What do you want out of life?
Stoicism is one of the philosophies of life. Our normal answers would probably be something along the lines of wanting a good spouse or a big house or hitting 100K followers on Instagram, bla bla usual life goals. But what Stoics are asking is:
What is your grand goal in living?
A grand goal in living is a goal we will be unwilling to sacrifice in order to attain other life goals. Not every things that we desire can be considered a grand goal in living. Many things we desire are considered merely life distractions that if not careful, will lead us to living a life that is not fulfilling. A life that will leave us in regret when we are on our deathbeds.
Of course if you watched Pewdiepie’s video, you now know that the grand goal of Stoics is to attain tranquility and virtue. Which also rings true in this book.
Component of a philosophy of life:
1) Having a grand goal in living & why is it worth attaining.
– Without it, we may live our entire life without pursuing what is truly valuable to us because we allowed ourselves to be distracted by diversions life has to offer.
2) Having a strategy for attaining our grand goal in living.
– It specifies what we must do to maximize our chances of reaching said grand goal.
If there were a philosopher of life to help guide us, the steps we would take would be to:
1) Think about our goals in living & which goals are worth pursuing.
2) Decide which of our goals should be priority when conflicts arise.
3) Sort through our goals & place them into a hierarchy. The goal at the top of this hierarchy would represent our grand goal.
A reminder:
A grand goal is a goal we should be unwilling to sacrifice to attain other goals.
A Brief Introduction to Stoicism
The first Stoic School was founded by Zeno of Citium.
Stoicism is a philosophy that:
– stresses the importance of contemplating the non-permanent nature of the world & the importance of mastering desire. These are the Big Twos.
– do not encourage banishing all emotions but only negative emotions.
– values joy. They do not restrict their practitioners from enjoying life pleasures so long as they do not succumb to it completely.
– values the importance of fulfilling our obligations & to also help others / make the world a better place.
Important insight about mastering desire!
A way to lessen our tendency of always wanting more is to persuade ourselves to want what we already have.
What the book will teach me:
1) Reconsider my goals in living, keeping in heart that many things i desire are not worth pursuing (especially things regarding fame & fortune)
2) Pursuit of tranquility & virtue
3) Psychological techniques for attaining & maintaining tranquility
4) What is in my control, what is out of my control
5) Strategy to prevent my tranquility from being disturbed
6) Become a more thoughtful observer of my own life (Reflection & next action steps)
[Page 22] The page number is just there for me to remember which page i last read as my PDF loves resetting itself to the cover page.
Just My Stories. 