“Face the demands of life voluntarily. Respond to a challenge instead of bracing for catastrophe.” A big problem that a lot of people have is they become so anxious and worried about future events that they don’t actually end up doing anything about it because their fear holds them down. Their fight or flight response works, but it tenses up. Many people don’t understand that … Continue reading A Gentle Aggression

“Perfection and power are overrated. I think you are very wise to choose happiness and love.”  — Uncle Iroh Uncle Iroh is a fictional character from an animated kids show called Avatar: The Last Airbender. Although the show is made simple for children to understand, a second look and a second thought reveals an astonishing amount of underlying messages, wisdom, and maturity for older audiences … Continue reading An Unusual Source of Wisdom

“Prioritize your problems and take care of them one at a time, the highest priority first. Don’t try to do everything at once or you won’t be successful.” — Jocko Willink I find it funny how many of Jocko Willink’s quotes align with stoicism philosophies. He says he doesn’t follow stoicism, and yet here we are… The subject of today’s discussion revolves around setting goals. … Continue reading Setting Goals

“You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this and you will find strength.” — Marcus Aurelius  Strength means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To some it’s being able to withstand a lot of emotional pain. To others it simply means the ability to move a lot of weight. No matter what you think of strength as, … Continue reading Reflecting on Past Knowledge

“You must own everything in your world. There is no one else to blame.” — Jocko Willink Jocko Willink is a retired naval officer who served in the navy SEALs. Although he’s specifically said he doesn’t follow stoicism, there seems to be an overlap between what he values and what others value. One of Willink’s phrases that he often repeats is “Discipline equals freedom.” He … Continue reading Modern Stoics: Part Four

“By putting yourself in that intense form of stress, it makes regular life more peaceful.” — Joe Rogan Stress is an everyday part of life that you simply can’t avoid. What you can do is learn how to deflect it or absorb it and shoot it back out for lack of a better word, but you can’t completely avoid it because it’s always going to … Continue reading Modern Stoics: Part Three

“We can learn from stoicism without embracing it’s strict letter. This human side of stoicism can toughen us without robbing us of our humanity.” — Nancy Sherman Nancy Sherman is a philosophy professor at Georgetown University. She’s studied philosophies from many different parts of the world, stoicism being one of them. I think this quote is important because it reaches out to those that think … Continue reading Modern Stoics: Part Two

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Nassim Taleb is a Lebanese-American essayist known for studying randomness, likelihood, and probability. He’s also the author of a book called The Black Swan. Oddly enough, this man also seems to follow stoicism, or at least share some common ideas with it. In this quote he brings up what … Continue reading Modern Stoics: Part One

“Our envy lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy” Envy is a deadly sin. If you aren’t christian, then envy is a bad way of thinking. Or evil spirits. Or a crazed mind. Whatever you want to call it, envy isn’t good. It leads to us never being satisfied. It leads to jealousy. It leads to anger. It leads to frustration and stress … Continue reading Quotes From Heraclitus: Part Five

“Big results require big ambitions” Ambition is an important aspect and characteristic to anybody with any kind of goal, ever. Sounds like I’m exaggerating there. I’m not. Without ambition, we have no inner desire to do things. Without an inner desire to do something, we never truly complete a task because we never spend time getting all the flaws worked out. If we only run … Continue reading Quotes From Heraclitus: Part Four