More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
December 27 - December 31, 2022
“It’s time you realized that you have something in you more powerful and miraculous than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet.” – Marcus Aurelius
You can sum up Stoicism with one simple idea: you need to accept full control of and take total responsibility for your thoughts and actions.
“Don’t seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will—then your life will flow well.”
self-awareness and self-discipline.
Every moment of every day, we make a choice as to how we react and respond to things. It is the only real power we have.
many of us fall into the trap of believing self-promotion is more important than self-improvement.
there is more to life than maintaining a front for the benefit of the outside world.
“We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more in imagination than in reality.” – Seneca
The only thing you can control is your reaction to situations.
Action is the only possible solution to whatever is troubling you.
In order to gain the resilience for tough times, we need to be able to accept whatever comes our way and seek out the lessons contained within.
The important point here is that in the grand scheme of things, no matter who you are, we’re all very small and trivial.
We experience life in the present, but most of the time we’re living in the future or the past, letting the present slip away without conscious thought.
accepting whatever comes your way because every experience is a lesson.
When you see yourself as a tiny speck in the eternity of the cosmos, everything is trivial. Nothing is important. Yet at the same time, everything we do matters, because we are all contributing to something far greater than ourselves.
One of the most important aspects of living a Stoic life is recognising what you can and cannot change. Wasting energy on getting angry or upset with things that are outside of your control is futile when that energy could be better spent on the things you can control.
ask yourself whether an emotional response will help you. Will it change the situation? Is the situation something you have any control over or is the only control you have your reaction?
It doesn’t matter how hard we work; we don’t always get what we deserve, no matter how much we’ve earned it.
“All that is in accord with you is in accord with me, O World! Nothing which occurs at the right time for you comes too soon or too late for me. All that your seasons produce, O Nature, is fruit for me. It is from you that all things come: all things are within you, and all things move toward you.” – Marcus Aurelius
Essentially, amor fati is the attitude that regardless of what comes your way, every experience is to be welcomed and accepted, regardless of whether it appears to be positive or negative.
You should love whatever difficulties you face because they are what forge you into a better person. So just like fuel for a fire, those tough times are fuel for your personal growth.
We discussed earlier how little is within your control and that principle is the foundation to amor fati. Because the only things you have true control over are your thoughts and deeds, the faster you can fully assimilate that into your philosophy of life, the faster you can move past anger, frustration or misery when the universe throws you a curveball. It is deeply empowering to know that you have the ability to make the most of the events in your life, no matter what. The very notion of fate, which is tied up in the concept of amor fati, means that we have no control over our destinies. All
...more
Most of us are pessimists. We feel that things are going to go wrong sooner or later while the good things in life have to be worked for and can be taken away at any moment. Yet we fight ...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
everything happens for a reason, but it’s entirely up to you to decide on what that reason will be.
Life is a game, so play it with all your heart.
the one thing you want from a game is that it challenges you. There’s a buzz that comes from winning that difficult level or beating that tough opponent you simply don’t get when the game is easy.
Seneca’s essay ‘De Brevitate Vitae’ (On the Shortness of Life) discusses the fact that people waste a lot of their time engaging in meaningless pursuits.
most people stress about how short life is because they’re obsessing about the bad things that have happened in the past, worried about what the future will bring, failing to notice what’s going on in front of them right now.
time is the most valuable thing you have,
If you’ve been sleepwalking through life, now’s the time to wake up.
Instead, you reprioritise your expectations so you’re focusing on being your best self rather than feeding your ego.
is the time to be more intentional in your consumerism.
whatever way makes most sense to you.
simply get on with
This isn’t a race.
nobody wins at life.
“First, having what is essential, and second, having what is enough.”
How long can you afford to put off who you really want to be?
