A Stoic Approach to Life in Less Than 5 Minutes
Emotional resilience is superpower
The ancient Greeks were the first to introduce the concept of ‘stoicism’. They lived in an era when life was uncertain and much harsher than it is today.
Stoicism is a school of philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC. It is based on the concept that the mind can control and discipline the body and that people can control their destiny by adopting a rational, accepting attitude towards life.
The basic tenets are common sense and four cardinal virtues: wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance.
These are interlinked with other beliefs: virtue is more important than intelligence, pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional, and that pleasure is the only thing worth living for.
“A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking,” says Taleb Nassim Nicholas.
Stoicism is a philosophy that teaches us how we can maintain objectivity in all situations, so we remain clearheaded under pressure and remain emotionally stable as much as possible.
This means that if you have learned to control your irrational impulses, you can judge whether you are acting with…
