12 Thoughts to Strengthen your Life

Intro

How to write a summary of a book which is itself a summary of something else?

That was my challenge with "The Daily Stoic, 365 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance and the Art of Living", by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman.

With a page per day and a very simple structure of quotation + interpretation, the author offers a significant amount of stoicism wisdom for those acquainted with it as well as those new to this philosophy - all in a highly digestible format.

I did the reading in 365 days, one page a day, taking pictures of the book for whenever I would travel to avoid carrying it back and forth, yet someone else could decide to read it in a month, or maybe 12 days!

But don't mix simplicity with depth - most of the thoughts shared can leave you thinking for days...

Stoicism

For whatever reason, stoicism has been up in the media very frequently. What is it about?

It is a philosophy, a framework with wisdom about how to life your life. Like Hakuna Matata, but with a different approach to problems!

Stoicism can be described in many different ways, and over time had been over-simplified as "an emotionless philosophy" as well as "toughing it up philosophy", just to mention two extremes.

Those simplifications may be great for you to respond a question in your history or philosophy exam; however, it misses several points that may make the difference to your life. As other philosophies, it has applications in your personal and business life.

One important aspect of how this knowledge was collected an organized: often through private diaries. That means, whatever you read in the book (or here) was most probably meant to be a reminder for the writer himself. If they were tough... it was not on others.

The book is organized in the same way that the philosophy was: according to the disciplines of perception, action and will, each with a sub-structure that I will also follow while explaining each of them for you.

Along with each sub-structure, I offer one example of a quote as well within the month, which could work for you as a place to start in your meditations.

The Discipline of Perception

This discipline tries to address how we see and perceive the world around us, in a way challenging us to ensure we control our perception. It is the old story of what you do with the lemons life gives you!

Clarity: "Understand at last that you have something in you more powerful and divine than what causes the bodily passions and pulls you like a mere puppet. What thoughts now occupy my mind? Is it not fear, suspicion, desire or something like that?"

⤵ What I love about this passage is the question about what is on the mind, suggesting a few things that... well... can be exactly what one has in mind. A question as powerful as it is frustrating and enlightening!

Passions and Emotions: "Keep this thought handy when you feel a fit of rage coming on - it isn't manly to be enraged. Rather, gentleness and civility are more human, and therefore manlier. A real man doesn't give way to anger and discontent, and such a person has strength, courage, and endurance - unlike the angry and complaining. The nearer a man comes to a clam mind, the closer he is to strength."

⤵ Lacking a little diversity & including in the wording, isn't it? Well, remember two things: those were different times and, most importantly, he (Marcus Aurelius) was writing to himself - and he happens to be a man! That said, the gentleness and civility are behaviors I personally admire and those are usually associated with the "bigger person" in the room, the one who keeps its nerves. Hard to accomplish, yet it transmits a lot of power.

Awareness: "Heraclitus called self-deception an awful disease and eyesight a lying sense."

⤵ Probably one of the best summaries around why we need to keep calm, reflect and think before making conclusions or taking decisions. We can and will probably be wrong often times, cheated even by our senses, and allowing the time to become aware will make the difference towards getting on the right track!

Unbiased Thoughts: "Throw out your conceited opinions, for it is impossible for a person to begin to learn what he thinks he already knows."

⤵ You already saw that over the Internet, somewhere, maybe slightly adjusted or as a fancy meme. Now you know where it comes from! It speaks clearly about bias, but also about how to live a life with more curiosity.

The Discipline of Action

In this section, the discussions are around our decisions - including how and why we make decisions in certain ways - and then taking action on it, with strong focus on getting things done.

Right Action: "Show me someone sick and happy, in danger and happy, dying and happy, exiled and happy, disgraced and happy. Show me! By God, how much I'd like to see a Stoic. But since you can't show me someone that perfectly formed, at least show me someone actively forming themselves so, inclined in this way... Show me!"

⤵ This one was in May, listed under my birthday (17th) so I had to choose it! The title of the chapter was "The Stoic Is a Work In Progress", and it couldn't be a better reflection for me for taking it through life. It's not the end, it is the journey, and it makes a significant difference to pick the right one!

