If you relapse and fall to the level of your worst habits, these hard times will only be harder.Įpictetus said habits-good and bad-were like a bonfire. If you can cultivate good habits, you can survive-even thrive on-what lies ahead. They can be obstacles you triumph over …or setbacks that bring you to your knees. These things can sink you…or they can be opportunities to improve. Success and happiness isn’t random, it’s a habit. Repetition, routine, ritual, habits-they dictate who we are and what we become. What we do in practice, the Stoics knew, is how we play when it’s gametime. You’ve seen these forces at work in your own life, for better and-frustratingly all too often-for worse. Nothing that holds us back quite like a bad habit.
There is nothing more powerful than a good habit. “You must linger among a limited number of master-thinkers, and digest their works,” he said, “if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind.” Seneca, for his part, talked about repeatedly diving back into the great texts of history-rather than chasing every new or exciting thing published. “Write them, read them aloud, talk to yourself and others about them.” That’s exactly what we see Marcus doing in Meditations because “such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind,” as he put it. At the core of Marcus Aurelius’s power as a philosopher and philosopher king seems to be this lesson he would have read in Epictetus: “Every day and night keep thoughts like these at hand,” Epictetus had said. Indeed, the title of his book Enchiridion actually means “small thing in hand,” or handbook.
Epictetus said that philosophy was something that should be kept at hand every day and night. Small adjustments, good systems, the right processes-that’s what it takes. Because it means that impressive results or enormous changes are possible without herculean effort or magic formulas. We are what we habituate.Īs Epictetus would say, “capability is confirmed and grows in its corresponding actions, walking by walking, and running by running… therefore, if you want to do something, make a habit of it.” So if we want to be happy, if we want to be successful, if we want to be great, we have to develop the capability, we have to develop the day-to-day habits that allow this to ensue. They would have agreed with Aristotle that we become what we repeatedly study and focus on. It wasn’t just about knowing what the right thing was, it was about doing it daily. The Stoics were all about habits and routine. Learn more here and make sure to register before the live cohort begins on March 22nd! I. Along with 14 daily emails, there will be 3 live video sessions with bestselling author Ryan Holiday, one of the world’s foremost thinkers and writers on ancient philosophy and its place in everyday life. It’s a 14-day course that will equip you with the tools to live as vibrant and expansive a life as the Stoics.
#POWER OF THE ANCIENTS HOW TO#
If you want to take a deeper dive into Stoicism and learn how to apply the philosophy to your life, check out our most popular course, Stoicism 101: Ancient Philosophy For Your Actual Life. What Are The Best Habits For Happiness And Success? And bookmark this page and return to it frequently-it is the ultimate guide on habits. Click the links below to navigate to a specific section or scroll and read the entirety of the page. And at the bottom, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of additional resources. Then, we’ll help you understand how habits are formed, so you can break bad habits and replace them with good habits. We’ll first lay out the best habits for happiness and success. Which is why we’ve created this guide for you.
#POWER OF THE ANCIENTS CODE#
It’s like an operating system and the code this system operates on is habit In other words: Excellence isn’t this thing you do one time. Excellence, then is not an act but a habit.” Summing up Aristotle’s thoughts on excellence, Will Durant wrote, “We are what we repeatedly do. Because brilliance and inspiration and skill are not enough. Reaching it requires a certain philosophical approach.
It means excellence, and it was the ultimate expression of human greatness-moral, physical, spiritual. Arete -the most powerful word to the Stoics.
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