The Stoic Approach to Life: It’s all About Circles
Recently, I decided to revisit the Stoic approach to life. Stoicism was a school of philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early third century BC. Stoicism teaches that we can’t control or rely on anything outside our “reasoned choice” – our ability to use our reason to choose how we categorise, respond and reorient ourselves to external events.
Some famous Stoics include Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus a former slave who triumphed to become an influential lecturer and friend of the emperor Hadrian, and Seneca – a famous playwright and political adviser.
The Stoic approach to life can be categorised into three disciplines:
- The Discipline of Perception – how we see and perceive the world around us.
- The Discipline of Action – the decisions and actions we take and to what end.
- The Discipline of Will – how we deal with things we cannot change, attain clear and convincing judgment, and come to a true understanding of our place in the world.
According to Epictetus, “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.”
In other words, it’s being able to differentiate between what we can change and what we can’t. Another way to look at this is to consider two circles. The first circle is what we are going to call our circle of concerns. The second circle we are going to call it our circle of influence.
Now, picture this…
- When our circle of concerns is much bigger than our circle of influence, this often leads to stress, overwhelm and despair because there is not much we can control. Most of our focus is directed toward externals…
- When our circle of concerns is much smaller than our circle of influence, we basically behave as careless narcissists. The whole world revolves around us, and nothing outside of us matters.
- When our circle of concerns matched exactly our circle of influence, we live in our comfort zone. Everything is smooth sailing, however, nothing really rocks our boat, life can become dull and even boring if that lasts for too long.
- Finally, when our circle of concerns is slightly bigger than our circle of influence, that’s where we have to stretch ourselves to extend our circle of influence to the size of our circle of concerns. When we decide to continue to expend simultaneously our circle of concerns and our circle of influence in order to keep them in close proximity – making sure our circle of concerns is always the slightly biggest one – we embark on a journey of growth and personal development.
Focus on making clear what parts of your day are within your control and what parts are not.
In Nutshell:
When you are able to identify what you can change from what you can’t you’ll not only live a happier life, but you’ll also have a distinct advantage over other people who fail to realise that they are fighting an un-winnable battle…
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