Stoicism for a Better Life – Weekly exercise (November 15, 2020)

Hello there, 

For this week’s exercise, I will look for inspiration from Epictetus’ Discourses. This is II 1.21:

“It will even do to socialize with men of good character, in order to model your life on theirs, whether you choose someone living or someone from the past.”

We are all human beings; fatally flawed…full of emotions…primitive more often than we would like to admit. Let’s never forget this. You are not a sage. You are not perfect. You were not born with all the virtue and knowledge in the world. You are, however, on this journey of self-improvement…and by choice no less. You are actively choosing to improve yourself. I mean, that is why you’re currently reading this article right? So why not fully accept that we need externals to help guide us?

Yes, we want to be indifferent to externals but this does not mean we cannot learn from externals. Whether good or bad, externals can teach us what to do and what not to do; what to avoid and what to pursue. What Epictetus is reminding us here is that we can make the effort to actively surround ourselves with role models that demonstrate and exemplify the traits we want to cultivate to help guide us towards our end goal.

So, as a practical exercise this week, take inventory of the people around you. This includes your real-life (physical) interactions and relationships as well as your virtual interactions and relationships. See if there are any bad apples that are worth removing and other good models to try and include in your entourage. This selective grooming of the people you are exposed to and hang-out with is, of course, with the ultimate goal of maximizing your efforts and chances of being the best version of you that you can be.

As always I wish you a peaceful and wise week.

Anderson Silver(Author of “Your User’s Manual”, “Vol 2: Your Duality Within”, and Vol 3: Your Dichotomy of Control)