The One Path To Serenity

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

Identify what is inside and outside of my control. Give up everything outside of my control. I’ve slept a lot better since this and similar stoics. If I can’t sleep it’s an opportunity to meditate. Often what comes of that is sleep. I am surrendering to my body because that is something I don’t control. Instead I am choosing to practice meditation. I’m giving in and not allowing frustration over a lack of sleep to control my lack of sleep.

If You Want To Be Unsteady

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

Choices and judgement determine my tranquility not the environment. This means not avoiding things that potentially disrupt my steadiness. To me this means not being docile in my judgement and choices. To instead embrace differences and make a judgement based on them. Stoicism is often seen as being passive. This seems to indicate that stoicism is our control and what we do with that control.

That’s comforting because I’ve come to a point in my career where I’m going to embrace my ability to push the status quo. It’s something I’ve always done but at some point I hit a wall. Once I hit that wall I’m told to be quiet and let things happen. I think there’s opportunity there and it only comes when I have conviction that my reasoned choices and judgements are the right path. It may end in failure but again my choices and judgements about that failure determine my tranquility.

If You Want To Be Steady

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

Proper judgement is the best way. How do I found out what’s proper judgement. We all have different viewpoints and ideas about how things should work. That’s where conflict arises. Even when I speak up the response I get back are along the lines of, “he just wants to do it his way.” That hurts because I feel I have the best interest of everyone in mind. I’ve started to take more conviction to those types of responses because I do see an inefficiency in the way things are currently working. I like to push the status quo. I should embrace that and I should embrace the conflict that arises from that. Now to do that while remaining steady.

What We Control And What We Don't

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

This is a key lesson for me and has helped me sleep better at night. It’s also put a lot of things about the world into perspective. Instead of fighting against what I can’t control I focus on what I can control my thoughts and response. Some times that means taking a step back to truly think about something that is causing a particular type of reaction.

Seeing Our Addictions

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

Right now I’m working on being able to abstain from Alcohol. I want to try sober January. I fear I have things setup so that it will be very difficult. I’m apart of multiple groups that gets together socially to drink. That will be the hardest part. I also realize that these things take time and patience. Some people can quit cold turkey. I have a hard time with that. It took me seven years to quit smoking. That required a lot of small little steps. I believe I’m doing that with alcohol because I feel like I’m drinking less. I should probably get some data on that.