Stoicism for a Better Life – Weekly exercise (August 29, 2021)

Hello there,

For this week’s exercise, I wanted to look at our Cynic cousins and reign in our efforts a little bit. It’s nice to be motivated and work towards being a better person with a sense of urgency. This should be our modus vivendi after all, since we want to do good but haven’t the slightest idea on how quickly we will vacate this temporal existence. However, much like everything else, too much of this can be harmful if we lose perspective of WHY we’re doing it and get lost in the WHAT. 

Being the emperor and leader of the most powerful nation of its time and the largest in the Western world, Marcus Aurelius dedicated a great portion of his meditations to remain disciplined to his duties – both in the human community (as a Cosmopolitan) and the human society (as the emperor of Rome). This is how he was able to fight battles on all fronts, deal with natural disasters like floods, earthquakes and plagues, run the daily business of an empire and yet still remain in equanimity more than other rulers who have had to deal with so much less. Yet, (as seen in this quote from his Meditations IV 24), he did have the presence of mind to keep things “real” (as it were) and remind himself that he is one man, with one lifetime, living in one present moment at a time:

“Occupy yourself with few things, says the philosopher, if you would be tranquil. But consider if it would not be better to say, Do what is necessary, and whatever the reason of a social animal naturally requires, and as it requires. For this brings not only the tranquility that comes from doing well, but also that which comes from doing few things.”

The Stoics were masters of keeping their speech simple and short. At a time when Sophists were all the rage, Stoics recognize the lack of value in having beautiful and long-winded language and focused on practicality and content. This is why most Stoic quotes have multiple lessons that can be extracted from them, which is no exception to the quote above. But for our purposes today, let us focus on the idea of keeping things simple.

Look, at this point we can all agree that we know what the right thing to do is. If you’ve read Your Duality Within, I discuss this point in depth. We (more often than not) actually know what the right thing to do is. We just don’t do it for a myriad of reasons. So our goal is to try and shift our Prohairesis (our faculty of judgment and moral character) towards being able to do the right thing more often than not. So far so good. But what happens when our willingness to work towards the betterment of humanity far exceeds our actual capacity in the “Here and Now” to execute? Frustration, anxiety, depression and surrendering to nihilism (or worse) vices are a very likely outcome.

So, as we continue to cultivate our Prohairesis, we must remain vigilant about our own capacities as far as our temporal existence is concerned. Whether it is a limitation of physical capacities, lack of time or lack of resources, we can’t do everything we would like to do. This can be very frustrating. How do we combat this? KISS.

This is what Marcus is reminding himself (and us): Keep It Simple Stupid. We are human beings with a very limited capacity to influence the world around us… right here and right now. That’s it. We can’t do more. So, as a practical exercise this week, keep all your goals close to your heart and mind, but for heaven’s sake be aware of (and accept) your limitation in your capacities and capabilities. You can’t do everything at once. Rome was not built in a day.

As always, I wish you a wise, tranquil and productive week. If you can, please consider sharing how you are progressing with your exercise. Your journey may very well inspire others. 

Anderson Silver (Stoicism for a Better Life)