I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.
Catching up on several of these because of family being and town and my lack of effort in making this a regular part of my day.
Thursday - The Big Three
Perception, action, and will are the three disciplines of stoicism. This hit me from a working perspective. I control my own perceptions. I direct my actions. I need to willingly accept things outside my control. This last one is of particular importance because I tend to push against things that are out of my control. I’ve made a career out of it and it’s allowed me to be successful. It’s also led to a lot of anxiety and loss of sleep. It’s gotten better since those incidents and I still have some ways to improve.
Friday - Clarify Your Intentions
Begin with an end in mind. Set a goal. I tend to not done that even for work. I’ve never done a five year plan. I have wanted to advance my career to the management level, so I guess that is some sort of goal. After that though I didn’t have a goal for what next. Which has led to a few years of struggling to find what’s next. I’ve tried to just enjoy life because I don’t want to be so focused on a career that my family and friends miss out.
I’m a bit of an enthusiast for trying and doing new things. Maybe that could be a goal. Either way I need to have some direction or else I am just lending myself to my indulgences which spiral into a chaotic existence. I’ve been there. I don’t want to return.
Saturday - Where, Who, What, and Why
Who are you? Is a simple enough question and deep. If you think about it you may give a superficial answer. When you get down to the core of the question though, it’s who are you and what do you stand for. I’m striving to do this. How much is too much searching?
I read and listen to a great deal of self-improvement content. At one point, I thought that was part of the problem. There were too many voices telling me I need to do this or that. I’ve since pulled back on the self-help advice stuff. I think I may have gone too far at one point and wasn’t getting enough of it. I think one of the core things about me is that I want to constantly improve everyday. It’s just how much of that is too much?
Sunday - Seven Clear Functions of the Mind
This talks about pollution or corruption. I wasn’t totally clear on this as it doesn’t describe pollution or corruption except to talk about what clog’s the mind’s proper function. It’s not clear and what one person considers pollution and corruption doesn’t necessarily constitute another person’s corruption or pollution. To me this is one of the more vague ones that pulls me out of the daily stoic.
Monday - Seeing Our Addictions
I read this at five in the morning because I couldn’t sleep. The idea is to identify our addictions and abstain from them for true freedom. examples given are cups of coffee in the morning or the constant need to check social media. For me it’s definitely alcohol and video games. Which I think was the cause of a lack of sleep. I had been drinking with friends for the most of the day. Instead of stopping (like I’m trying to work on) I had a few more drinks. I was also playing video games then went straight to be (trying to read before bed). Check that I went and watched some TV.
Video games and alcohol are the two things I’ve identified and I’m trying to work on. The question is what other addictions do I have. What other addictions in my day-to-day do I have that I need to work on? And if I have a purpose in the video game, does that mean it’s an addiction?
Today - What We Control and What We Don’t
This was a really interesting one because it presents what is in our control (thoughts) and what’s out of our control (everything else). The body was of particular note to me because how could we not be in control of our body. Then I started to think that we really don’t have much control of our body. It ages, it gets sick, it breaks bone after we’ve made a decision to ride a hand rail.