This year, I have been reading the Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday, which is a collection of Stoic wisdom from the likes of Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and Seneca, presented in a day-by-day format. I have read the daily lesson almost every evening and noted down the key points in my private journal, and it has benefitted me hugely. Stoicism is essentially based on the idea of focusing on what you can control and I was captivated by the relevance of the lessons to the modern world as most of the literature was written in Ancient times. In this post, I wanted to explain some of the best lessons and concepts that I’ve taken from the book so far, split into sections for Wisdom, Understanding and Emotions and Mindsets. Enjoy!
*The titles of the lessons take the format of ‘summary- date of lesson’
Wisdom
1. Importance of core values- 20/01
The Stoics place great importance on having strong core values and letting them influence your choices more than outside circumstances . This has been something I’ve thought about a lot this year and that I’m trying to implement into my life.
2. You do not need an opinion on everything- 09/02
Another key point from the book is that it is okay to say ‘I don’t know’ or refrain from having an opinion on something. Again, I’m trying to implement this into my life and especially in terms of school- instead of bottling up things I don’t understand, I will just ask.
3. Circumstances do not care about our feelings, so why should we care about them?- 23/02
This is a really interesting point; Marcus Aurelius is quoted here, saying ‘You shouldn’t give circumstances the power to rouse anger, for they don’t care at all.’ This stems from the core idea of Stoicism in that you should focus on what you can control.
4. Don’t unintentionally hand over your freedom- 08/03
This is another interesting idea. The book points out that if someone else had control of your body, you would be furious. However, we willingly hand over our minds to be controlled and affected by the actions of other people and outside circumstances. Put this way, it is hard to not subscribe to the core ideas at the heart of Stoicism.
5. The present is all we possess- everyone has this in common- 15/03
This point speaks for itself. It says that in life, the present is all we really possess and that we should make the most of it.
6. The importance of a plan- 28/03
Here, the Stoics point out that you are much more likely to stumble and fail in what you’re trying to do if you approach the task without a plan. With a plan, you are not guaranteed success, but it is much more likely to happen.
7. Take an inventory of your obligations- 04/03
In this lesson, the idea is to analyse your obligations and mental and physical commitments. It says to ask yourself how many of them are self imposed? How many are really necessary? The key question here is Are you as free as you think?
Understanding
1. Push for a deep understanding of things- 24/01
This is an excellent point; the book references an American writer called Edmund Wilson, who read books ‘as though the author was on trial for his life.’ The core idea here is to read deeply and critically, take notes and absorb the key ideas in texts. Also, you should not just blindly agree with the author, you should challenge them, do further research and come to your own position on the matter at hand.
2. The ability to read, understand and learn is what allows you to improve your circumstances- 16/03
This is something I really believe in. I believe that in the modern world, we have unprecedented access to information, literature and wisdom that previous generations wouldn’t have imagined possible just a few decades ago. The Stoics say that the ability to read and learn is what allows you to change the circumstances of yourself and your family, and I wholeheartedly agree with them here.
3. Let our lives be ruled by reason- 30/03
This lesson essentially teaches that our guiding principle should be reason and we should come back to this whenever we are going through a difficult period or under stress in order to improve our decision making.
Emotions and Mindsets
1. Focus on the present and the task at hand- 29/01
This links to the above point about the present, but this lesson says that we should primarily focus on what we are doing now, and not to worry too much about past or future events. This is something I have actively tried to introduce into my own life, and I have seen tangible benefits in terms of reducing my own anxiety.
2. Being calm is strength- 01/02
This is simply a core principle of Stoicism; it states that the calm person is more powerful than the angry person because they can think better and more rationally about the situation.
3. Control of our own mind- 02/02
This point is similar to the above lesson about handing over your freedom- it states that we wouldn’t let someone else jerk us around the way we let our emotions do and that therefore we should try to exercise more control and rationality over our own emotions.
4. The source of anxiety- wanting things outside of our control- 03/02
This is a core principle at the heart of many philosophies, it states that anxiety stems from wanting things outside of our control. Conversely, Stoicism believes that happiness stems from being happy with what we have.
5. Invincibility- 04/02
For the Stoics, the idea of ‘invincibility’ comes from having the ability to not be upset by anything outside of our reasoned choice. According to the book, gaining this ability allows you to have a kind of ‘superpower’ over others, and I saw this in action when reading a biography of Elon Musk, the American billionaire of Tesla and SpaceX. The year of 2008 is described, when Musk faced several crises; his businesses were on the ropes, he was being hounded in the press and he was going through a divorce from his first wife. However, he did not let any of these outside circumstances affect his decision making and continued to focus on what he could control- finding more funding for his companies, commiting more hours and continuing to believe in his core principles. This allowed him to come out the other side with the businesses recovering, less negative talk in the press and a new marriage. Whilst the autobiography doesn’t explicitly mention Stoicism, the behaviour of Musk during this period appears to display many core Stoic principles.
6. Emotional reactions do not help anything- 08/02
This is another core idea at the heart of Stoicism- reacting emotionally to events and making your decisions accordingly is a bad idea. It is much better to take a step back and make a rational decision based on reason instead.
7. If angry with someone, write a letter to them and never send it- 26/02
This is an interesting idea that apparently came from Abraham Lincoln. If he was angry or upset with someone, he would write them a cross letter about why they are wrong, but never send it. This allowed him to get his anger out of the way to then become more rational in his important decisions.
8. See things as the person at fault does- 12/03
Socrates once said ‘Nobody does wrong willingly.’ The idea here is that no one seriously thinks they are wrong or that they have are doing wrong when they do something and that we should act according to this instead of with cynicism and hindsight. Think about why they did what they did and whether it might have been an attempt to do the right thing that went wrong. The book says that this mindset could change your perspective on otherwise offensive and belligerent actions.
9. There is not really an objective good or bad, circumstances require our reactions to be categorised- 24/02
The lesson here is that objectively, circumstances are not good or bad and it is our reactions that categorise things as such. This made me think of a certain funeral celebration I heard of where there was a parade and a happy atmosphere, to celebrate the life of the person instead of being sad. Though this is controversial, the Stoics’ point stands: events are what we make of them.
These are really interesting and thought provoking ideas. I will think about them as I am sure some will be very helpful to me too.