Stoic Coffee Break

Do you feel like you have a hard time accomplishing things? Do you feel you lack the motivation to reach your goals? Today, we'll talk about some stoic ideas of accomplishing your goals.

“Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself.” – Epictetus How do we deal with difficulties? Do we see them as challenges or opportunities? As something that is to be suffered through, or something that teaches us who we are? I today's episode, we're going to talk about difficult circumstances and how they are the things we should be most grateful for.

The Stoics warn us about the judgments we make and that we need to be careful about holding on to first impressions. Why do we judge others? Why do we judge ourselves? Do we even need to have an opinion about something? How do we let go of judgments?

“Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow, and loses today. You are arranging what lies in Fortune's control, and abandoning what lies in yours. What are you looking at? To what goal are you straining? The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.” Seneca

“Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes. Therefore, give yourself fully to your endeavors. Decide to construct your character through excellent actions and determine to pay the price of a worthy goal. The trials you encounter will introduce you to your strengths. Remain steadfast...and one day you will build something that endures: something worthy of your potential.” ― Epictetus

“The honest and good man ought to be exactly like a man who smells strong, so that the bystander, as soon as he comes near him, must smell him whether he chooses or not.” ― Marcus Aurelius

“You must know that it is no easy thing for a principle to become a man's own, unless each day he maintain it and hear it maintained, as well as work it out in life.” – Epictetus

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. ” ― Epictetus

“Very little is needed for everything to be upset and ruined, only a slight lapse in reason. it’s much easier for a mariner to wreck his ship than it is for him to keep it sailing safely; all he has to do is head a little more upwind and disaster is instantaneous. In fact, he does not have to do anything: a momentary loss of attention will produce the same result. It’s much the same in our case. If you doze off, all your progress up to that point will be negated. To keep a sharp eye on...

“How ridiculous and unrealistic is the man who is astonished at anything that happens in life.” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Book 12

“First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.” ― Epictetus

“He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.” ― Seneca

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” ― Marcus Aurelius

“Man is affected, not by events, but by the view he takes of them.” — Epictetus

“If evil be said of thee, and if it be true, correct thyself; if it be a lie, laugh at it.” ― Epictetus

“To admonish is better than to reproach for admonition is mild and friendly, but reproach is harsh and insulting; and admonition corrects those who are doing wrong, but reproach only convicts them.” ― Epictetus

“Well-being is attained little by little, and nevertheless is no little thing itself.” ― Zeno of Citium

“Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We've been using them not because we needed them but because we had them.” ― Seneca

“If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.” ― Seneca

“Other people's views and troubles can be contagious. Don't sabotage yourself by unwittingly adopting negative, unproductive attitudes through your associations with others.” ― Epictetus