Daily Stoic(s)

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

Wednesday - The Truly Educated Aren’t Quarrelsome

I’m a bit of an arguer. I try to see things from all perspectives so when a view is brought that I disagree with or isn’t accurate I’ll try to argue it. I’ve learned to not get upset at the other person. It’s simply an idea or a topic. It doesn’t have as much to say about the person. Well maybe that’s not true. To me there’s not always a clear right and wrong and there are nuances to an argument.

I try to take the approach of asking questions because I know that’s the more effective way to better understand and discuss the topic. Often I am talking more than listening and that’s something to work on.

Thursday - The Wise Don’t Have “Problems”

I’m a bit of a rut at the moment. Things in general are frustrating and that’s leading to bad decisions. This in turn just makes matters worse and throws me off my game. I feel like there’s a lot of noise and that I need to cut through. The problem is to cut through it I feel like I’m just adding more noise instead of trying to just listen.

Yesterday - Try The Opposite

To brake a bad habit do the opposite. One of my bad habits is staying up to late. I’ve tried going to bed early on several occasions. I seem to fall back into a rut though. There’s progress it’s just not as simple as doing the other thing because I have a strong emotions and urges to stay up way past where I need to.

Today - Adversity Reveals

I’m revealing a lot of myself lately. Particularly with small little frustrations and annoyances that build up. I get out of my routines and that throws things off a bit for me. Sometimes it’s like digging a hole. Which will take some time for me to dig myself out of.

The Long Way Around

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

The stoic talks about freedom, happiness, and respect come from our choices. What a lot of people do is chase those via career goals and objectives. This goes back to living in the present. We look towards the future and miss out on the things we have right here and now. The little moments in life. I’ve reached my career goals. I was working towards financial freedom for my family. Along the way I probably missed out on a lot of moments that would have brought their own freedom, happiness, and respect.

The Definition Of Insanity

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

Trying to change and do the same thing over and over is the insanity the stoic is referencing. I’ve felt this insanity. I’ve also noticed that the insanity becomes weaker over time. It becomes easier to fight urges and impulses and to change one small thing. That’s what I try to learn from. It’s said that if you want to change a habit start small. For me this often means screwing up multiple times before change occurs.

This could be similar to practice where we continue to do the same thing bad over and over again until we finally figure it out. I’ve done this with golf. My bad days used to be scores in the 120+ range. I’ve since come down to my bad days being in the high 100s. My good days are scores of mid-90s. I count to 10 on each hole too by the way (I’ve noticed some players choose to stop at eight).

Same thing with behaviors. I’ve worked a lot to change my bad ones and that’s sometimes hard to see. Unless I look back a year and realize that I have changed a lot. I’m doing things very differently and I’m a bit happier. Things feel clearer. There’s still work to be done. That’s the journey of life.

Take A Walk

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

I’ve started to walk more over the past year. Prior to the pandemic I would try to walk during lunch. That’s increased a bit since working from home. The commute time is often spent walking. I do wonder if running can be seen with similar benefits. I try to do that as part of the start of my day. Then I walk during lunch. I have struggled with getting off work and not being able to compress. A walk may be beneficial at that time. When we start going back into work I do intend to start walking after getting to the office. I had the opportunity to do that a couple months ago and it was a nice way to start the day.

Calm Is Contagious

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

I learned calm from bagging groceries as my first job. There’s a lot going on when there’s a rush and the only thing to do is keep plugging away. I feel that’s helped me throughout my career. I don’t see value in freaking out during situations. That helps when you’re dealing with things like a website defacement or an employee walking out with all the documents of the company.

People at work have asked me why I’m freaking out about an active incident. I’ve told them that someone is doing something right now that we’ll find out about in three months and ruin our day. There’s no sense in freaking out over an incident because there’s usually another one down the road.