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  • #6: Gamifying Practical Wisdom, Healthy Ambition, and How to Be a Stoic in 12 Steps

#6: Gamifying Practical Wisdom, Healthy Ambition, and How to Be a Stoic in 12 Steps

+ The Simplest Explanation of Stoicism on the Internet

Author

Jon Brooks
January 20, 2023

🏹 Stoic Wisdom Arrows

✅ On Reclaiming Healthy Ambitions: Eric Brown shares a post on his troubles with ambition and how he came full circle to develop a healthy relationship with aiming high. Read it here.

📕 The Philosophical Journal: Learn from legendary Stoic writer Massimo Pigliucci on how to start a philosophical journal and level up your practical wisdom. Read it here.

🌙 Stoic Evening Reflections: A resource page with 2 guided evening meditations to help you learn from assess your day and learn from your moral mistakes. Read it here.​​

📖 Editor’s Pick: How to Be a Stoic: 12 Practical Exercises

♟️ Featured Stoic Tactic: Objective Descriptions

Donald Robertson recently wrote one of the best jargon-free guides to Stoicism I’ve ever read. While it’s concise, if one were to actually apply the ideas contained in this short piece, one would most certainly experience a useful shift in their emotional life.

He lists three key Stoic therapeutic techniques, but here I want to feature Objective Descriptions. Here’s what Donald says about this:

As we’ve seen, Stoics bear in mind that our values don’t live out there in the real world but are projected onto events like a beam of sunlight illuminating an object. If we look at the world through rose-tinted glasses everything might look very different than if we look at events through a glass darkly, perhaps through gloomy blue lenses. One way Stoics try to remind themselves of this is by describing events to themselves in very objective language, avoiding any strong value judgements or emotive rhetoric. You can think of this as training yourself to be more matter-of-fact or down-to-earth about events. Napoleon reputedly said that a throne is nothing more than a bench covered in velvet. When the most exquisite wine in the empire was set before Marcus Aurelius he’d silently mumble to himself that, in the final analysis, it’s only a bottle of fermented grape juice — nothing worth getting excited about. When you’re faced with a stressful situation it can be particularly helpful to view it in this way. Actually take time to describe the events to yourself as accurately and objectively as possible. If it helps, imagine you’re a scientist documenting events that you’re observing happening to someone else. Don’t turn a setback into a drama, by striking a tragic pose. Don’t tell yourself that it’s terrible, in other words, just lay out the bare facts and begin looking for realistic solutions.

— From article: Stoicism as a Philosophy of Life

Stoic Anxiety Mastery is my flagship video course, featuring psychological writing exercises, guided meditations, and extensive workshops for emotional mastery. Those who sign up for the course get frequent updates.

Most recently, I added a Radical Gratitude workshop and a 7-day Adversity to Advantage meditation sub-course to the back end.

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Jon