Happiness — Day 1
The following is from my daily newsletter, The Pocket Philosopher. Each week we explore a theme, looking at that theme through the lens of a different philosophy each day.
Intro:
This week, we’ll be exploring happiness and the good life. We want to know what different traditions, philosophies, and thinkers have left behind for us in their quest for contentment and fulfillment.
Thought
What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgements about the things. for example, death is nothing dreadful (or else it would have appeared dreadful to Socrates), but instead the judgement about death that it is dreadful- that is what is dreadful. So when we are upset or distressed, let us never blame someone else but rather ourselves, that is, our own judgements.
-Epictetus
Application
The wisdom of Stoicism is largely about discernment and judgement. That discernment revolves primarily around the ability to asses whether or not an outcome is in one’s control or not. In many ways, both over-estimating and under-estimating can cause suffering.
If we assume we control too much, we suffer when things do not go our way. If we assume we control too little we lack agency and likewise suffer.
Today, practice stepping back and taking a few moments to reflect and ask yourself- can I control this outcome? If so, how much? If not, what can I control?
This simple mantra could greatly reduce both your frustration, and also increase your capacity for mindfullness and skillful living.
Backstory
As we discovered a few weeks ago, Stoicism is a philosophy originating from ancient Greece. Marcus Aurelius is arguably the most notable Stoic and did much to preserve the discipline through the time of Roman conquest.
It was originally a school of thought founded by Zeno of Citium in Cypress. Zeno was not himself Greek, and actually did much to increase the universality of thought. What I mean by this, is that prior to Zeno much of Greek philosophy was localized and regional. He intentionally cultivated a philosophy that spoke to and included all people.
Stoicism first emerged in parts of Greece that would have been considered uncultivated if not barbaric during the time of Plato and Aristotle. During the time of Zeno, however, Greece was growing rapidly and the relative egalitarian nature of Stoicism appealed to people of all classes and rank during a period of rapid growth and change.
Collectively, the Stoics left behind for us a map to happiness that originates from our ability to discern what we can and cannot control.
This ancient idea persists to the modern day, influencing the research of Stephen Covey in his famous book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for example. He takes much time early in the book to help readers understand the difference between objective reality, and the very real way that we individually perceive reality.
He argues there is reality and then there is the window through which we experience reality. Often, this window is smudged with our fears, insecurities, ego, sense of self, desires, and even trauma.
The benefit of cultivating Stoic happiness is directly linked to this phenomenon. It’s almost a way to “clean” our windows so that we can perceive the world more clearly.
To give an example, I’ve noticed that various Social Media influencers actually build a brand around false ideas of success, which makes this discernment that much harder. In many respects my Instagram feed is a never-ending list of people who designed a system to achieve their goals in 8 months or less.
While this absolutely happens for some folks (and I love to read those stories), they would be the first to admit it had much more to do with luck and timing than with skill. And usually, there is a lifetime of trial and error going on before this project which came together finally in one last attempt. Even so, it’s not uncommon to see a social media influencer claiming strategic, scalable growth that you too can emulate and achieve.
A tiny example for sure, this type of constant information leads us to believe we can and should control our business outcomes. When one of our attempts or iterations does not success in the way we hoped, it can lead us to feel like failures.
Instead of accepting that we cannot control the outcomes, we work harder and harder to emulate the success of others assuming it will only fail if something is wrong with us. Naturally this can lead to quickly descending downward spiral.
Zeno might encourage us to approach the situation differently. To mute the voices of people peddling their success, to take a step back, and to identify what we actually have control over.
We can control our attitude, we can control how hard and how smart we work, we can control the time we spend thinking and reflecting, and we can control the quality of our work.
We cannot control, however, how the marketplace shifts and responds. We can’t control if people like or dislike our work. We can’t control if we are able to earn money, build a brand, or influence people. We can only control that we show up and what we do when we show up consistently over time.
Naval Ravikant, a serial tech entrepreneur and investor as well modern day philosopher, argues that above all else we are each building social credit based on judgement. He believes that judgement is simply the consistent application of wisdom over time. People with good judgement are trusted more and able to experience more in life, and folks with weaker judgement aren’t trusted as much to experiment or try new things.
This judgement, I believe, begins with one’s ability to first determine what they can and cannot control. It is a foundational discipline that can literally change the rest of our lives.
I hope this was enjoyable and helpful, keep thinking, see you tomorrow!
-TPP
Originally published at https://pocketphilosopher.substack.com.
