I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.
Monday - Be Ruthless To The Things That Don’t Matter
I’ve never felt obligated to go do something. If I don’t want to, I won’t. Outside of my family who I want to spend time and enjoy precious moments. This past year I worked on saying no to emotions. I practiced letting go. Especially when circumstances were out of my control. Traffic was a big one prior to the pandemic.
Tuesday - Plato’s View
Taking a step back and looking at the big picture can be difficult in the moment. I think about this a lot raising kids. I try to question what I’m doing. If I make this decision how will it impact them down the road. One of the things I’m trying no to do is hold them back. Whether this is something difficult or something I don’t want to do or something I don’t want them to do.
Wednesday - It Is Well To be Flexible
“We always have some opportunity to practice our philosphy, to make some contribution.”
I think I’ve found my contribution. I’ve been searching for it for a few years. My previous contribution was putting my family in a good stable financial position. That was a few years ago when I was promoted to manager. Yes, it to me that long. I’ve asked a lot of, “why” and “what’s the point” questions about what I do and what others do.
Not to leave you hanging, I want to create content around how others can be better at interacting with others in security. This is from an engineering, developing, and managerial perspective. More to come.
Thursday - This Is What We’re Here For
It’s easy to forget how good we have things today. Previous generations have had it tougher than we’ve had it. Future generations will benefit from our contributions and efforts to make the world a better place.
Phil Mickelson recently became the oldest person to win a major. They put up pictures of previous old guys to have won a major. One guy from the 1800s looked like he should be 80 or 90. Stress and difficulty ages us which is why we’re living longer and look in much better shape.
Friday - Blow Your Own Nose
Handling difficulty is all about perspective. I control what I can control in every situation. Even if it’s unfair, I still control my response and what I can do about it. I’m trying to teach my kids this. They can sit and whine and complain or they can make the best of the situation.
Saturday - When To Stick And When To Quit
This is one of the interesting challenges of life. I’ve learned to use lines as an opportunity to practice stoicism and patience. This doesn’t work when I’m in a rush or on a tight schedule. Which can in the end make things take longer. We were recently at Disney world and I got cute regarding trying to get back to a hotel. We eventually figured it out but I probably extended the time waiting for a bus. Still it was a learning opportunity and the next time we did better.
Yesterday - Finding The Right Mentors
I am catching up on some presentations from a conference last week. Usually when I do this I stick through to the end of each presentation trying to get some piece of knowledge. I’ve started to cut presentations short because I don’t feel like I’m getting what I need or I’m easily distracted. My time is limited and I can’t spend it on a presentation that I’m not getting anything out of.
It’s the same perspective I take when I’m presenting. I don’t get upset when people leave. If they’re not getting what they want out of me, they should go somewhere else to get that knowledge.
Today - Brick By Boring Brick
This is a great stoic for golf. I don’t keep count of my score while I’m playing. At the end of a hole I’ll put in my score and move on to the next hole. This allows me to not carry bad holes with me to the next hole. If I’m struggling with something I focus on the little things I may or may not be doing. I’ve usually practiced throughout the week and I need to trust that the practice is working. Which it did for me today. I broke 100 again and lowered my handicap to below 30.
I made a lot of good progress early last year in learning golf. I’m still making progress but it’s slow and methodical. I’m trusting my own process and I know things will improve. My goal for this year is to try and break 90 before the year is out. I felt like I had a good first half of the round. I sucked on the back nine and especially the last three holes. Even with that I still broke 100. It’s all a process and I need to keep plugging away.
