Daily Stoic Entry #279: Why Does My Wrongdoing Hurt Me Most of All?

October 7th, 2022

Follow along with my personal daily stoic journal, unfiltered, unedited (except for some spelling mistakes).

Morning Reflection:

It causes regrets, shame, depression, and unhappiness. Doing wrong disconnects us from our values and our community, harming the community and our values doe harm to ourselves. I tend to believe that doing good for others is the same as doing good for yourself. Therefore, doing harm onto others immediately does me harm as well.

Evening Reflection:

I'm not sure I can say more on the matter. Perhaps a nuance is when you chase the wrong values it also does harm to you and your relationships with others. For example, chasing wealth and status has a purpose of financial stability and security but it can also be a way to create greater space between you and others. If you believe status is super important then you'll evaluate people based on their status in relation to yours, creating a gap, and an ugly superiority judgement of others, making it harder to connect. Which causes us harm. Another nuance is that helping others without helping yourself first causes more harm than good. The answer lies in the middle. If you don't take care of your own needs in a reasonable degree, you're not really in a position to be helpful or charitable.

Title prompts are taken from The Daily Stoic Journal by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman.