Frankl points out, it is not our question to ask. Instead, it is we who are being asked the question. It's our lives that are the answer. </li><li>No amount of travel or reading or clever sages can tell you what you want to know. Instead, it is you who must find the answer in your actions, in living the good life - by embodying the self-evident principles of justice, self-control, courage, freedom, and abstaining from evil. </li></ul>

Marks Of The Good Life - Day 75

<ul><li>Self-deception and ego are the sworn enemy of our ability to learn and grow. We will be unable to improve, to learn, to earn the respect of others if we think we're already perfect, a genius admired far and wide.</li><li>In this sense, ego and self-deception are the enemies of the things we wish to have because we delude ourselves into believing that we already possess them.</li><li>So we must meet ego with the hostility and contempt that it insidiously deploys against us - to keep it away, if only for twenty-four hours at a time.</li></ul>

Self Deception Is Our Enemy - Day 219

<ul><li>A Zen master who had a beautiful cup would repeat to himself, "The glass is already broken." He enjoyed the cup and used it, but in his mind it was already broken. And so one day when it actually did break, he said, "Of course."</li><li>Devastation - that feeling of shock - is a factor of how unlikely we considered the event. No one is wrecked by the fact that it's snowing in the winter, because we've accepted (and even anticipated) this turn of events. What about the occurrences that surprise us? We might not be so shocked if we took the time to consider their possibility. </li></ul>

The Glass Is Already Broken - Day 108

<ul><li>A virtuous person does not jump to hasty judgements about other people. A virtuous person is generous with assumptions: that something was an accident, that someone didn't know, that it won't happen again. This makes life easier to bear and makes us more tolerant. Meanwhile, assuming malice - the most hasty of judgements - makes everything harder to bear. </li><li>Be deliberate and accommodating with your assumptions about other people and you'll find, as Marcus says, calmer dead and fairer weather. </li></ul>

Give People The Benefit Of The Doubt - Day 70

"If the breaking day sees someone proud, the ending day sees them brought low. No one should put too much trust in triumph, No one should give up hope of trails improving. God mixes one with the other and stops fortune from resting, spinning every fate around. No one has has so much divine favor that they could guarantee themselves tomorrow. God keeps our lives hurtling on, spinning in a whirlwind"-Seneca<ul><li>No amount of prosperity, no amount of difficulty, is certain or forever. A triumph becomes a trial, a trail becomes a triumph. Life can change in an instant. Remember, how often it does today.</li></ul>

Someone Else Is Spinning The Thread - Day 92

<ul><li>Let's say someone has treated you rudely. It's natural to think: Oh that's how the world works, or One day it will be my turn to be like that. </li><li>But the proper response - indeed the best revenge - is to exact no revenge at all. If you meet other people's dishonesty with dishonesty of your own, guess what? You're proving them right - now everyone is a liar. </li><li>Instead, today, let's seek to be better than the things that disappoint or hurt us. It's awful to cheat, to be selfish, to feel the need to inflict pain on our fellow beings. Meanwhile, living morally and well is quite nice. </li></ul>

Revenge Is A Dish Best Not Served - Day 68

<ul><li>Most teenagers put in half-hearted, lazy efforts which give them a ready-made excuse: "It doesn't matter. I wasn't even trying."</li><li>As we grow older, failure is not inconsequential anymore. What's at stake is not some grade or sports trophy, but the quality of your life and your ability to deal with the world around you.</li><li>Don't let that intimidate you, though. You have the best teachers in the world: the wisest philosophers who ever lived. And not only you are capable, but the professor is also asking for something very simple: just begin the work. The rest follows.</li></ul>

Reboot The Real Work - Day 164

<ul><li>Philosophy is intimidating. Where does one start? With books? With lectures? With selling worldly possessions?</li><li>Epictetus is saying that one becomes a philosopher when they begin to exercise their guiding reason and start to question the emotions and beliefs that others take for granted. Perhaps we could say that we begin our journey into philosophy when we become aware of the ability to analyze our own minds.</li><li>Can you start with that step today? When you do not want you'll find that from it we really come alive, that we live lives - to paraphrase Socrates - that is actually worth living.</li></ul>

Where Philosophy Begins - Day 206

From the team that brought you The Obstacle Is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy, a beautiful daily devotional of Stoic meditations—an instant Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestseller. Why have history's greatest minds—from George Washington to Frederick the Great to Ralph Waldo Emerson, along with today's top performers from Super Bowl-winning football coaches to CEOs and celebrities—embraced the wisdom of the ancient Stoics? Because they realize that the most valuable wisdom is timeless and that philosophy is for living a better life, not a classroom exercise. The Daily Stoic offers 366 days of Stoic insights and exercises, featuring all-new translations from the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the playwright Seneca, or slave-turned-philosopher Epictetus, as well as lesser-known luminaries like Zeno, Cleanthes, and Musonius Rufus. Every day of the year you'll find one of their pithy, powerful quotations, as well as historical anecdotes, provocative commentary, and a helpful glossary of Greek terms. By following these teachings over the course of a year (and, indeed, for years to come) you'll find the serenity, self-knowledge, and resilience you need to live well.