Stop wishing things were otherwise and accept the current moment. This prevents rejecting the ‘gift of the moment’ and wasting precious, short life.
Recognize that your upset comes from your judgment about things, not the events themselves. This prevents external events from controlling your emotional state.
Consciously choose your response to unwelcome challenges, aiming to learn and become better. Your reaction, not the event, determines the outcome and your growth.
View obstacles as opportunities to become better, learn, or do something new. This transforms impediments into pathways for progress and growth.
Direct your energy and efforts only towards things within your control. This avoids wasting time and energy on unchangeable aspects and reduces stress.
Accept and confront the reality of a situation, no matter how negative, before attempting to change anything. Change is impossible without first acknowledging the truth.
Accept that life and nature are not inherently fair; things just happen. This avoids wasting energy bemoaning unfairness and feeling uniquely wronged.
Consciously decide to move past prolonged self-flagellation or allowing one negative event to define your entire life. This prevents a single negative event from making the rest of your life horrible.
Believe that even in the worst situations, some good can be found or created. This helps maintain hope and actively seek positive outcomes.
Understand that events are neutral; choose the story you tell yourself about them. This empowers you and prevents you from being a victim of circumstances.
Regularly reflect on your mortality (memento mori) to gain perspective and clarify priorities. This is a singularly valuable exercise for slowing down, being present, and valuing the right things.
When with loved ones, reflect on their mortality to appreciate the moment and avoid taking them for granted. This encourages presence and deep appreciation.
Practice sitting quietly alone, confronting uncomfortable feelings. This addresses the root of many human problems and avoids destructive actions driven by discontent.
Actively protect and prioritize time and space for stillness in your life. This prevents external demands from consuming your inner peace.
Learn to access inner stillness even when external circumstances are chaotic and noisy. Stillness shouldn’t depend solely on external quiet; it’s an internal state.
In chaotic moments, pause, breathe, and accept the present reality without wishing it were different. This helps find stillness and appreciate the moment, even if it’s crazy.
Consistently engage in a daily practice (like meditation) to cultivate stillness and presence throughout the day. A regular practice helps maintain stillness and prevents falling back into old, unhelpful patterns.
Engage in journaling as a personal practice, writing to yourself about thoughts, struggles, and areas for improvement. This fosters a lifelong dialogue with yourself, absorbs ideas, and gains wisdom.
Journal for 5-10 minutes daily to process thoughts and emotions, clearing out mental ‘junk.’ This reduces anxiety, lowers your stress threshold, and prevents minor daily stresses from overwhelming you.
Through journaling, force yourself to reckon with and spell out your thoughts, opinions, and impulses. This helps identify and discard preposterous, illogical, or undesirable thoughts.
Avoid touching your phone for the first hour after waking and don’t sleep with it in the room. This protects your morning from distractions and external demands.
Identify your essential daily work (e.g., writing) and do it as early and for as long as possible, before allowing interruptions. This guarantees daily success and prevents distraction or procrastination from derailing your main task.
Concentrate on consistent daily practices and steps, rather than fixating solely on the desired end outcome. Consistent process leads to eventual success and habit change.
Strive for moderation and balance in all aspects of life, ensuring virtues don’t become vices. Extremes can lead to downfall and pain, even in pursuit of noble goals.
Consider the potential costs of single-minded pursuit of a goal, especially if it compromises other virtues or relationships. This prevents a virtue (like mastery) from becoming a vice and causing downfall.
Question your motivations for pursuing external success and ensure they align with your inner values. This helps avoid sacrificing your true self for superficial achievements.
In situations like job interviews or auditions, reframe your perspective to see yourself as a solution to the other party’s problem. This allows you to approach situations with confidence and persuasiveness, rather than desperation.
Do not suppress emotions or ignore inner demons; address them directly. Ignoring inner turmoil can lead to self-destruction and chaos, even for highly disciplined individuals.
Accept your flaws and mistakes, and be honest about them, especially with your children. Acceptance is the first step towards growth and provides a foundation for honest relationships.
Observe and learn from the struggles, successes, and failures of others, rather than judging them. This helps inform the kind of person you aspire to be.
Resist the urge to assign blame or focus on being right, as this doesn’t improve the situation. Blame is at the heart of many problems and wastes energy.
Stop bemoaning misfortunes, feeling singled out, or hopeless. This consumes precious time, adds stress, and prevents focusing on solutions.
When facing adversity, ask what you can learn, how it’s testing you, and what opportunities it creates to rise above or help others. This helps find purpose and growth in difficult situations.
Actively work towards the common good, even while accepting reality. It’s a core Stoic belief and a way to make a difference.
Focus on the quality and meaning of your life’s actions, rather than just its duration. This ensures your life is well-lived, not just long.
Learn about Stoic philosophy. This helps build resilience and endure life’s challenges.
Reflect on your mortality and the fragility of life. This helps come to terms with existence and prioritize what truly matters.
Expose children to epic stories from history, Aesop’s fables, and poems with morals. This instills wisdom and values through narrative, allowing them to internalize ideas over time.
Repeatedly expose yourself or your children to wise poems or stories (e.g., through illustrated videos). This slowly internalizes profound ideas, even without conscious effort.
Seek out ideas and philosophies presented in narrative or story form. The human brain is wired for narrative, making stories a powerful way to absorb and remember ideas.
Introduce and encourage daily journaling for children. This helps them develop a beneficial daily practice and experience its benefits.
Take your children for a walk in the morning. This allows for spending time together, connecting with nature, and telling stories.
When studying successful individuals, be careful not to rationalize your own worst impulses by attributing their success to those flaws. This ensures you learn positive lessons, not justifications for negative traits.