Stephen Hanselman (6:27)
Write them, read them aloud, and talk to yourself and others about them. You can check out the Daily Stoke Journal anywhere books are sold. You can also get a signed personalized copy from me in the Daily stoic store@store.dailystoak.com if the first step is to discern what is or isn't in our control, the second step in Stoic philosophy is to focus the energy on the things we have a choice about. The Stoics viewed the soul as a sphere that, when well tuned, well directed, was an invincible fortress against any trial or circumstance protected by our reason. This sphere of choice was like a sacred temple, and it is the only thing we truly possess in this life. We are the product of our choices, so it is essential that we choose well this week. Consider and reflect on the choices you have about your emotions, your actions, your beliefs, and your priorities. Keep this thought at the ready at daybreak and through the day and night. There is only one path to happiness, and that is in giving up all that is outside your sphere of choice regarding nothing else is your possession, surrendering all else to God in fortune. Epictetus Discourses 44 who then is invincible? The one who cannot be upset by anything outside their reasoned choice. Epictetus Discourses 1:18 the soul is a sphere true to itself. It neither projects itself towards any external thing, nor does it collapse on itself, but instead radiates a light which it shows itself the truth of all things, and truth in and of itself. Marcus Aurelius Meditations 11:12 well, here we are. We were talking about this last week. You know, you only have so many energy points. You only have so much, so many resources. How are you going to spend them? Are you Going to spend them on what's up to you, or are you going to spend them on what's not up to you? Are you going to emote about things and pretend that that makes a difference, or are you going to spend your energy trying to do something about this thing that you found so upsetting? Right. So I think people think that stoicism is about resignation. It's not. It's about allocation. Right. It's resigned to the things that make no difference, where you can make no difference, but it's very focused, intensely focused on the areas that you can make a difference. Right? So you could despair about the larger political trends in your country because you're one person and you're at odds with the majority. But maybe you can make a difference with your family, with your community. You could run for school board or mayor or something like that. What can you do as the individual? That's not to say the stoics aren't interested in collective action. I'm just saying I'm going to focus my energy where it's going to make a difference and as the stoics say, be indifferent to the things where I can make no difference. Where can you make a difference? It gets tempting as a writer because our job as a writer is to have opinions about things. That's a really dangerous way to go through your life thinking that the world gives a shit about your opinion and that having the opinion is the thing that matters and it doesn't matter. What matters is what you do. What are the actions? We ended the year with the idea from the Stokes about turning words into works. Well, what are you providing? Where are you putting your resources? And are you putting them towards where they have input, where they have efficacy? Right. So a stoic is resigned in some sense to, look, I'm not going to get involved in that nonsense. I'm not going to waste time regretting the past either. What I'm going to try to do is move forward. What I'm going to try to do is move ahead. What I'm going to try to do is make some change where I can make some change. And yeah, I'm going to be indifferent to the things where that's not true. And that's what we're talking about here. Right? That's what the sphere of choice is about. And it's an easy thing to forget. And that's why Epictetus is saying, keep it ready in the morning, think about it throughout the day and think about it at night. He's saying there's one path to happiness. It's giving up the things that are outside your sphere of choice, focusing on what else is in your possession, surrendering everything else. So it's being Zen about the things that are not up to you, but there's a kind of invincibility in that Zen, right? Because if I didn't make the call, I didn't do it. If it wasn't something that was up to me, I'm not going to get upset by it. Remember Marx was saying, you don't have to have an opinion about this, you don't have to get upset, but you should be upset about your own choices. Why did I do that? Why didn't I do that? Why did I make this mistake? Why did I do this thing again that I told myself I was going to stop doing? Focus on you. Focus on your choices. Make good choices. Choices. That's how you exert control over the world. Something I, you know, I remind myself, you see what's going on in the world and you can despair, you can feel sad, or you can go, look, I've got two little kids in my house who I'm responsible for. The biggest multi generational impact I can have is in raising them well. And then I go, and this is something Seneca felt. It's like Seneca spent all these years beating his head against the wall trying to change Nero. He's affected far more people, had far more impact in his writing, which he did control. So I go, okay. And look, I'm not going to yell at some person I know on social media for being silly and have the impact on one person. But I am going to sit down and write about this or talk about this on the podcast in a way that can reach a lot of people. Let's stay in our lanes. Let's do what we can do. Let's try to make a difference where we can. And if we all do that, cumulatively, that is collective action. And that does have a big impact. So this is a short lesson today. It's a straightforward one, but it's so hard. And that's why Seneca is saying, you gotta remind yourself constantly throughout the day. I'm gonna focus on what's in my sphere of choice. That's where I have impact. I'm gonna focus on allocating my energy properly. Not gonna waste it on regret, not gonna waste it on bitterness, on resentment, on anger, on fear, on worry, on hope. I'm gonna control. I'm going to make a difference there. That's what stoic does. Hey, it's Ryan, thank you for listening to the Daily Stoic podcast. I just wanted to say we so appreciate it. We love serving you. It's amazing to us that over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in the couple years we've been doing it. It's an honor. Please spread the word, tell people about it. And this isn't to sell anything. I just wanted to say thank you.
