“Tranquility can’t be grasped except by those who have reached an unwavering and firm power of judgment–the rest constantly fall and rise in their decisions, wavering in a state of alternately rejecting and accepting things. What is the cause of this back and forth? It’s because nothing is clear and they rely on the...
Daily Stoic: Cut the Strings That Pull Your Mind
“Understand at last that you have something in you more powerful and divine than what causes the bodily passions and pulls you like a mere puppet. What thoughts now occupy my mind? Is it not fear, suspicion, desire, or something like that?” ~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 12.19 Inspired by The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations...
Daily Stoic: Circle of Control
“We control our reasoned choice and all acts that depend on that moral will. What’s not under our control are the body and any of its parts, our possessions, parents, siblings, children, or country–anything with which we might associate.” ~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.22.10 Inspired by The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and...
Daily Stoic: The One Path To Serenity
“Keep this thought at the ready at daybreak, and through the day and night–there is only one path to happiness, and that is in giving up all outside of your sphere of choice, regarding nothing else as your possession, surrendering all else to God and Fortune.” ~ Epictetus, Discourses, 4.4.39 Inspired by The Daily...
Daily Stoic: If You Want To Be Unteady
“For if a person shifts their caution to their own reasoned choices and the acts of those choices, they will at the same time gain the will to avoid, but if they shift their caution away from their own reasoned choices to things not under their control, seeking to avoid what is controlled by...
Daily Stoic: If You Want To Be Steady
“The essence of good is a certain kind of reasoned choice; just as the essence of evil is another kind. What about externals, then? They are only the raw material for our reasoned choice, which finds its own good or evil in working with them. How will it find the good? Not by marveling...
Daily Stoic: What We Control And What We Don’t
“Some things are in our control, while others are not. We control our opinion, choice, desire, aversion, and, in a word, everything of our own doing. We don’t control our body, property, reputation, position, and, in a word, everything not of our own doing. Even more, the things in our control are by nature...
My 2021 One-Word Theme of the Year
I don’t think I need to say what a shit-show 2020 was. I don’t think I know anybody who hasn’t lost at least one person or fur baby this year (I’ve lost several). And we all have had plans dashed this year. I was planning on knocking out at least 5 states this year,...
Daily Stoic: Seeing Our Addictions
“We must give up many things to which we are addicted, considering them to be good. Otherwise, courage will vanish, which should continually test itself. Greatness of soul will be lost, which can’t stand out unless it disdains as petty what the mob regards as most desirable.” ~ Seneca, Moral Letters Inspired by The...
Daily Stoic: Seven Clear Functions of the Mind
“The proper work of the mind is the exercise of choice, refusal, yearning, repulsion, preparation, purpose, and assent. What then can pollute and clog the mind’s proper functioning? Nothing but its own corrupt decisions.” ~ Epictetus, Discourses Inspired by The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living Man, the...