The Stoic: 9 Principles to Help You Keep Calm in Chaos

99u.com/articles/34649/7-pieces-of-wisdom-that-will-change-the-way-you-work

Observing individuals who lead a creative life, we can identify elements of expertise, grit, an understanding, and
passion. Whats easy to overlook is the inner system within an individualthe set of principles that govern their mind
and behavior. When failure ensues or the need to adapt is necessary, how does one respond? What do they tell
themselves? In other words, whats their philosophy?
Not only does philosophy teach us how to live well and become better humans, but it can also aid in overcoming
lifes trials and tribulations. Some schools of thought are for more abstract thinking and debate, whereas others are
tools that are immediately practical to our current endeavors.
The principles within Stoicism are, perhaps, the most relevant and practical sets of rules for entrepreneurs, writers,
and artists of all kinds. The Stoics focus on two things:
1. How can we lead a fulfilling, happy life?
2. How can we become better human beings?
The goal of Stoicism is to attain inner peace by overcoming adversity, practicing self-control, being conscious of our
impulses, realizing our ephemeral nature and the short time allottedthese were all meditative practices that helped
them live with their nature and not against it. Its important that we understand the obstacles that we face and not run
from them; its vital that we learn to transmute them into fuel to feed our fire.
Its important that we understand the obstacles that we face and not run from them.
Our guides to Stoicism today will be its three renowned leaders: Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Seneca.
Epictetus was born a slave at about A.D. 55 in Hierapolis, Phrygia, located in the eastern borders of the Roman
Empire. Early in his life he had a passion for philosophy, and with permission from his owner, he studied Stoic
philosophy under the master Gaius Musonius Rufus. After Neros deaththe fifth Roman emperor who ruled with
tyranny and crueltyEpictetus began to teach philosophy in Rome and then later in Greece where he founded a
philosophical school teaching Stoicismamong his students was the future emperor of Rome, Marcus Aurelius.
Marcus Aurelius was born in A.D. 121, considered one of the greatest Roman emperors to have ever lived, and
wrote in his journal during the dull moments of a war campaign. In his journal, which inadvertently became the book
Meditations, served as reminders for Stoic principles that focused on humility, self-awareness, service, death,
nature, and more.
Seneca was also a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, a tutor and advisor to Nero. His work involves dozens of
essays and 124 letters that involve topics like education, friendship, civil duty, moral obligation, humility, selfawareness, self-denial, and more. He had many admirers like Montaigne, Tom Wolfe, Emerson, and John Stuart
Mill.
Im going to share some of my favorite principles from the Stoic school of philosophy, most of them pertaining to
these three thinkers. If embraced and exercised regularly, Stoic tenets will champion your creativity, facilitate your
workflow, and improve your overall state of mind and life. Creative work requires us to be vulnerable, committed,
adaptive, and courageous, and that requires a mindset that can readily negate distractions or negative impulses
while focusing our hearts and minds on whats important. Its a tough balancing act.
Without a philosophy to guide our work and life, we will relentlessly succumb to our excuses and distractions. We will
make the comfortable mistake of acting on our moods (Im just not feeling it today) and not on our principles.

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1. Acknowledge that all emotions come from within

Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions not outside.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
It is not outside forces that make us feel something, it is what we tell ourselves that create our feelings. A blank
document, canvas, or unmarked to-do list is not inherently stressfulits your thoughts that are stressing you out.
Many of us want to place blame and responsibility on external objects because its easy to do, but the truth remains
that all conflicts start internally, in our minds. When we flee from realitya deadline, an urgent emailwe are doing
nothing but harming ourselves and undermining our self-discipline.
The next time you run into an obstacle and feel resistance, dont look at whats around you. Instead, look within.
It is not outside forces that make us feel something, it is what we tell ourselves that create our feelings.

