Daily Stoic(s)

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

Friday - How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything

Live in the moment. How you do anything is how you do everything. Constantly stuck in the past and the future will define us. Instead we’re meant to live in the current moment. I think we can set where we want to be. The five year plan. It’s good to set that not live in that future moment. This is something I’ve lost in the last couple of years. I had a direction of where I wanted to go and lived mostly in that moment. Now that I’ve gotten here I don’t have something to look to. I started living in the past. How was I like that and I’m not now.

Living in the moment is not something I tend to do. I tend to think about getting to the weekend or getting to later in the evening and the kids are in bed and I can do what I want. I’m going to work on living more in the current moment. Focusing on what needs to be done in that moment. We can make plans we shouldn’t let them consume us.

Yesterday - Learn, Practice, Train

Practice makes perfect. Like sports or military we have to practice to get better at something. Even guys who have been in the league or military for 20 years continue to learn, practice, and train. For athletes they have to learn how to deal with slower reaction times. For military people they have to learn in higher and higher leadership roles. This is something I’ve started to realize with my career. I got to a senior position in IT. Then I got promoted to manager. I’m back at the bottom of the rung. I’ve got a whole new skilset I need to learn, practice, and train. This comforts me because it gives me new direction in my life.

Today - Quality Over Quantity

There are too many books to read for us to get to all them. We should choose quality over the amount of books we read. I love what Ryan Holiday recommends. Ask people you admire for the book that changed their life. I love that notion of finding out what really provided impact to people. I like to read and my Amazon shopping list is filled with lots of books that have been recommended to me. I don’t know if I’ll get to even those in my lifetime. I think it’s also worth realizing that if I’m not connecting with a book to bail on it. One book that I’ve heard tons of people recommend is the 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch I stopped reading about half-way through. I got the principle, I just wasn’t connecting with the writing so I stopped.

The Stoic is a Work In Progress

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

Stoicism has no end. It’s a constant chance to improve myself. We never arrive at self-improvement. It’s a journey. It’s something we apply to everyday in our life. Using it as an opportunity to better ourselves. After reading Ego is The Enemy by Ryan Holiday, I felt like I had it. That’s why I was struggling. Since reading that book I’ve continued to struggle. I’ve also improved along the way. Things that bothered me before don’t bother me anymore. And with each improvement comes a new improvement needing to be made. I’ve recognized this in several of my previous posts where I recongize, “I still have much work that needs to be done.” I’ve never thought about it though as something is a constant. That’s a bit comforting because I can get frustrated when results aren’t immediate or I take a step back.

It’s like eating or working out. There is no end to it. You see the biggest gains at the beginning and then you see smaller and smaller gains. Then you plateau. As we age we may even fall back in our weight and strength. The key is to adjust or accept the state.

The Chain Method

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

I’ve done it with this blog. I’ll write once a day. Then every once and a while I’ll forget and I make up for it with a single post and then try to get into a new streak. This is an effective way to build habits and something I’m looking to employ in other aspects of my life. I’ve done something similar with quitting smoking. My first step was to not smoke in the car when I bought a new car. Then it was to stop smoking during working hours. Then it was only weekends. Finally it was only when drinking. This took several years to master. Eventually, I was able to quit smoking. I do still have a cigarette on a rare occasion. Maybe once a year. That’s it though.

My current one is to not drink while I’m on my computer. This includes video games and watching shows. I think I’ll try using this blog to keep myself accountable.

Daily Stoic(s)

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

Yesterday - Our Well-Being Lies In Our Actions

My happiness should not be based on things I can’t control. Things like praise. Instead happiness is gained by putting our best effort into things. I’ve thought about this with regards to writing. When I blogged for baseball or even for the security industry, I got great satisfaction out of the process not whether people liked it. I tied my happiness though to getting the viewer numbers as high as possible. I realized that once I hit publish the piece is gone. It will be read for a day or two and then be forgotten.

I got that same feeling from podcasting. With podcasting I never cared about the statistics. I enjoyed the process of creating it and making the content the best it could be. I figured listener ship would come from that. I’m starting to learn that I need to apply that to my work. Give everything I have in the moment and let the rest fall into place or even not.

Today - Count Your Blessings

Coveting other things is one way to not have happiness. I feel like I don’t have a lot of envy for possessions. What I do envy is how people act. How someone can be as calm as Major Richard Winters. Athletes and their competitive drive and calm demeanor when the stakes at their highest. I’m looking to executives and marveling at how calm and collected they can be. I don’t know if that applies. I think it does. I should look to them as an examples and not envy their sense of calmness that I feel I lack. I should recognize I’m my own person with my own style and that’s okay.

Fueling The Habit Bonfire

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

I am the person of my habits. A year ago a started down the wrong path of habits. I’ve since adjusted and moved towards another path. A much better path. A path of self discipline and happiness. I forgive myself for the previous path because we don’t know where the path leads until we’ve traveled the path. I’ve learned from it and become a stronger person. There is still a lot of habits I need to switch out for other more productive and useful habits. It’s a process and something I expect to be constantly doing my entire life.