Why I’m a Stoic and you should be too
I’ve never been a philosopher however political philosophy did account for about 25% of my undergraduate degree where we covered the likes of Plato and Aristotle, through to Kant and Hobbes and on to Nietzsche and Foucault with everyone else in between. I thought I had a fairly good understanding of the various schools of thought until I came across Stoic philosophy late last year and realised although I’d heard the term, I knew little about its true meaning and origin.
What I’ve come to learn whilst delving deeper into the subject is how valuable the Stoic School of thought really is and how we should all practice their way of life in order to fulfil our own lives and the lives of those around us.
Let me start with a brief introduction of what Stoicism is for those who like me, are unaware of its meaning and origins: Stoicism was founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC. The practice of stoicism works by the principles that virtue such as wisdom is what constitutes happiness and that the judgment of such should be based purely on actions and behaviour rather than words online. Furthermore, stoicism asserts that we are not in control of external events and thus we should focus not on that which we can’t control, however on our own responses to the world around us.
This is all well and good, you say, but what does this mean for me? Why should I adopt these practices and how do I implement them in my daily life?
The answer to those questions can be found in the works of three famous stoics: Marcus Aurelius, the last of the so-called ‘five good emperors’ of Rome, Epictetus, who was born a slave and Seneca, a roman statesman and imperial advisor. Whilst these three men had vast differences in their wealth and the freedoms they enjoyed, they have in common that they were all men of action who practiced stoicism through their actions, not their theories.
And this brings us to the crucial difference between stoics and other philosophers. Stoicism is built for action, not endless debate and thus rather than concerning itself with complicated theories about the world, stoicism helps us overcome obstacles and emotions and act upon only that which is in our sphere of influence. Its purpose is practical application, not an intellectual enterprise.
This leads me to a great quote by Marcus Aurelius, from his notes that he wrote himself every day, now known as Meditations.
‘On those mornings you struggle with getting up, keep this though in mind — I am awakening to the work of a human being. Why then am I annoyed that I am going to do what I’m made for, the very things for which I was put into this world? Or was I made for this, to snuggle under covers and keep warm? It’s so pleasurable. Were you then made for pleasure? In short, to be coddle or to exert yourself?’
It’s comforting to know that even the Roman emperor had difficulties getting up in the morning on some days, however he understood that we as human beings have got a purpose in life and we can only be happy if we act upon this.
That’s great you say, but how can I put this into practice?
One of the first basics of stoic ethics is that all people other than myself fall into the ‘not within my power’ bracket. Everything that happens in the world is either in that bracket or ‘within my power’ which constitutes my thoughts, values, imagination, preferences and reactions. The core of stoicism is to focus on the latter since for most people, phenomena such as the weather, history, traffic and actions of others are not within your power.
An example is that you’re on your commute to work and get stuck in awful traffic. You could let this affect your mood and complain and get angry however the stoic will understand that this is out of their power and thus focus on what is within their power such as their thoughts and reactions to this. This allows you to accept the misfortune and re-frame your mind towards another activity such as enjoying some time to ponder your thoughts or listen to the radio or maybe enjoy an audiobook.
In short, stoicism understands and accepts that life is filled with obstacles, adversities and challenges and re-frames these to create opportunities to practice virtue. Whilst we are not in control of the environment around us, we are in control of our mind and how we perceive this environment and thus are always in control of our own happiness.
In book 2 of Meditations, Marcus Aurelius tells himself ‘When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: ‘the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil.’ With this in mind, it’s much easier to feel pity for those people around you who anger and annoy you rather than let their mood affect you.
If all of this hasn’t already convinced you to practice more stoicism in your life, I’ll leave you with a few modern day people who live by these ancient practices.
Bill Clinton reads Meditations by Marcus Aurelius every year. Arnold Schwarzenegger (actor, governor and bodybuilder), LL Cool J (rapper), Michael Lombardi (NFL Coaching staff) and Bill Belichick (head coach of New England Patriots NFL) all have stoic principles in common and tech leaders such as Jack Dorsey (Twitter co-founder), Tim Ferriss (the 4-hour work week) and Brad Feld (venture capitalist) have all been reading stoic works by the author Ryan Holiday who has written many books on the subject.
Next time something pushes you out of your comfort zone, take time to reflect and think about how you choose to react and remember that a human is just a sum of their actions.
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This article was written by Stuart Munnich. If you’d like to know more or receive notifications for future articles, please head over to the Agoge Project Website or subscribe to updates right here!
