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Whoever we are, wherever we are—what matters is our choices.
A MORNING RITUAL
“Ask yourself the following first thing in the morning: What am I lacking in attaining freedom from passion? What for tranquility? What am I? A mere body, estate-holder, or reputation? None of these things. What, then? A rational being. What then is demanded of me? Meditate on your actions.
How did I steer away from serenity? What did I do that was unfriendly, unsocial, or uncaring? What did I f...
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Many successful people have a morning ritual.
For some, it’s meditation. For others,
it’s exercise. For many, it’s jou...
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Every day, starting today, ask yourself these same tough questions.
Let philosophy and hard work guide you to better answers, one morning at a time, over the course of a life.
THE DAY IN REVIEW
“I will keep constant watch over myself and—most usefully—will put each day up for review.
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.
Keep your own journal, whether it’s saved on a computer or in a little notebook. Take time to consciously recall the events of the previous day. Be unflinching in your assessments.
Seneca
money only marginally changes life. It doesn’t solve the problems that people without it seem to think it will.
External things can’t fix inte...
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pain. As Hemingway would later write of Fitzgerald, “He thought [the rich] were a special glamorous race and when he found they weren’t it wrecked him
Without a change the same will be true for us.
PUSH FOR DEEP UNDERSTANDING
I learned to read carefully and not be satisfied with a rough understanding of the whole,
Edmund Wilson read books “as though the author was on trial for his life.”
can take the time to read attentively and deeply.
THE ONLY PRIZE
limit our action or inaction to only what’s in keeping with the needs of our own preparation
If you don’t, you won’t be free, self-sufficient, or liberated from passion, but necessarily full of envy, jealousy, and suspicion for any who have the power to take them, and you’ll plot against those who do have what you prize.
Warren Buffett, whose net worth is approximately $65 billion, lives in the same house he bought in 1958 for $31,500.
Why? It’s not because these men are cheap. It’s because the things that matter to them are cheap.
Neither Buffett nor Urschel nor Leonard ended up this way by accident. Their lifestyle is the result of prioritizing. They cultivate interests that are decidedly below their financial means, and as a result,
any income would allow them freedom to pursue the things th...
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This kind of clarity—about what they love most in the world—means they can enjoy their lives. It means they’d still be happy even if the markets were to turn or their careers were cut short by injury. The more things we desire and the more we have to do to earn or attain those ac...
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“Erase the false impressions from your mind by constantly saying to yourself, I have it in my soul to keep out any evil, desire or any kind of disturbance—instead,
A mantra can be especially helpful in the meditative process because it allows us to block out everything else while we focus.
Stoic mantra—a
“I have the power within me to keep that out. I can see the truth.”
THE THREE AREAS OF TRAINING
“There are three areas in which the person who would be wise and good must be trained.
that a person may never miss the mark in desires nor fall into what repels them. The second has to do with impulses to act and not to act—and more broadly, with duty—that a person may act deliberately for good reasons and not carelessly. The third has to do with freedom from deception and composure and the whole area of judgment, the assent...
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which has to do with the passions, for strong emotions arise only when we fail in ou...
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First, we must consider what we should desire and what we should be averse to. Why? So that we want what is good and avoid what is bad. It’s not enough to just listen to your body—because our attractions often lead us astray.
Next, we must examine our impulses to act—that is, our motivations.
Finally, there is our judgment. Our ability to see things clearly and properly comes when we use our great gift from nature: reason.
Our judgment affects what we desire, our desires affect how we act, just as our judgment determines how we act.
We must put real thought and energy into each area of our lives. If we do, we’ll find real clarity and success.
WATCHING THE WISE
“Take a good hard look at people’s ruling principle, especially of the wise, what they run away from and what they seek out.”
Seneca has said, “Without a ruler to do it against, you can’t make crooked straight.”
But pick someone, watch what they do (and what they don’t do), and do your best to do the same.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
“At every moment keep a sturdy mind on the task at hand, as a Roman and human being, doing it with strict and simple dignity, affection, freedom, and justice—giving
Each day presents the chance to overthink things.
