Stoicism in the times of COVID-19

(Cross posted at shooonya.org)

It would be an understatement to say obstacles are all around for people who got affected by COVID-19, for businesses that got impacted, and for people who got laid off in a 3 minute Zoom call or an e-mail in the morning. What do you do when the black swan event of the century turns a normal day into a day where you wonder about how you are going to survive this crisis.

Initially you blame everyone. A week back a CEO told that his projections have shown they have enough cash to go on like this till December 2020. Next week he laid off 20% of the company. Once the blaming is done, you worry about the future. Will you be able to find a job? Who will be hiring when the entire country is sheltered in place? Each of these incidents elicit the same response in all of us – fear, frustration, confusion, helplessness, depression, and anger. Also the betrayal of false assurances.

During these times, what we need are two things

• a way to immediately deal with the situation without losing sanity
• a process for recovering and being successful.

That’s what the ancient Roman philosophy of Stoicism offers and it the main topic of The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday

Coming to the first part on dealing with the situation reminds me of Buddhist parable of the two arrows. The first arrow is the situation you are in. The second arrow is your reaction to the event. The first one is beyond your control, the second one, not. You cannot wave your hands and wish COVID-19 away. Blaming the economy, politicians, bosses and others is not going to help in anyway. What would help is in handling the second arrow by altering our attitude and approach.

Stoicism is a practical guide to get unstuck, turn negative situations to positive ones and use the obstacle to improve our condition. Articulated by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius in the second century, Stoicism has become popular in the past decade. The basic idea is simple —that the control of consciousness determines the quality of life.

Altering your attitude and approaches requires the unusual step of disagreeing with the instinctual reaction the mind generates. This is not something that will come naturally and requires lot of practice. The book goes through numerous examples of situations on how successful people have handled similar events in their lives. Stoic attitude—serenity in the face of a setback—can also help keep you young, as it lowers anxiety and stress levels and stabilizes behavior. This can be seen in the greater life expectancy of certain cultures with unhurried, deliberate lifestyles.

The second part is the practical step in handling the situation. The book advocates having a process for handling the situation. The process is about doing the right things, right now. Not worrying about what might happen later, or the results, or the whole picture. Everything — strength, fear —- is subordinated to the process.

“A modern stoic, knows that the surest way to discipline passion is to discipline time: decide what you want or ought to do during the day, then always do it at exactly the same moment every day, and passion will give you no trouble. Self-discipline has a bigger effect than intellectual talent.” Thus, if you are looking for a job, it means having a schedule for networking, talking to recruiters and solving algorithms, and polishing your pitch.

With all the things going on in the world right now, the book is timely. There is no point in kicking and screaming about matters that can’t be controlled. Instead acceptance or even indifference is a better approach as it can help develop strength, wisdom and perspective.