Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

In the modern world, mental health has declined significantly in most people. They have trouble concentrating, being depressed and anxious, caring too much about what others think of them, being indecisive, and living with limited potential. Thankfully, our ancestors have left us writings of an important school of philosophy whose teachings have potential to transform lives entirely – Stoicism.

Stoic thinkers, such as Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Zeno, Seneca, and others have spent countless years developing their minds to be cold and rational in times of stress and adversity. What allowed them to remain calm even when everything around fell apart, and how can we do the same?

In this article, I want to present you main lessons of Stoicism that will bring you peace of mind and help you become successful no matter the circumstances.

1: Remember Your Insignificance

“How is this statement supposed to calm me down? And what does it even mean?” Allow me to explain, brother.

You see, we humans like to overestimate our worth and significance. We do this for the sake of keeping ourselves alive and well. But in the grand scheme of things, on the Universal level, our lives don’t matter that much. We just exist for the sake of existing.

At first, this may seem like a depressing thought. What is the point of living if we are so insignificant? If you examine it a bit more closely, though, you will realize the freedom it offers: in comparison to the Universe and God, our time of existence and responsibilities are low.

Main lesson here is that we can live however we want. To live happily, we must make the most out of our lives, and make our dreams come true.

If you want to start a business, but aren’t sure if you will succeed, start it anyway. If you have toxic relationships, and don’t know if you should abandon them, dump your old friends and seek for a better company. In case you want to radically change your lifestyle, but are afraid of other people’s opinions, change it anyway.

Stoic thinkers knew that other people’s opinions often hold back instead of helping. So why bother obsessing and being scared over them?

Life’s too short and precious to waste it away on worries and preoccupations about external approval. Find out what your dreams are, focus your thoughts on them, and work hard every day to make them come true.

2: Focus on What You Can Control

People by nature desire power and control over their lives, as much as possible. They try to limit any possibilities of things going wrong, or having to deal with unexpected serious issues.

There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting security and stability. However, it is simply not possible to be in control of every aspect of life. Excessive need for control over one’s life can lead to deep dissatisfaction, excuses, and formation of victim mentality.

Listen. It is impossible to control everything that goes on in your life. That, however, isn’t an excuse to be indecisive and inactive. Even with the limited set of possible actions you have you can still make a difference, build a stoic mind, and improve your lifestyle.

For example, habits and consistent are entirely in your control, and you can learn how to build them well, so that you put yourself on the upper positive trajectory of development. This is one of the aspects of life that you can fully control, and that can make you deeply happy and satisfied with who you are and what you bring to the world.

Shift your focus from blame to responsibility. Realize that most of your life is the product of your own actions and decisions, and not of the outside circumstances. Focus on what you can control, and improve yourself by 1% every day.

3: Remember Your Mortality

This lesson has partial connection with lesson 1, as it speaks about how little our time on this Earth is. When you are young, it may seem like you will live for a long time, and that you still have years ahead to fulfill your dreams.

The harsh truth, however, is that even though there are technically many decades to make these dreams come true, most guys never use them in a productive way.

They waste their precious time away by consuming, numbing themselves with modern addictions, and conforming to norms of our flawed society instead of taking action to improve their situation.

Every one of us is mortal, and not even a single man managed to evade death in their lives. Sure, some crazy scientist may invent an immortality pill a few decades from now, but that’s just a mere assumption.

The fact is that you don’t have that much time on this Earth. If you want to live with happiness, freedom, fulfillment, satisfaction, and pride, you need to cherish every minute of life that you have, just like our stoic ancestors did.

Be grateful for living, and make sure you waste as little time as possible on things that don’t matter.

4: Commit Yourself to a Cause

Purposelessness is the main reason people often fail at life. From the early age, they are told by parents, educational system, friends, and society as a whole about what they should do with their lives. They rarely get a chance to think for themselves and form their own opinions about their identity, wants, and the world, which puts them in a cycle of constant people pleasing to ensure safety, security, and stability.

This approach, though, leads to individuals living other people’s lives, and not their own. They constantly fulfill others’ needs and dreams, instead of making their own desires come true. Slowly, but surely, lifestyle of people pleasing and seeking external validation kills one’s authenticity and deprives him of true fulfillment.

According to stoic thinkers, finding one’s purpose and working hard daily to fulfill it is the best way to cure excessive need for useless external validation.

How can you be afraid about what some random guy on the Internet thinks when you have a mission that is bigger and more important than you? You can’t, for your purpose becomes your main source of validation.

To be happy in life, it is necessary that one finds a craft that they love doing, and spends most of their time on mastering it and using it to solve people’s problems.

