The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher's Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient

by William B. Irvine

Some will reject the advice that we keep our good news to ourselves. They are convinced that we should share our successes with friends and relatives, and that doing so brings our joy into their lives. This can happen, but it is also possible for people to respond in a negative manner to our good news.

Suppose, in particular, that as the result of our successes, we start getting cocky, as if this is simply the way things are supposed to be. On detecting such an attitude, friends and relatives are likely to start rooting against us, albeit secretly.

Our socially safest response, under these

circumstances, is to attribute our success to luck.

!

last-time meditation, in which you acknowledge that because you are mortal, there will be a last time for everything you do. There will be a last time you flip a light switch, a last time you eat dinner, and a last time you say goodbye to your parents, spouse, children, and friends.

These last-time meditations may sound depressing, but they have the power to infuse everyday occurrences with meaning.

prospective retrospection. To employ this technique, you periodically pause, as you are going about your daily routine, to reflect on the likelihood that at some point in the future, you will wish you could travel back in time to this very moment.

In doing prospective retrospection, you simply remind yourself that at the present moment, almost regardless of what you are doing, you are quite likely living in the dream world of your future self.

In doing these meditations, you are not dwelling on death. They are momentary, impromptu exercises, and rather than being depressing, they can be curiously revitalizing.

Like any Stoic test, our Stoic exit exam has two components. The first is to look for a workaround for the setback.

Suppose, however, that our search for a workaround is unsuccessful. Our death, we conclude, is both imminent and unavoidable. We must then turn our attention to a different undertaking: having the best death possible. This is when our Stoic training can come into play.

as long as your continued existence can help others, Stoics would regard it as cowardly to commit suicide.

your editor refuses to give you a deadline. She can download and publish your manuscript whenever she wants. Maybe she’ll do it tomorrow, or maybe she’ll wait several decades. The novel’s deadline, in other words, will resemble your life’s quite literal dead line. Your goal, under such circumstances, should be to make sure that no matter when your editor publishes your novel, it will stand as a complete work—or as complete as is humanly possible.