Today the Stoic quote I read was:
“A person who doesn’t know what the universe is, doesn’t know where they are. A person who doesn’t know their purpose in life doesn’t know who they are or what the universe is. A person who doesn’t know any one of these things doesn’t know why they are here. So what to make of people who seek or avoid the praise of those who have no knowledge of where or who they are?”
Currently one of my goals is to improve my perception of an event. Accurate perception of the world is one of the pillars of Stoic philosophy.
“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control.”
Epictetus, Discourses, 2.5.4-5
It’s easy to take this quote as the solution, I mean here it is! Just identify what I can control and what I can’t! I can’t control the rain, why worry about it? I have to just accept that it is out of my control and I will get wet. These things aren’t under my control, but I have power over things that influence their consequences. For example, I can’t make it stop raining, but I can open an umbrella, hide under a roof, run into a building. The outcome changes, I don’t have to get wet.
This will serve as a tool to track my own progress towards a more tranquil life. Anyone else who is interested either in pursuing this themselves, or just have curiosity, then feel welcome to follow along. There are no ulterior motives here, this is not meant to increase the website visits, clicks etc. and for the foreseeable future there will be no advertising here. We have enough distractions.
The way I will get to a point of clearness and tranquillity, I do not know. It’s what I would like to achieve, but it isn’t not set as the goal, instead I will set many smaller goals and hopefully they will bring me closer towards a tranquil life. I’ve seen self-help books advertising the answer, philosophical schools of thought centred around the idea of what a good life is, examples of happiness and success advertised throughout media. Despite all these options it seems that a lot of people struggle with decisions and their own emotions, let alone what “solution” to choose. I don’t claim to have the right answer in any sense, all I can say is so far, I’m finding myself a better person that I would like to continue improving.