Problem Solving: "Don't be ashamed of needing help. You have a duty to fulfill just like a soldier on the wall of battle. So what if you are injured and can't climb up without another soldier's help?"

⤵ Under problem solving, for a tough philosophy, maybe one would expect to see "take the pain", "be a fortress of solitude", "become the superman"... but this is not what is offered under stoicism. As a practical philosophy it is, it will always be inclined towards the action that produces the best outcomes from a certain moral code. Helping and getting help are part of such framework and how stoics thought we could resolve problems better.

Duty: "Whatever anyone does or says, for my part I'm bound to the good. In the same way an emerald or gold or purple might always proclaim: 'whatever anyone does or says, I must be what I am and show my true colors."

⤵ See, it says I'm bound to the good. Not to a particular job, a particular enterprise, a particular task you have at hand. Bound to the good. That gives both the flexibility and the direction to live a life of accomplishment.

Pragmatism: "You must stop blaming God, and not blame any person. You must completely control your desire and shift your avoidance to what lies within your reasoned choice. You must no longer feel anger, resentment, envy or regret."

⤵ Stopping with the blame game. That's the key message underlying this interesting passage... you can add after God everything else: the government, your parents, your kids, your employer, your boss. Own it up, it's your life.

The Discipline of Will

How to deal with things we can't change? That's in large extent the goal of this discipline. According to the authors, it is also where we find wisdom about how to attain clear and convincing judgment and coming to a clear understanding of our place in the world.

Fortitude and Resilience: "Consider who you are. Above all, a human being, carrying no greater power than your own reasoned choice, which oversees all other things, and is free from any other master."

⤵ How good does it feel, knowing you are really the one in control? And that no one else has any power over you? This is the reflection here, again a bit back to the story around things we can control and the things we can't. By knowing and embracing the ownership of our reasoned choice, reasoned being a keyword here, we become stronger than ever.

Virtue and Kindness: "That which isn't good for the hive, isn't good for the bee"

⤵ What a lovely statement! It quickly paints the picture of truly living in harmony, in a community, in being part of something much bigger. Clear, it comes with a price, a thousand times cheaper than what life would charge you otherwise!

Acceptance (Amor Fati): "The universe is change. Life is opinion"

⤵ This is the one from this list, and maybe from the entire book, that still keeps me thinking. It's straightforward, however brings a load of implications to our interpretation of life. It is a very powerful reminder that we live under perspectives (opinions), keeping us honest about how limited our vision is.

Mortality: "It is better to conquer grief than to deceive it."

⤵ Strength is not about ignoring your feelings. It is about accepting them, and then overcoming them. This works for grief and a number of other emotions we feel in our daily lives, for as strong as those can feel, for as much pain they may bring.

Observations

I love the different organization of this book. I remember reading something in Brazil when I was a kid, "Minutos de Sabedoria", and it was a similar concept with short reading that invited for thought and reflection. It pairs very well with journaling, and you can read while reading other books as well. You guessed... I do recommend this book!

• Easy of reading: 5 stars. It just can't get easier than that. If you want to get deeper, you have a path and starting point. If you don't, you already got something of value in that one page. The interpretation helps offering a perspective and you can derive your own.
• Learning something new: 3 stars. As I was familiar with the philosophy, and there is so much of it out there (eventually without the label) these days. it was more a re-enforcement than new learnings. Having it all together gives a special flavor to it (consistency) that enhances the comprehension of their ideas (or ideals).
• Interesting and Engaging: 4 stars. Because it is so easy to consume, it is easy to engage and it sparks that curiosity to know what will be said next day. Still, I must admit that I often forgot and had to read a couple pages (or more) in a row...

Keep in mind I shared 12 out of 365 thoughts and reflections. There is a whole lot more for you waiting inside this book!

The one learning I keep from this book is something I already wrote a lot about in LinkedIn: change what you can control, accept what you can't. Maybe the most radical idea of the philosophy being the very little that we can control...

Would love to read your comments on my summary, on stoicism and eventually this book if you happened to read it!

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