How to Set Goals — Stoic Advice on Goal Setting
What Stoicism Tells Us About Goal Setting
Summary
1. Stoicism is an incredibly useful tool to become more emotionally resilient
2. It’s important to focus on things over which you have at least some control, rather than things over which you have no control
3. You should set internal rather than external goals for yourself to avoid frustration and disappointment and thereby increasing your chance of success
Stoicism can teach us how to minimise the negative feeling and emotions we experience in everyday life and how to develop emotional resilience.
When it comes to setting goals — whether it’s your new year’s resolutions weekly objectives or your daily goals — , Stoics tell us to set internal rather than external goals.
So, what are internal and external goals?
For Stoics, everything in the world can be classified into three categories, namely
a) things over which we have no control at all (e.g. whether it will rain tomorrow)
b) things over which we have some but not complete control (e.g. whether we win while playing tennis and whether we get a promotion)
c) things over which we…
