there's nothing less stoic than disorganization than chaos than winging it and that's why the stoics develop routines why they set standards developed habits practices they took the structure of things seriously life without design senica says is erratic and so their ability to make order from this chaos why we organize the trivial parts of our Lives is to free up resources to do important and meaningful stuff we get freedom from the order and the structure so that's what we're going to talk about in today's video I'm going to share some daily habits some lifestyle practices standards and structures set forth by the stoics that you can use today to get your life in order when practice consistently these are habits that will help you achieve your goals and make you someone that people can count on and respect we're going to split this video up into two parts first part is going to take you through a day in the life of a stoic outlining some of the non-negotiables they're committed to for a well-designed day and then the second part is going to be some stoic lifestyle principles highlevel standards and practices to keep in mind that will give you a more organized and peaceful life you have to win the morning in fact one of the most relatable parts of markus's meditations is book five where Marcus Aus has an argument with himself he says at dawn when you have trouble getting out of bed tell yourself I have to go to work as a human being says or is this what you were created for to huddle under the blankets and stay warm right a stoic attacks the morning a stoic wins the morning a stoic gets up early and it's impressive when we realize that he didn't have to do this he didn't really have to do anything one of his predecessors basically abandons the throne for an exotic island the emperor had so much power so much responsibility and yet Marcus is practicing a foundational day daily habit he is getting up early and he is getting after it because winning the morning is key to winning the day and winning it life I want to get up get my most important things done I want to get the hard things out of the way while I still have the most energy while I'm still the freshest while I haven't been dragged down into the muck of distraction or frustration or any of those things so a foundational daily stck practice is get up early get after it don't huddle under the the covers and stay warm don't hit the snooze button a million times life is short we got to get up and get after it and we got to get after it [Music] early so how do we know that Marcus re got up early we know he got up early because of another foundational daily practice he journaled that's what meditations is the Journal of the most powerful man in the world and the list of people ancient and modern who practice the art of journaling is almost comically long and it's fasc fascinatingly diverse we have Oscar wild and Susan sonto Queen Victoria John Quincy Adams Emerson Virginia wolf Joan didan Shan green the baseball player Mary Chestnut Brian coppelman anise nin France kofka Ben Franklin and countless others right some people journal in the morning some did it sporadically some like Da Vinci kept their notebooks on them at all times the idea is you've got to make time and space for reflection not sometimes every day senica the stoic philosopher talks about how he did his writing and reflecting time in the evening he said when darkness had fallen and his wife had gone to sleep he examined his entire day says I go back over what I've done and said I hide nothing from myself and I pass Nothing by and then he would go to bed and he said he found that the Sleep which follows self-examination was particularly sweet you got a nice evening journaling routine it leads right into a good night of sleep and then an early wake up Fuko who was a fan of the stoics would talk about this ancient genre of writing notes to themselves he actually called the journal a weapon for Spiritual combat a way to practice philosophy and Purge the mind of agitation and foolishness to overcome difficulty to silence those barking dogs in your head to reflect on the day that's passed take note of things that struck you throughout the course of the day to feel wisdom flow through your fingertips and onto the page and Frank writes in her beautiful diary about how paper is more patient than people that's why journaling is such an important daily practice life is frustrating life is confusing life is overwhelming and on the page we can slow the Mind down we can find a way to peace we can ask ourselves tough questions you know where am I standing in my own way what's a step I can take towards getting better why am I so worked up on this what blessings can I count why do I care so much about these people what am I avoiding here why are my fears deciding what I do or don't do journaling is as Julia Cameron set a kind of spiritual windshield wipers a break from the world a framework for the day ahead a way to break down and analyze the day you just had and it it may well be the most important thing you do and that is why the stoics did it every day we all have to be readers the foundation of stoicism comes from a prophecy from the Oracle of Deli a young Zeno is visiting the Oracle and the Oracle tells him you will become wise when you begin to have conversations with the dead and it's not until many years later that he ends up in a bookstore in Athens and he hears uh the book seller reading some of the dialogues of Socrates a man who had died some years previous and that's when it hits Zeno books are a way to have conversations with the dead we are talking to people who are no longer with us benefiting from their wisdom so the stoics are readers you just have to be Sen talks about how we have to linger on the works of the master thinkers not just read but read and reread and reread that's what a book like meditations is about it's a book you you don't just read once but a book you are reading on an ongoing basis so part of your stoic practice your daily stoic practice has to be making time for reading and for wisdom and this ties in well to the journaling practice you read you Journal about what you're reading you go out and experience things that's informed by what you're reading or it directs you to things that you should read so a stoic makes time for reading but not just any book there's a joke epicus hears one of his students bragging about reading some obscure philosopher who is particularly dense and he says you know if they had been a better writer you'd have less to brag about and so the reading that we do it shouldn't be to impress people it's not to check a box we're reading for information we can use in our lives General James Mattis a modern day stoic talks about how if you haven't read hundreds of books particularly about what you do for a living about your space he says you are functionally illiterate we don't want to learn by trial and error that which we can learn from the trials and errors of others we have to read every single day it's a basic stoic practice we have to treat the body rigorously when we think of an ancient philosopher when we think of a philosopher generally we don't tend to think of an athlete we don't think of someone who's strong and tough we tend to think of a of a nerd we think of a turtleneck