Is Stoicism the Secret to a Good Life?

Around 2,000 years ago, two men at the absolute opposite ends of power arrived at the same set of conclusions about how to live. One was Marcus Aurelius, the Emperor of Rome—the most powerful person alive. The other was Epictetus, who was born a slave, had a crippled leg, and owned nothing. The fact that this philosophy worked for both of them, Rob Dial argues on The Mindset Mentor, proves that Stoicism has nothing to do with your circumstances. It is a mental training program for self-mastery, and Dial distills it into four practical lessons that can be used immediately to stop creating unnecessary suffering and to turn life’s challenges into strength.

Sort Everything Into Two Buckets

The center of the entire philosophy, according to Dial, comes from Epictetus: "Some things are up to us, and some things are not." Your effort, your attitude, your mindset, your standards, and your response to life are yours. Everything else—traffic, the economy, the weather, your ex, what people think of you, whether someone texts you back—is not. Dial argues that most people burn themselves out because they refuse to sort their concerns into these two buckets. Instead, they carry the entire pile around all day, trying to control what they cannot control.