For me, it is writing. I try to spend as much of my time as possible to create valuable content for men like me to read, so that they can learn important insights and solve major issues in their lives using the advice I offer.

My purpose is to help young men and boys improve themselves and break free from mediocrity. What is yours?

5: Focus on What You Have

A lot of people, especially in the Western world, complain constantly. They always whine about how their governments don’t give them enough money, or how they supposedly get oppressed, even though they live in conditions that most could only dream of.

Complainers don’t make it far in life, since they never take responsibility for their actions or decisions. Whenever a big issue arises, they cry about it and play the victim card instead of focusing on creating practical solutions. Not only this, but they always live in constant resentment and hate, never realizing that the main reason they have a bad life is their own flawed decisions.

According to stoic thinkers, One of the keys to stop complaining and kill victim mentality is to shift focus from what you lack to what you already have.

Why is that the case? People with victim mentality always find a way to complain and look like a victim, even when their lives are fine and have no serious issues. To calm down the mind and soul, it is necessary that one stops feeling lack and void inside their souls, and starts experiencing gratitude and completeness instead.

Express gratitude for your family, house, nature, living conditions, water, food, or anything else you could think of on a regular basis. Gratitude is powerful, since it makes you appreciate thinks you usually took for granted, gives you happiness, and motivation to pursue goals relentlessly.

6: Live in the Moment

Many members of moern society have trouble living with depression and anxiety. Before I give you a min solution for these two issues, we must first understand what they mean in the first place.

Anxiety is worry about uncertainty of future and possible negative scenarios that could come true later in life. Depression, on the other hand, is lack of progress, a state when an individual is stuck in his past and sees no way out of his constant stagnation.

When one experiences these 2 states of mind, his mind focuses on past and future. Stoic philosophers knew that solution to curing these 2 things lies in ablity to be Present, to live life with mindfulness and full awareness of the Now.

The next time you go to school or work by public transport, take a look at people and how they behave. They will most likely be sad, sit on their phones, and visibly have their minds wander around with little awareness of what is currently happening around them.

Life is a dynamic series of moments. If you want to live life to the fullest, you need to learn how to be Present and live in the Moment, for the Moment is the only time when we truly get to live.

The best way to cultivate mindfulness and presence is through meditation, which you can learn more about here.

How NOT to Implement This Lesson

Does this lesson mean that you can live however you want, waste time on degenerate activities, and sacrifice future for the sake of pleasurable today? No, not at all.

This stoic lesson isn’t about encouraging hedonism or meaningless pleasure. In fact, every stoic suggests that one lives without desiring or engaging with lifestyle of instant gratification (which, unfortunately, over 95% of people do).

Living in the Present means witnessing life in the only moment where it truly exists. It means that you should live without worries about tomorrow, or regret about the past. Learn to let go of these things and start cultivating the skill of mindfulness.

7: Change Your Perception

Finally, after learning all these stoic lessons, you may still have some issues that you think you cannot solve. No matter if you change your actions, daily habits, choices, presence, and start to value your time more, some things in our modern world will still likely frustrate you.

Humans are powerful, but no powerful enough to radically impact environments with their sole efforts. There is no use in being angry, hateful, or resentful towards someone or something else, because it doesn’t eliminate the core issue.

If something frustrates you because of its flawed nature and your lack of control over it, change your perception. Change how you see the situation itself, and your negativity will dissapear.

Negativity by nature is inner resistance to something that exists and doesn’t match one’s expectations. For that reason, the key to achieving peace of mind is accepting the situation as it is, and shifting your attitude towards it.

For example, instead of thinking “ugh, it’s gonna hurt” whenever you visit a dentist, think “I’m gonna get my teeth healed up.” Not only will you feel better, but you will also experience the situation in an entirely different way compared to how you usually experience it.

Physical situation is the same in both cases, but the person who thinks more positively and seeks for good rather than bad has a great advantage in terms of living happily.

Summary

Stoicism is one of the schools of philosophy whose principles are still highly applicable to this day. If you want to stop being indecisive, quit overthinking, cure anxiety, depression, and change your lifestyle for happiness and wealth, you should start with making shifts in your own mind.

Remember your insignificance, focus on what you can control, remember your mortality, commit yourself to a cause, be grateful for the littlest things, live in the Present, and change your perception of frustrating situations. Apply these stoic lessons, and you’ll live without worry, anxiety, or constant overthinking.

There is also another life lesson you likely need to hear. Whenever you see a wise statement, don’t think “wow, this is deep.” Think the following: “How can I apply it in my own life to solve my current issues?”

If you have any questions about the article, or want to leave your opinion about it, feel free to write them down in the comments below. See you next time.