Using my 3 'Stoic' Rules to Improve my Life

Action beats Anxiety - every time

All we ever have is Time & Energy

The Stories we tell ourselves determines how we Respond & Act

Lately I have been reflecting on my life so much due to the challenges I am facing in my personal & business arenas. Along with that as many of you will know I listen to many podcasts & ascribe to mainly a Stoic approach to life with a little Taoism thrown in when I can focus.

These 3 rules are a bit of a combination of what I have heard & learnt from all 3 sources & I am now attempting to practice all 3 every day. And guess what - it is working & as I get better at it I am very confident that I will lead a more fulfilling life.
Call to Action - Give them a try & let me know how it goes for you

Action Beats Anxiety

The Stoics drew a line through the middle of experience: some things are up to us and some are not. Our judgements, our choices, our deliberate actions sit on our side of that line. Outcomes, reputations, other people and the future sit on the far side of that line. Anxiety, in this framework, is the act of pouring our scarce energy across that line. We are expending effort to things we cannot command or control.

Action is the opposite: gathering yourself back to the one area you actually can control, the very next thing you can do.

The rule isn't just motivational, it aligns with Stoic move of positioning yourself from what you can't control to what you can. "The anxious mind rehearses the storm; the acting person reefs the sail". Emperor Marcus Aurelius, running an empire and a war from a tent, kept reminding himself to do the task in front of him and leave the rest alone.

That is "action beats anxiety" written by a man who had every reason to be anxious.

All We Ever Have is Time and Energy

This is the most Stoic of the three, and the most underestimated. It is also a sentiment expressed so often by Sam Harris. Seneca meditated a lot on this subject and in "On the Shortness of Life" - says "we guard our money and property obsessively while letting the one truly irreplaceable resource - Time - be stolen, squandered and given away to people, actions and worries that deserve none of it". He makes the point that it isn't that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it; life is long enough if time and energy are well invested.

So life, in this sense, is the wise and active practice of allocating the only two non renewable inputs we have to give - Time & Energy

The Stories We Tell Ourselves Determine How We Respond and Act

Epictetus gave us the line that define cognitive approaches to being who we are: people are disturbed not by things, but by their judgements about things. The event is neutral; the story we tell ourselves about the event/person/challenge converts it into a catastrophe or a challenge.

Between the impression that strikes you ("this is a disaster") and your agreement to it, there is a gap, and in that gap, however small, lives all your freedom. Learn to pause at the impression and interrogate or reflect on it before signing your name to it: Is this within my control? Is this judgement true, or merely habitual? Is the thing itself harming me, or my story about it?

This pause has been my biggest take away from my reflection on applying these 3 rules to my every day. Every time I slow myself down (remember I am a 7 on the Enneagram so have a completely active 'monkey brain'), and take the time to ask myself 'what story am I telling myself about what just happened?', I come away with a feeling of satisfaction or ease with what I do next.

I will admit I still react a lot - but I am getting better at it! My thinking is that if I genuinely live these three rules, I can attempt to live the Stoics claim to be bold and more importantly rewarding: "not merely a better life but a fundamentally freer one".

How will you practice these 3 rules?