Stoicism is an ancient school of philosophy from the Greek and Roman times. In recent years, many people, myself included, have taken an interest in stoicism due to it’s usefulness in developing self-control and overcoming destructive emotions.

Famous stoics include figures such as Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius. And although much of stoic wisdom applies to everyday struggles, we can even take and apply that wisdom to our own deepest endeavors.

So if you’re looking to improve in your own pursuits, whether it be your career, your hobby, or just life in general, lets dive into how the stoics mastered life.

First Start With Purpose

“Everything, a horse, a vine, is created for some duty. For what task, then, were you yourself created? A man’s true delight is to do the things he was made for.” - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.19

The stoics understood that everything in life has a purpose. From the sky above your head to the grass beneath your feet, purpose is what gives life meaning. Without purpose, we are lost - and troubled times come easy. So one of the ways the stoics mastered life was by focusing on their own purpose.

So how do we find our purpose? How do we find what we as humans are meant for? Forget even thinking about mastery, it’s difficult to find something we like in the first place. And what if we have the opposite problem? What if we like too many things and can’t pick one?

If you are having difficulty determining what you want to do, lets first turn to this quote by Epictetus.

“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”

“If you wish to be a writer, write.” - Epictetus

It’s that simple. As humans, I think we overcomplicate purpose.

Take for example, Bob. Bob is a college student who has no idea what he wants to do in life. His major, like many, is undecided and he’s confused because he has so many choices. Like everyone else, Bob wants to make money, but he doesn’t want to rot in an office doing something he hates. What Bob doesn’t realize is that the choice he makes now isn’t a choice for life. If he’s interested in photography, he can try that out for a month and see if he likes it. Then, if he realizes it’s not for him, he can try something else. Eventually, there will be something that outshines the rest. Something that takes him by storm. Something he can’t wait to get up in the morning to do. He’s excited, he’s passionate, he has purpose. He says, “This is it. This is the thing.”

If you are struggling to find purpose in life right now, pick something, anything. If you feel like drawing, draw. If you want to learn how to sing, do it. It doesn’t have to be the perfect decision, because we can always change our paths later. And like Bob, we can eventually find something that will wake us up in the morning.

Improve Like a Stoic

“If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one's own self-deception and ignorance.” - Marcus Aurelius

If we wish get anything in life we must improve. And to improve means being able to take feedback. To think you know everything is a folly in itself and is what often holds many people back in life. Like in the quote above, the truth has never harmed anyone. Trying to fight and deny the truth however, will instead hurt us.

We’ll use Shelly in this example. Shelly is a young and talented artist, a painter. She has grown up with people around her telling her about how good she was. She went through life believing she was the next Picasso or DaVinci. However, as she entered her twenties, she reached a standstill. She art stopped improving. And instead of asking her peers and mentors around her for guidance, she pushed them away. Many would offer help and give her feedback, however she denied them and called them haters. If people didn’t agree with her they must be against her, because how could they possibly comprehend her genius? So as she went through life, things only got harder. Eventually, those around her she once saw as untalented and unqualified, left her in the dust.

Quite a dismal story isn’t it?

The thing is, Shelly’s problem wasn’t a matter of talent or hard work. Her problem was that she continued to persist in her own self-deception and ignorance. Despite being shown her faults she chose to protect her pride instead.

Epictetus once said:

“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.” - Epictetus, Discourses

When we take any form of criticism, it’s going to hurt. Whenever we try new things, we’re going to suck at it. That is the natural course of development. And so taking advice from others can be painful. It can make us feel dumb and feel like a failure. However, these are normal feelings that should be embraced not repelled. If we can learn to be content with this feeling, because we understand that failing means learning, we can take people’s feedback and use it to improve both our craft and our life.

Stoic Essentialism

“If you seek tranquillity, do less.” Or (more accurately) do what’s essential . . . Which brings a double satisfaction: to do less, better.” - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.24

The modern concept of “less is more”, aka “essentialism”, was also practiced by the ancient stoics. The stoics understood that doing too much can cost us our inner peace. And it’s often in modern society that we find ourselves trapped in cycles of overwork. We have so many projects to work on, we have to go to the gym, we gotta meditate, Joe Rogan said I should ice bath. There’s so much to do, and I haven’t even mentioned managing our relationships, friends, and family. And so there’s this common misunderstanding that to manage a busy and hectic life, we must find a way do more. However, the exact opposite is true. We must do less.

If we find ourselves busy, busy, busy.

Stop for a moment and question yourself: Busy doing what?

Remember what Marcus Aurelius wrote: most of what we say and do is not essential. Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?’

I find myself having to catch myself all the time. When it comes to photography, I’ve noticed that choosing to remove everything that doesn’t need to be in the photo usually gives a better result. When it comes to things like youtube, I do my best to eliminate the videos and ideas that are unimportant and non-essential. This makes the process 10x easier and I feel less overwhelmed in my daily life.

So if you find yourself overwhelmed in life, you’re doing too much. And the solution is not to figure out how you can squeeze every single waking hour to do more. The solution is to eliminate everything that is non-essential. Because if it’s not worth doing, it’s not worth doing.

Being True to Oneself

In life we face two problems:

1. being true to yourself

2. dealing with the thoughts and opinions of others

We are all unique individuals. We all have unique opinions, perspectives, and personalities that make us uniquely us. And there is no one out there who is exactly the same as you. Therefore it is important to learn how to be true to yourself no matter what others are saying. It’s the only way to truly live a life you love.

There’s a great quote by Marcus Aurelius:

“Whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my colour.” - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

So the stoics understood that there is a core nature or element to you as a person that must be preserved. If you stray too far from that path, you end up living someone else’s life.

So if you find yourself facing difficult decisions, ask yourself: who am I and what do I want?

And it’s often that trying to be true to ourselves comes into comflict with the opinions of others.

This segways into the second problem of life: dealing with the thoughts and opinions of others.

How the Stoics Dealt With Opinions

In life we are constantly surrounded by the opinions of others. Whether they meant it or not, the things people say can affect how we live our lives. And to live a good life we must at some point learn to discard the opinions of others. People will always think what they think and how we feel about it will not change that.

Marcus Aurelius wrote, “It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.”

This one hits true for me because I feel like in my own life I’ve struggled and dealt with the opinions of others. I used to worry too deeply about what I wanted to do in my own life and picking the path of art and photography was hard for me. I used to think pursuing a career in something like this was silly and that it wouldn’t make money and that by doing what other people wanted would make me happy. But that just had me playing their game not mine. And so I had to relinquish the ideas of what people wanted for my life and I had to discard the opinions of others. Part of it is embracing and being true to myself, part of it is not caring about their opinion. My life, I’ll live it how I want.

And so if we wish to master life like the stoics, we must:

1. Find our purpose. We begin by doing something. “If you wish to write, write.”

2. We must be willing to be seen as dumb, so we can improve. Throw away your pride so you can learn and grow.

3. We must remove the non-essentials, so we can focus on what matters. If you’re overwhelmed, you’re doing too much.

4. We must be true to ourselves so we can shine in our own way. You are unique. Stick to that.

5. We must discard the opinions of others, because they are not in our control. Your life, live it how you want.

To end things, I saved the best quote for last which will hopefully guide you in your journey. Make sure you like and subscribe for more, and as always thank you for watching!

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.47