Live Like A Stoic: 52 Exercises for Cultivating a Good Life

There are countless other examples of this principle. You should not desire to be loved by your partner, but only to be the most lovable person you can be. You should not indulge an aversion to losing a match when you play a game or sport, but instead focus on playing to the best of your ability. Once you internalize the distinction between proper

You may have noticed that we’ve been focusing on aversion in the Discipline of Desire. That’s because aversion can be seen as a type of desire: the desire to avoid misfortune. We use the Discipline of Desire as shorthand for the Discipline of Desire and Aversion, the shortened name given to this discipline by French scholar Pierre Hadot.1 The cruci

Whenever you encounter something unfortunate happening to someone else, whether it be in person, on the news, or on social media, take a moment to remind yourself that it could happen to you as well.

Some modern Stoics refer to this exercise by the Latin term premeditatio malorum, the premeditation of bad stuff happening. It’s not that Stoics are pessimists; on the contrary, they are among the most realistic of people—they know that sometimes things won’t go their way, and are always mentally prepared for that occurrence.

When your desires and aversions are “aligned with nature” (i.e., with what is in your complete control), you are guaranteed to not be unhappy regardless of the outcome.

To the fool, however, and to him who trusts in fortune, each event as it arrives ‘comes in a new and sudden form,’ and a large part of evil, to the inexperienced, consists in its novelty. This is proved by the fact that men endure with greater courage, when they have once become accustomed to them, the things which they had at first regarded as har

We learn from Stoic philosophy, as well as modern empirical research in cognitive science, that unless we are well trained we should avoid difficult tasks or situations that are hard to handle when we are tired, hungry, sick, or otherwise physically distracted.1

You may practice relatively mild exercises of self-imposed discomfort, following the examples listed by Musonius: Try going out in the cold without a coat, or in the heat while being overdressed; abstain from drinking water when thirsty (within reason); fast for a day or two (unless you have a medical condition—check with your doctor); sleep in a s

Method 1: Plan for things to go wrong. We’ll start this exercise by writing out a few plans for the day. Then we’ll assume that what could go wrong will.