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.

Kindness is Always The Right Response

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

Kindness when hate is involved shows great strength. Being able to take a step back and present a measured kindness response takes a lot of strength. Responding to hatred with more hate is a sing of weakness. It’s the easy response. I’ve continued to work on this throughout my life. Being a gamer I see hate in most games. People get very upset when they don’t win or are shown to be the lesser player. I play a lot of first person shooters and I recognize the irony of responding with hate in a game that almost feeds off it. It’s something I enjoy though and it’s more about the competition than the actually shooting of guns. Some people will take that competitiveness to chat or potentially voice if they’re on your team. It’s taken a while not to respond with more hate and instead present indifference or even kindness.