Marcus Aurelius on avoiding the pull of others’ actions — We are social animals. We need to belong to a group(s), and we need the assistance of others for survival. “We become who we are,” David Brooks once wrote, “in conjunction with other people becoming who they are.” But there is a downside to this social aspect we innately have…

See for yourself why it’s called timeless wisdom — To realise our potential, we must embrace circumstances and activities that force us outside of our comfort zone. In these moments, our minds can wander and invite in thoughts that undermine or stress us out. …

Epictetus | Enchiridion — “Keep in mind that desire presumes your getting what you want and that aversion presumes your avoiding what you don’t want, and that not getting what we want makes us…

Marcus Aurelius | Meditations — “Salvation: to see each thing for what it is — its nature and its purpose. To do only what is right, say only what is true, without holding back. What…

Using temperance in a world of constant desire — One of the most important virtues the Stoics preached was that of self-restraint. To control oneself, both in action and desire. Marcus Aurelius, for example, spends much time within the Meditations talking to himself about restraining his anger or his temptation to do actions he deems non-virtuous. This idea of…

Timeless leadership wisdom from this ancient philosophy — Leadership is unavoidable. You might not be a boss or a manager. But everyday you’ll face moments when you’ll be leading others. You might be a mother organising a school run. Or a student choosing a location for a first date. …

Seneca’s advice on reclaiming control of our thoughts and focusing on the present moment — In Moral Letter 13, Seneca warns his friend Lucilius of the dangers of allowing fear of the future to run our lives. In his now famous line, he writes: “More things frighten us, Lucilius, than really affect us, and we are more often afflicted in thought than fact.” Fear is…

The Stoics on reason to overcome emotion — Our mind is a powerful thing. The Stoics believed that in order to live a good life, we needed to embrace the power of our mind and use reason and rationality to detach from the overpowering of emotions. …

Keep the chain — It would be great if during the New Year, the resolutions we made were able to be accomplished. Unfortunately, what happens to many of us is we set resolutions for ourselves, we promise to change or do something different, and in a lot of cases we do for a while…