Daily Stoic Entry #9: If I Don’t Control What Happens To Me, What Is Left?

January 9th 2022

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

Morning Reflection:

I control how I react. That’s the idea, I control my reaction, how I respond to what happens to me. Sometimes things feel overwhelming and it’s difficult to stay calm. Take a step back, raise your head, take a deep breath. The next step would be to figure out the best simple step you can take. Whether that is to exercise, meditate, write, or whatever thing you have to work on, approach it simply for making that next step. Don’t focus on the finished product or the whole projects, just the next reasonable action.

Evening Reflection:

I need to get out of my own way more, too much energy and mental space is being used for worrying about things that are not real or important. Worrying about things you can’t control or wish to be different right now. For the things you wish were different, simply let it go and identify one small things that is in your control which can improve your situation. Loneliness is not something you’ll solve by worrying the whole day about it nor is it reasonable to expect you can come up with a fix in a small amount of time. Identify one small thing that moves you in the right the direction the rest is irrelevant. Simply saying hi to someone new may sow an important seed. This applies to all the other things you want to change as well.

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