The Main Lesson of 2021: Be Prepared for Every Misfortune

Around this time last year, I began a journey into an in-depth study of Stoicism in order to engage in some much-needed self-improvement. 2020 had left me philosophically adrift and yearning for a boost of meaning and purpose. Over the last 12-months I’ve read the words of the greatest minds of antiquity. I studied their lives and their actions.?

I learned a lot from this mind walk with the greats and had many of my original thoughts about way of the world reinforced and reinformed. Because of this study, I have decided to try and??live my life as a Stoic, with my life now set on the daily goal of self-improvement.?

To aid me this year, here are a few guideposts, some are Stoic and some are from the philosophy applied in action. I’ve found these words and teachings especially helpful and meaningful. I hope you enjoy them too …?

1.?????Shakespeare had it right all along, “There is nothing either good nor bad, but thinking makes it so.” (from?Hamlet)

2.?????HIC ET NUNC?(Here and now). It’s all that matters.?

3.?????Power doesn’t corrupt, it reveals. (Not sure who said this, but it was very true on January 6th)

4.?????Human welfare is our civic duty. And, it involves both a social and political commitment.

5.?????“No tree becomes rooted and sturdy unless many a wind assails it. For by its very tossing, it tightens its grip and plants its roots more securely … disaster is virtues opportunity.” – Seneca

6.?????“My formula for greatness in a human being is AMOR FATI (love of one’s fate): that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it—all idealism is mendaciousness in the face of what is necessary—but love it.” - Nietzsche

7.?????The faculty of reason, which we all possess, should be used exclusively for the betterment of society. There is no greater use of reason.

8.?????Hope is not a virtue, it’s the leftover evil at the bottom of Pandora’s box. Hope Is fleeting and it’s the first thing to find you and the first thing to leave you. So, fully adopt “DE CEDE MALIS” (Yield not to misfortune, but go more boldly forth against it). Embrace the obstacle and let the obstacle become the way. As Epictetus said, “A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope.”?

9.?????Happiness and joy are not the same. Happiness is fleeting – it’s a rush, a mere moment. Joy is a way of life, it’s a pursuit.?

10.??Health is wealth. This is an old adage to remind oneself that there is no greater investment in your future than your health.

11.??“Learn to live by holding death in contempt.” – Montaigne?

12.??Master studied indifference. Let go of the externals and be able to say, “I am not angry with you” … and this can be said not just to people, this can be said to anything including: harm, pain, words. Studied indifference allows you to remain calm and not let anger overtake your reason. Also, treat your own station in life with great indifference.?

13.??Discipline = freedom. Put your good habits to use because discipline will beat motivation every time.

14.??“Prefer that which is honest before that which is popular.” – Plutarch

15.??“Playing the blues is about trying to have a good time in bad times. And, if you ain’t had bad times, live a little bit longer.” – Buddy Guy, Chicago Blues legend.

16.??“Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.” – Steven Pressfield

17.??“Sordid self-interest is the natural produce of base minds.” – Benjamin Franklin

18.??“In all important matters deliberate maturely, but execute promptly and vigorously.” – George Washington

19.??“ … for the lion cannot defend himself against traps, and the fox cannot defend himself against wolves. Therefore, one must be a fox to recognize traps and a lion to frighten off wolves.” – Machiavelli?

20.??Find your “Inner Citadel” … because you are always the same. Whether in the city or the country, the battlefield or the office. Find inner peace and use your faculty of reason the same – regardless of your location or lot in life. External things cannot touch the soul.

21.??Diogenes argued that the study of philosophy, and Stoicism in particular, allows you, “ … to be prepared for every misfortune.”?

And for the year ahead:

22.??Let us do as Seneca said to do and “cultivate humanity.” For, as Cicero argued, “We must exercise a respectfulness towards people, both towards the best of them and also towards the rest … in short, we ought to revere, to guard, and to preserve the common affection and fellowship of the whole of humankind.”?