Opinions Are Like...

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

Interesting thought exercise from the stoic today. What if we were to just be instead of have opinions. Opinions are shaped by our beliefs and how we grew up. They often lead to unwelcome emotions like anger and hatred. What if instead we just are and not worry about our opinions. We take each situation as it’s own unique experience. Going through coronavirus, I’ve had my opinions. It’s not a popular one because others have a very different opinion of how things are handled. I hop on Twitter and there’s a lot of negative opinions about the situation. I usually only stay on for a short period of time, so as to avoid my own negative emotions.

Instead what I’m going to try to do is leave my opinions out of life. My opinions about people and situations. Instead look at it from a just being who or what they are. I’m curious how much less negativity I’d have in my life. I won’t be perfect because I’m human. Then again maybe that’s an opinion also.,

No Harm, No Foul

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

We can choose how we respond to the words people choose. Outside my CIOs office is a printed phrase, “Assume positive intent.” I think it’s noble and often underutilized by some of the people I work with. Then again, I should be using the phrase when I hear things going on within my organization. I should take that advice and assume people are just trying to do what they feel best. Sometimes that may be misguided.

Observe Cause and Effect

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

What thoughts are constructive and destructive? I need to look at my thoughts and understand the reason for those thoughts. I need to identify when I have biases or other influence affecting my thoughts. I feel like I’ve been working on this for a while and I haven’t made a lot of progress. It can be frustrating. I have made progress though and that’s something to think about.

Pay Your Taxes

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

Everything has a tax. I’m having to remind myself that lately. Just an hour or so ago, I got some feedback on a presentation I had done a couple months ago. I had screwed up explaining something. The feedback came from an executive. I didn’t handle it well because this same executive has questioned my stuff before. I take great pride in my work and the effort and detail I put into it. That has gotten me promotions and accolades all the way up to the CEO of the company. I blew and didn’t handle it well.

After taking a moment to reflect, I realized I had screwed up and I was allowing my own ego in the way. I’m learning to handle these things better. That’s not the stoic for today. The stoic is that the more successful you become the more scrutinized you will be. This has been a hard realization for me and something I am working on.

Becoming an Expert in What Matters

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

Today’s stoic is essentially mastering our own inner life. We can become masters of what we do (for me security) and what we enjoy (video games and board games). We should also focus on mastering our inner self. How we approach things and the way to those things. I’ve lacked a purposes since getting into a really good job and being well compensated for it. I didn’t know what I should do. I’m not as passionate about my field as some others. Which tends to surprise people because I am successful in the field and done some extracurricular stuff. It was always a challenge to me.

Figuring out how to do a podcast, then wondering if I could switch fields with success. Then it was presenting at a conference, which I’ve done multiple times. I plan to continue that because I feel I still have much to learn about presenting. Podcast, I think, has run it’s course. I’m not looking to get rich or famous from it. Instead the last few years I’ve really focused on myself and up until now I didn’t realize that’s okay. I thought that I needed to find some purpose and have a project to go with that. It turns out I am the project. I’m looking to live life to fullest and I have and still have some pretty bad habits. I’m learning something new about myself almost every day and it’s exciting.