Read the following Stoic guidelines for living based on Epictetus. Choose five guidelines to live by and tell why you choose those guidelines. Are there any that you disagree with? Why?
1. The "reason for living" is based upon using reason to control emotions. Happiness is found through wisdom.
2. Concern yourself with what is yours and what is in your power. Respect the power and belongings of others and no harm will come to you.
3. Do not attempt to avoid things which by nature are unavoidable. Also, do not desire what you cannot attain.
4. Keep the things you desire in perspective. Desiring too much will lead to disappointment.
5. Reduce your expectations about future events. Keep a simple and straight attitude. Do not look forward to an event to the point where it will cause disappointment because your preconceived notions about the event did not occur.
6. Do not blame others for an act or an event. It is our opinion of the act which causes anxiety.
7. Be happy with yourself. Take pride in what you do. Do not care what others think; take responsibility for your own actions.
8. Do not let possessions rule you. If you must have possessions, be ready and willing to sacrifice them. Do not become consumed with appearances.
9. Find happiness not in what you have but in who you are. There is no need for material goods. Material goods only make material happiness; only truth makes true happiness.
10. Do not make excuses for physical shortcomings. Let nothing stand in your path. Even the blind can see and the dumb can talk. You simply need the right state of mind- that of unstoppable will.
11. All problems are illusion and each has its own proper resolution so that one might see through it. For lust, the resolution is abstinence. For pain or trouble, endurance is the proper resolution. For annoyance, patience is the solution.
12. Your loved ones are simply in transition. To say that they are yours would be wrong; they were given to you, and you should care for them as you would care for someone else's possessions.
13. Expecting less and being happy is better than expecting much more and being disappointed. No one can make you happy but yourself.
14. Associate with many different kinds of people. You may be a governor or a waiter, but to think of yourself as either one of these things would be detrimental to the one thing that matters - yourself.
15. Do not worry about things over which you have no power or control. If you do, you become a slave to your desires.
16. Be patient about opportunities in life. Do not go after opportunities that have not been placed before you or that have passed you by. Wait for opportunities to come to you. When they do, accept them graciously and with humility.
17. Help others, but do not take their problems on as your own. Remember that it is only the way a person views a situation that makes it a problem and not the situation as the problem itself.
18. Do not attempt to be someone who you are not. Accept your situation in life as the situation in which you were meant to be.
19. Do not be upset by predictions because anything can be taken to be a sign of the outcome of certain events. Whatever the outcome may be, one should always try to benefit from it.
20. Do not become dependent upon other people for your happiness, because if those other people go away, you will be unhappy.
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My five i would choose are:
ReplyDelete#4 Keep the things you desire in perspective. Desiring too much will lead to disappointment.
I chose this one because it is so true. If you want something so bad you can taste it and in the end it doesn't happen you end up very dissapointed. There is a differance between desiring something and over desiring something.
#7 Be happy with yourself. Take pride in what you do. Do not care what others think; take responsibility for your own actions
I believe this one hundered and ten percent. You shouldn't care what people think as long as you are happy. Don't act like someone else and be miserable because people had a problem with you before.
#9. Find happiness not in what you have but in who you are. There is no need for material goods. Material goods only make material happiness; only truth makes true happiness.
Money doesn't buy happiness. I believe happiness comes from wanting things. If you already have everything then i believe you will never be happy.
#18. Do not attempt to be someone who you are not. Accept your situation in life as the situation in which you were meant to be.
Just be yourself and everything will turn out in life.
#20. Do not become dependent upon other people for your happiness, because if those other people go away, you will be unhappy.
YOu have to make you own happiness. People around you are there to help, but not solely there to make you depend on them for happiness.
I pretty much agree with all these statements. It was hard to chose just five. =)
#3)"Do not try to avoid the unavoidable" and "do not try and attain what you cannot" are two very good messages. The reason that so many people are in debt is because they try to buy things they can't afford, and then try to avoid the consequences of debt until they're in over their head. The rule works for other aspects of life too.
ReplyDelete#8) This is probably one of the most important lessons of the twenty. No matter what, if you are not a greedy person and don't care too much about what other people think of you, then it will be a lot easier to be happy and many of the other rules will take care of themselves.
#14) I think it is very important to associate with different people and not to think of yourself by your career or what youv'e accomplished. The only thing that should matter to you is what you think of yourself.
#16) This is a good lesson for me personally. I think sometimes I wait too long once an opportunity has passed, and then it is too late to do it. For example, I wanted to invest in a mutual fund for paying off college loans when the economy was at its low. Now the funds that I would have put money into are almost completely rebounded and I would have made quite a bit of money. It's too late now. Like the rule says, the opportunity has passed me by. Now if I invested. It would be likely the stock market would do nothing or go down again.
The rules I don't agree with are the ones that talk about being content or not being a slave to your desires. If people didn't desire the impossible, the world would be a lot less advanced and unsophisticated than it is today.
The guidelines I like are:
ReplyDelete#8 (don't let posessions rule your life) I like this one because it is so true! If you're greedy and depend on your belongings to make you happy, you will end up being very disappointed in the long run.
#5 (try not to envision things before they happen) I like this guideline because sometimes I picture something to be fantastic and then it flops. If you keep your expectations simple, you will get more of a surprise when the event actually happens! It may turn out way better than you thought.
#10 (don't make excuses) This one is important because soemtimes we feel sorry for ourselves but we have to remember that we can do what we put our minds to - we just have to do it and don't make excuses about it.
#15 (Don't make other people's problems your own) I like this one because sometimes I feel like I concern myself with other people's problems that I don't have that much control over. I can try to help them, but not make myself so overwhelmed in the process.
#20 (Don't count on others to bring you happiness) Bring happiness to yourself! If you depend on others too much, you will be pretty miserable if you happen to be by yourself sometime. Even simple things like once you get to college - you might not have someone there with you all the time. You have to make the effort to go out and do something fun. It's all up to you!