Overview

• Stoicism is an ancient philosophy that presents a plan to live a good life. It emanates from a belief that all living things should live according to their nature. It concludes that what sets humans apart from non-human animals is their advanced ability to reason and their natural pro-social tendencies. Stoicism teaches that to live a good life, a person must maximize their reasoning abilities and act in pro-social ways, such as helping to improve the global community, as we are all brothers and sisters.
• Stoics used the word freedom to describe achieving equanimity as a state of mind despite life’s unavoidable setbacks and misfortunes. They devised effective strategies for coping with life’s challenges while keeping a positive, joyful, and grateful attitude at all times.

The Four Stoic virtues

• 3L’s first aspirational value, high character, is taken from the four classic Stoic virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice.

Three steps for being your best self

1. Pause. Recognize what you do and don’t control

   • Remember that there are some things you control and others you don’t. We do not control what goes on in the external world.
   • We do have control over our responses to what happens in the world, as well as our judgments, character, values, opinions, and goals. In short, we have control over our thoughts and actions. Always respond in a way that fosters inner peace.

2. Maintain tranquility by sorting what you control and don’t control

   1. Get a clear understanding of the internal things you have control over and the external things you have no control over
   2. Some things involve partial control. Take charge of the things you control and forget about the rest. You always have control over whether you invest your best efforts and your character.
   3. Trying to control things over which you have no control will always result in emotional disturbances, such as anxiety, because you have no control over the situation.

   

3. Act with high character, a positive attitude, and do your best

   1. Forget about the things you don’t control because you don’t control them. While you may have preferences about things you don’t control, recognize that they are mere preferences and the universe doesn’t always bend to your will. Let them go.
   2. Investing time in things you don’t control is a waste of time.
   3. Take full control of the things you do control, such as acting with the highest of character, maintaining a positive attitude, and investing your best efforts in all endeavors.

Hedonic Treadmill

• The hedonic treadmill (also called ‘hedonic adaptation’) is when our happiness is dependent on external attainments, like fame or fortune, that never fully satisfy us.
  • A famous billionaire can just as easily feel frustrated and disappointed with their lives as those on the other end of the economic spectrum.
  • While you may experience satisfaction upon obtaining some external item or goal, you will notice that the satisfaction is short-lived. You will soon desire something else. The way off the treadmill is to get your desires under control. Desire the will to act with high character above everything else. You can accomplish this as it is entirely within your control.
  • The rich person is not the person with many things but the person with few desires.
• Stoicism teaches us instead to recognize that our tranquility depends on our ability to control what we can (chiefly our reactions), rather than what happens to us, which we cannot control.
• The game of wanting more than what you have never stops. Even billionaires get rejected, lose deals, etc. Their disappointments can ruin their day as much as the more mundane tribulations.
• Victor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning’ is a wonderful lesson in seeing the best in life no matter how bad circumstances.

Self-governance

• Don’t waste this precious and limited time to be alive.
• Be the best version of you, the best yet!
• Nothing prevents you from acting with high character, even if others don’t reciprocate.