Stoic DaysWhen a bad day feels like a reason
Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things.
When it helps: when a hard day starts to sound like permission. The day is hard; the story about it is what you can examine.
In the middle of a craving
If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now.
When it helps: in the middle of a craving, when the urge feels like a fact rather than a judgement you can set down.
On a day that feels small
Every habit and faculty is maintained and increased by the corresponding actions: the habit of walking by walking, the habit of running by running.
When it helps: on a day that feels too small to matter. Each kept day strengthens the next.
Starving a habit
If then you wish not to be of an angry temper, do not feed the habit.
When it helps: read “angry temper” as any habit you’re starving out.
When tomorrow feels too big
Lay hold of to-day’s task, and you will not need to depend so much upon to-morrow’s.
When it helps: when tomorrow feels too big to face.
When it’s time to begin
No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.
When it helps: when you’ve been planning to start and want to start now.
Read more: our guide to Stoicism and quitting drinking or using, the Stoic way.
Translations: Epictetus, Discourses and Encheiridion, tr. George Long; Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long; Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius, tr. Richard Mott Gummere. All public domain.