2. Find someone you respect, and use them to stay honest

Choose someone whose way of life as well as words, and whose very face as mirroring the character that lies
behind it, have won your approval. Be always pointing him out to yourself either as your guardian or as your model.
This is a need, in my view, for someone as a standard against which our characters can measure themselves.
Without a ruler to do it against you wont make the crooked straight. Seneca, Letters From a Stoic
When I first started my blog and called myself a writer, who could I look up to? The courses at my university were
irrelevant to my aspirations and desires. Luckily, the Internet provided access to great writers, their stories, work, and
admonishments. I can point to someone I respect and say, Ah, look at the value they provide, their work ethic, their
platformthat is worth learning from.
Whatever you docreate apps, draw portraits, write books, or make animation filmsthere are individuals that you
can learn from. You can study their story, works, techniques, successes and failures. You can listen to interviews or
even reach out to them by sending an email. You can discover patterns of success and apply it to your life.
Whats important to realize is that this isnt an exercise of comparison. If you dont get a book deal in eight months or
if your product doesnt hit #1 in the first week, like your role model, that doesnt make you a failure. Instead, how can
you learn from your heroes? How are their teachings and principles helping you grow, learn, and create? Everyone,
no matter how successful they are, has heroes/mentors to look towards.

3. Recognize there is life after failure

Does whats happened keep you from acting with justice, generosity, self-control, sanity, prudence, honesty,
humility, straightforwardness, and all other qualities that allow a persons nature to fulfill itself? So remember this
principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and
prevail is great good fortune. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
You can spend months or even years on a project, only to watch it be criticized, or worse, ignored. I once worked on
a project thinking that it would do fairly well. I spent an entire year on it, and it was my most vulnerable work to date.
The outcome was similar to having a baby and all the doctors laughing out loud, saying, My goodness that is an
ugly baby.
Thats what failure feels like when you share a part of you. But recovering from that failure is a practice, a mindset
in fact, the lessons that I internalized from that experience is helping me do better work. The thinking goes: No
failure, no growth.

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No failure, no growth.

4. Read purposefully, and apply your knowledge

Dont just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more
discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would
be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents. Epictetus,
The Art of Living
Reading books on marketing or business or creativity will supply endless dots that have potential for connection to
develop a more in-depth awareness, but what will ultimately make you effective at that craft is by applying it.
Reading prepares your mind, even helps you avoid foolish mistakes, but at the end of it all there must be the result of
some action: a failure, maybe a success, or a lesson.
The purpose of education is to internalize knowledge but ultimately spark action and facilitate wiser decisions.
Reading self-help books will, in that moment, make you feel inspired for a change. But are you following your
principles when you have a troll, rude customer, or angry stranger in your face?

Epictetus

5. Challenge yourself to be brutally honest

A consciousness of wrongdoing is the first step to salvation. This remark of Epicurus is to me a very good one. For
a person who is not aware that he is doing anything wrong has no desire to be put right. You have to catch yourself
doing it before you can reform. Some people boast about their failings: can you imagine someone who counts his
faults as merits ever giving thought to their cure? Soto the best of your abilitydemonstrate your own guilt,
conduct inquiries of your own into all the evidence against yourself. Play the first part of prosecutor, then of judge
and finally of pleader in mitigation. Be harsh with yourself at times. Seneca, Letters From a Stoic

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Its hard to change habits if you arent aware as to why you didnt do your work today and chose to watch Netflix
instead.
Its important to be mindful of the urges that obstruct us from showing up, engaging, committing, and being present.
Why, exactly, am I feeling this way? Get to the bottom of that. Investigate it. Dissect it. When you feel resistance,
use that as a cue to go forward. The challenge, of course, is training yourself to think that way.
This isnt about talent or some unconscious reflex. The practice of self-awarenessto think about your thinkingin
how you think, feel, and behave is a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it becomes.
When you feel resistance, use that as a cue to go forward.

