Using Stoicism in Your Own Life

Let’s continue this conversation on Stoicism and a Warrior Mindset. In case you haven’t read Part 1, you can do so by going HERE.

This might not sound like a particularly helpful stance to take on things, but then that’s because most of us are highly trained into only accepting positive viewpoints. This is the general conceit of countless self-help books and even Hollywood films. Dream big and you can get what you want! In fact, it’s pretty much the driving force behind capitalism.

But the Stoics take the opposite approach. They prepare for the storm. They learn to enjoy life even when things aren’t going their way and they recognize hardship as challenge and an opportunity for growth.

When you go through life feeling entitled to everything going your way, how can you expected to be happy? And how can you be expected to face challenges that are genuinely difficult?

So how does rejecting this incessant positivity help? How do you practically apply stoicism in your own life?

Negative Visualization

One suggestion from stoicism is something called ‘negative visualization’ – the idea that you visualize your fears rather than your goals. Instead of picturing things going perfectly to plan, instead, picture things at their very worst. Imagine how your plans can fail and picture what life would be like if all of your worst fears came true.

What this does is to first help you to prepare for those worst-case scenarios. Once you know what your fears actually look like, you can then think about how you would cope in that scenario. Often, you’ll find that this worst-case scenario is not as bad as you at first thought it would be. And in other cases, you’ll find that you can actually find ways to cope with that situation.

This removes fears that could otherwise hold you back and means that you aren’t blindly ignoring what could potentially go wrong.

If this sounds familiar, then that’s because it’s precisely the same concept that helped Tim Ferriss to come up with his Fear Setting technique.

Be Content with the Scantiest and Cheapest Fare

In one of his letters to Lucilius, Seneca said:

Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: is this the condition that I feared?

The general idea here, is that you should not only visualize your worst-case scenario, but also try living it. That might mean spending a week living off of minimum salary, it might even mean sleeping rough.

In either case, this teaches you not only that you can handle your worst fears – and therefore have less reason to be afraid – but also that you actually don’t need material possessions in order to be happy.

This is actually something that is very important to cultivate. It takes great discipline to part with your possessions and belongings, but the result is freedom from fear and also from many physical restrictions. If you are weighed down by possessions and belongings, then you will not be able to move home freely. You will spend a lot of time cleaning and attending to things that do not help you further your goals. And ultimately, you will have much more to fear.

The more you own, the more you have to lose. This creates a sense of fear.

So, try to declutter and live a more focused and minimalist life. At the very least, learn to detach yourself from physical possessions and remember that they are indeed ‘just things’. They are a means to an end and if you must sacrifice them, so be it.

Selling your widescreen TV or turning down a holiday in order to pay off debt or pay for your child’s  tuition  –  those  are warrior-like choices.

Wear Ugly Clothes…

Another classic stoic move is to wear ‘ugly’ clothes in order to teach yourself not to be ashamed. People might stare at you, but this will simply teach you that it doesn’t matter at all what others think – only what you think.

This is an important aspect of the warrior mindset: caring what other people think makes you vulnerable to peer pressure and to vanity. Sometimes, to do what must be done, you must be willing to sacrifice your reputation.

Just as in our example about admitting that you broke the vase…

Expect the Worst

Stoics argue that we curse when we’re angry and that this anger is our own failing – our own stupidity.

Think about the last time you swore with anger. Chances are that it was not because it rained or because you found you were in debt. More likely, it was because you dropped something on your toe, or because you broke your favorite possession.

The point is that the anger comes from the surprise, not the disappointment. You don’t swear when it rains because you know that rain is a possibility.

Therefore, if you are angry, this then suggests that you didn’t expect whatever happened to you and this is arguably your own fault. If you accept that bad things happen and if you accept that sometimes things won’t go to plan, then you will have no need to be angry – because you will have accounted for it and prepared mentally for it.

Now, when your partner cheats on you, or when a service provider doesn’t deliver a good service, you will think of it as being simply a part of life – just like the rain.

Control Your Reaction

Stoicism means submitting to the fact that you have scant-to-no control over reality. But at the same time, it also means taking solace in the knowledge that these outside factors can’t hurt you – only your reaction can.

You can’t control what happens to you, but you can control what you make of that event and your own interpretation of it. Being mentally prepared for things that could go wrong is one good example of this in action. Likewise, though, you might also simply decide not to let things affect you – to take a step back from them and to deal with the consequences rather than thrashing against things that you cannot change. This is something we’ll be addressing more closely in upcoming chapters: mindfulness and the ability to decide how you want to react to the things going on around you.

But simply by remembering that tough things happen and it’s your job to deal with them, you should find you can I actually think that Rocky Balboa is one of the great modern stoics – and one of his more recent famous quotes summarizes the ideas of Seneca and Marcus Aurelius perfectly:

The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place… and I don´t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently, if you let it. You, me or nobody, is gonna hit as hard as life. But ain’t about how hard you hit… It’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward… how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That´s how winning is done.

Here’s a quote from fiction a book I wrote several years ago. This line was spoken by a reckless character in the story and was never meant to carry much weight. But I found that as I thought about it, it was actually surprisingly true:

Those that fear death, fear life.

It is true that if you live life in fear of death, then you will be permanently cautious. You will not take risks and you will not live life to its fullest as a result.

So, what is the solution? Do we put death ‘out of our mind’. No: it would be better to come to terms with it and in stoic fashion, simply accept it as a reality. And this mirrors the way that the Samurai would approach their lives too. Here is a quote from Edo samurai Daidoji Yuzan, which can be found in the book Code of the Samurai:

One who is a samurai must before all things keep constantly in mind…the fact that he has to die. If he is always mindful of this, he will be able to live in accordance with the paths of loyalty and filial duty, will avoid myriads of evils and adversities, keep himself free of disease and calamity and moreover enjoy a long life. He will also be a fine personality with many admirable qualities. For existence is impermanent as the dew of evening, and the hoarfrost of morning, and particularly uncertain is the life of the warrior…

Remember your goals and your vision. Work toward them. Stick to your code. Try to make a difference and focus on what you leave behind. That might mean protecting your family even when it means putting yourself at risk, or it might mean taking chances in order to chase after a bigger goal.

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