The Daily Stoic17 Des 2018

Here Are Signs You’re Making Progress

Ok, you’ve been doing your reading and your journaling. You’re trying to be conscious of your thoughts and your actions. In short, you’re putting in the work.

The question is, how do you know if it’s working? The journey to becoming a “sage” is one that takes a lifetime. No one hands you a certificate. Wisdom accumulates and builds on itself until one day, well, there you are. If that feels a little too inexact, we empathize, but such is life.

Still, there has to be something we can look for to see whether we are making progress. Whether we are getting better as opposed to simply feeling better (or more dangerously, feeling self-satisfied?)

According to Epictetus, these are signs that someone is making progress:

-criticizing nobody

-praising nobody

-blaming nobody

-accusing nobody

-saying nothing about themselves to indicate being someone or knowing something

-when frustrated or impeded, they blame themselves

-if complimented, they laugh

-if criticized, they ignore

-relaxed in motivation

-banishing harmful desire

-they watch themselves as though they were an enemy plotting an attack

If you’re really doing the work, you will see yourself improve in these areas. Not all the time and certainly not in all of them all at once. But you will blame others less, ignore criticism more readily (and ignore leveling it at others). You will be humbler and desire less. You will take responsibility. You will examine yourself.

That’s progress.

The question for you today is: Are you making any?

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(3072)

You Have This Freedom (If You Take It)

Marcus Aurelius lacked a freedom that we so readily take for granted...🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE | Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you! Grab tickets here | https://www.dailystoiclive.com/🎙️ AD-FREE...

29 Jul 1min

How To Think For Yourself In A World Full Of Lies | David Pakman

When false information spreads faster than the truth, knowing how to think matters more than knowing what to think. In this episode, Ryan talks with David Pakman, host of The David Pakman Show, about ...

29 Jul 34min

If Money Could Talk, What Would It Say? | What Would the Stoics Tell Us Today?

Money isn’t evil. It can do real good. But it is a tool, not a measure of life. It can tell you what something costs, but not what it is worth.💡The Wealthy Stoic: A Daily Stoic Guide to Being Rich, H...

28 Jul 11min

BONUS | Are You Measuring Wealth Wrong? (with Sahil Bloom)

Some people have everything they thought they wanted and still feel like they’re losing. In this bonus episode, hear an excerpt from Ryan’s conversation with Sahil Bloom, author of The 5 Types of Weal...

27 Jul 11min

Where Does It Get You? | Keeping "The News" In Check

People have been doing the same things for as long as there have been people. 📕 Turn off the news and read these books instead:Trust Me I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Po...

27 Jul 7min

Kate Bowler Challenges Stoicism’s Most Famous Idea

One of Stoicism’s most famous ideas does not sit right with bestselling author Kate Bowler. In this episode, Ryan and Kate discuss the pressure this idea can place on people facing illness, grief, and...

26 Jul 17min

9 Stoic Habits For A Better Life

Virtue is like any other skill. It’s not something you either have or you don’t. It’s something you practice, and the more you practice it, the better you become. This was Aristotle’s fundamental insi...

25 Jul 18min

BONUS | Made For Working Together

According to the Stoics, we humans have a higher obligation—not to the gods but to each other. 📔 Pick up your own leather bound signed edition of The Daily Stoic! Check it out at the Daily Stoic Stor...

24 Jul 5min