Daily Stoic Week 36

The Daily Stoic

The Practicing Stoic

Meditations

How to Be a Stoic

If you have anger issues, this one is a great tool (h/t mindyourbusiness)

September 10

“Here’s a lesson to test your mind’s mettle: take part of a week in which you have only the most meager and cheap food, dress scantly in shabby clothes, and ask yourself if this is really the worst that you feared. It is when times are good that you should gird yourself for tougher times ahead, for when Fortune is kind the soul can build defenses against her ravages. So it is that soldiers practice maneuvers in peacetime, erecting bunkers with no enemies in sight and exhausting themselves under no attack so that when it comes they won’t grow tired.”
—SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 18.5–6

 

I got to practice being hungry and a little stressed out last Sunday. Had a few issues with my Saab and we wound up going to our favorite local place for breakfast at 10:30am. It was packed(we usually avoid it on Sundays). I was starving and we waited 45 minutes for our table and then another 45 minutes for food. My wife kept trying to get me to leave because she knows this will make me HANGRY. I managed to stay cheerful and we had a good time there. A year ago, I would have thought this was impossible, because I get cranky when I’m hungry and always thought there was nothing I could do about it.

 

September 11

“Let us get used to dining out without the crowds, to being a slave to fewer slaves, to getting clothes only for their real purpose, and to living in more modest quarters.”
—SENECA, ON TRANQUILITY OF MIND, 9.3b

I mostly live a simple life. I am not one to go to fancy places, nor do I follow fashion(unless work boots, t-shirts, and jeans with long hair is fashionable). I do have a pretty truck that I enjoy, but my daily driver is a 2005 Saab. My house is larger than I need, and that is not going to change. I think it’s important that I live here because I like it, not because I am trying to impress anyone.

 

September 12

“Zeno always said that nothing was more unbecoming than putting on airs, especially with the young.”
—DIOGENES LAERTIUS, LIVES OF THE EMINENT PHILOSOPHERS, 7.1.22

I don’t act haughty and I will not tolerate people that do. I used to get picked on because I never had name brand clothes or shoes. To this day, my wife thinks that is why Louis Vuitton, Gucci or similar things make me roll my eyes. Now as a grownup, I still see the same attitude with some of my co-workers clothes and purses. I don’t get it and I hope I never do.

 

September 13

“No, it is events that give rise to fear—when another has power over them or can prevent them, that  person becomes able to inspire fear. How is the fortress destroyed? Not by iron or fire, but by judgments . . . here is where we must begin, and it is from this front that we must seize the fortress and throw out the tyrants.”
—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.1.85–86; 87a

My mind is my defense against the external forces trying to get me stressed out or angry. As long as I an able to correctly ascertain what I control and what is totally outside of my control, my fortress is strong. When I allow hunger or tiredness to cause me to snap at my wife, it crumbles from the inside. How strong the fortress remains is up to me.

 

September 14

“Try praying differently, and see what happens: Instead of asking for ‘a way to sleep with her,’ try asking for ‘a way to stop desiring to sleep with her.’ Instead of ‘a way to get rid of him,’ try asking for ‘a way to not crave his demise.’ Instead of ‘a way to not lose my child,’ try asking for ‘a way to lose my fear of it.’”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 9.40.(6)

I have been a believer in this type of prayer for a while. When I used to go to church with my wife and I tried to see if I could find faith, I never saw the sense in praying for God to do something for me. All the evidence I saw showed me God does not care what happens to us physically. Instead of praying for help I would pray for the resolve needed for what we were struggling with at the time. I still do it, but not so much as a prayer, more as an internal pep talk.

 

September 15

“First practice not letting people know who you are—keep your philosophy to yourself for a bit. In just the manner that fruit is produced—the seed buried for a season, hidden, growing gradually so it may come to full maturity. But if the grain sprouts before the stalk is fully developed, it will never ripen. . . . That is
the kind of plant you are, displaying fruit too soon, and the winter will kill you.”
—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.8.35b–37

Maybe back then, being a Stoic was something people aspired to, so new students would brag about being Stoics. Now it is easy to not tell people the philosophy I follow. Most people I know think I am odd, this would help validate that to them. I have received comments in the past from people noticing that I was not easy to stress out. They had no idea what it was, but they noticed I handled things differently than most.

 

September 16

“Success comes to the lowly and to the poorly talented, but the special characteristic of a great person is to triumph over the disasters and panics of human life.”
—SENECA, ON PROVIDENCE, 4.1

We all know people that are successful in spite of themselves. I was passed over for promotion and saw other people that were slicker, but not as competent, get promoted. I also knew some really great Marines that blew out knees or had other issues that caused them to get medically discharged. Life is not fair and whining or getting angry about it does nothing to improve my situation.

 

This week’s music is from Fight, Rob Halford’s band after he left Judas Priest. I was never a big Priest fan, but Halford can definitely sing.

Halford though with a stripped down thrash band kicked some serious ass.

 

 

 

War of Words is an excellent album with four amazing songs  and the rest are very good.