6. Reflect on what you spend the most time on

A key point to bear in mind: The value of attentiveness varies in proportion to its object. Youre better off not giving
the small things more time than they deserve. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
That troll on your Twitter feed? Its probably best to not respond. You dont need to tell them where the unfollow
button is located; Im positive they know. That email? I know its fun connecting, but can it wait?
In my own observations, people who do excellent work, who master their craft, do so because of their ability to
prioritize. They honor every hour of their day. If we put cameras behind our heroes, would our work ethic compare?
Our focus? Our determination to get things done?
The other day I was genuinely shocked at how much time I spent spectating on Instagram, watching other people
live their lives and eat boats of sushi. Although these little breaks throughout our days are okay, we must be mindful
of how we interact with our distractions (or is that addictions?).
A lot of spectating and flicking our finger on Guerrilla Glass is time that could be spent creating the stuff that people
want to see.

7. Remind yourself: you werent meant to procrastinate.

Whenever I have trouble waking up or getting started, I read this passage:
At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: I have to go to work as a human being. What do I
have to complain of, if Im going to do what I was born for the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this
what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?

But its nicer here

So you were born to feel nice? Instead of doings things and experiencing them? Dont you see the plants, the birds,
the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And
youre not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren t you running to do what your nature demands?

But we have to sleep sometime

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Agreed. But nature set a limit on that as it did on eating and drinking. And you re over the limit. Youve had more
than enough of that. But not of working. There youre still below your quota. You dont love yourself enough. Or you d
love your nature too, and what it demands of you. People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it,
they even forget to wash or eat. Do you have less respect for your own nature than the engraver does for engraving,
the dancer for dance, the miser for money or the social climber for status? When theyre really possessed by what
they do, theyd rather stop eating and sleeping than give up practicing their arts. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

8. Put the phone away and be present

Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a mans ability to stop just where he is
and pass some time in his own company. Seneca, Letters From a Stoic
Its not that we live in an age of distractions, but rather an age where we are failing to teach and embrace mindful
motives. To me, a child in a restaurant playing a game on her iPad is no different than an adult flicking through
Instagram when friends are around. Both scenarios are moments of connection (to the people around you, not
through your screen), communication, and enjoyment.
To be present as well as learning to be alone is a habit. Some people are really good at it because they make time to
do itin fact, they need it or else they would go mad.
Throughout your day find a moment, however fleeting, to just sit and be still. Doesnt matter where you are. Take a
few deep breathes, put your phone on vibrate so theres no chance of interruption, and just reflect on the series of
events that took place throughout your day. When youre working, be ruthlessly present. Let your mind focus on the
task at hand, what youre trying to accomplish, and do it with diligence, patience, attentiveness, and care. Sooner or
later, youll realize how much of an asset this is to your creativity and overall quality of life.
When youre working, be ruthlessly present.

9. Remind yourself that time is our most precious resource

Not to live as if you had endless years ahead of you. Death overshadows you. While youre alive and able be
good. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
What I particularly love and find challenging about Stoicism is that death is at the forefront of their thoughts. They
realized the ephemeral nature of humans and how this is repeated in many facets of life.
It provides a sense of urgency, to realize that youve lived a certain number of hours and the hours ahead of you are
not guaranteed as the ones you have lived. When I think of this I realize that everyday truly is an opportunity to
improve, not in a clich kind of way, but to learn to honestly appreciate what we are capable of achieving and how
we are very responsible for the quality of our lives.
This makes our self-respect, work ethic, generosity, self-awareness, attention, and growth evermore important. The
last thing any of us wants to do is die with regret, hence why following principles of Stoicism puts your life into
perspective. It humbles you and should also deeply motivate you.
Lastly, in the words of Seneca, We should hunt out the helpful pieces of teaching and the spirited and noble-minded
sayings which are capable of immediate practical applicationnot far far-fetched or archaic expressions or
extravagant metaphors and figures of speechand learn them so well that words become works.
The way we lead our lives and do our work must embody the principles that we practice. Less comparing, criticizing,
and consuming; more creating, learning, and living.

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