University Professor an old guy in a toga but the philosophers were active Socrates wasn't just a soldier who was Brave in battle Socrates was also known by his friends as someone who could wear the a thin cloak in wintertime he was tough he liked to harden himself against the elements senica was not only active a big Walker he took these cold plunges every day when Nero went to kill senica he found that he had trouble finding an opportunity to poison him because senica was subsisting on food he could forage for himself out in the woods the the point is the stoics were active they were outdoorsy they were not your simply your bookish philosopher actually when I was introduced to the stoics the same day I bought markus's meditations I bought this book called The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt it's an amazing book I tell this story in the obstacles way and discipline is Destiny theer Roosevelt was born a sickly young boy he had asthma and his interests were academic he liked to be inside he was nearsighted and one day his father sat him down and and said look Theodore you've got the mind but I don't think you have the body he was actually expressing a Timeless bit of wisdom this idea of mensano and corporo or a strong mind and a strong body and young Theodore looks at his father and he says okay I will make my body and this is where we get the active outdoorsy adventurous theore Roosevelt the man who embraced the strenuous life and you know after he was President he took this journey down the Amazon on an unexplored River and you know what he brought with him he brought a copy of Marcus aurelius's meditations as well as epic titus' handbook so the stoic philosopher is active Marcus Aurelius hunted and wrestled there was a stoic boxer there were stoic Runners Roosevelt tried to get a couple of hours of exercise in a day as president so what do you think Teddy would have thought of our sedentary digital lives our excuse that were too busy or too tired or that we we weren't born that way like we're we're meant for so much more musonius Rufus the teacher of epicas said obviously the Philosopher's body should be well prepared for physical activity because often he said the virtues make use of this as a necessary instrument for the Affairs of life he says we must train ourselves dis discipline ourselves to cold and heat and thirst and hunger meager rations hard beds and avoidance of pleasures and patience under sufferings says from this the body becomes strengthened and becomes capable of enduring hardship it's ready for any task a daily practice for the stoics had nothing to do with reading or writing but getting out there getting active getting after it Retreat the body rigorously senica says so that it is not disobedient to the Mind men's saana in corporo strong mind and a strong body so in addition to their daily practices there were some sort of philosophical conceptions or beliefs that helped the stoics live well-ordered productive lives and the first is that they try to avoid procrastination the one thing all fools have in common senica says is there always getting ready to live they they say I got to wait for things to go back to normal I got to wait for the right conditions I got to do this first I got to do that I'll do it tomorrow I'll do it in the morning and where does this get them it gets them nowhere it gets them nothing they never do it I'll do it tomorrow is the biggest lie in the world you could be good today markia says in meditations but instead you choose tomorrow what the stoics try to do is if something is we're doing they want to do it now they want to get started now they're disciplined enough and also humble enough to know that there's something entitled about procrastination it assumes that you'll have the discipline and the time and the opportunity to do it later and we don't know that for sure the the graveyard of lost potential we might say of wasted time and Wasted Years is people who needed to do something else first putting things off is the biggest waste of life senica wrote he says it snatches away each day as it comes and it denies us the present by promising us the future he said the whole future lies in uncertainty live immediately I think he's he's saying do it now get rid of I'll get to it later from your Lexicon do it now if you've watched even like a handful of my stuff you probably notice I wear kind of a uniform kind of wear the same things most days it's usually cuz I'm sort of doing the same things each day I get up I take my kids outside go for a walk take them to school I sit down I 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com stoic discover the versatility of viori clothing exclusions apply go to the website for full terms and conditions Marcus a had a pretty simple recipe for a better life he said if you seek Tranquility do less he said the question we have to ask ourselves with everything is is this essential and he says because when you eliminate the inessential you get the double satisfaction of doing less better so much of what we do what we spend our days on what we spend our lives on we don't need to do we do it out of habit we do it out of guilt we do it out of laziness we do it out of not wanting to seem rude we do it because we think we have forever or we have unlimited time and then we wonder why our heart isn't in it we wonder why we don't have time to do the actual important things if we could do less inessential stuff we'd be able to do what is essential better and we get that Tranquility that Marcus aelas is talking about we have to cultivate the power the ability to say no the ability to prioritize the ability to eliminate if we want Tranquility if we want productivity it's about more wood behind fewer arrows it's about really sticking with the things that are important important and eliminating the inessential and the unnecessary there was a a Greek word that we get from the stoics cosmus and this is about order this is about keeping things clean when I'm feeling overwhelmed when I'm feeling behind I often look down at my desk and go of course I feel this way of course my life is this way look at it this is a metaphor gret and Rubin who I've interviewed on The Daily stoic podcast has this great line she says outer order inner calm so one of the things we have to do is get our stuff organized get keep things clean and simple and elegant like what does your desktop look like your digital desktop and your actual desktop are you drowning in papers is your office a mess do you have a million unread emails is your phone filled with alerts creating order and systems eliminating noise and interruptions creating order from the chaos of life is key to protecting that sort of stoic sense of purpose and Direction and Clarity senica talks about how look sometimes life is messy and chaotic but to needlessly be plunged into that is irresponsible so how do we create order and structure in our lives how do we set up systems how do we automate things if everything in your life is dependent on Willpower is dependent on constant excavations you're going to be exhausted so you got to create order and systems you got to keep things clean you got to stick with systems and structure or you're going to get overwhelmed in a world of social media and instant gratification shamelessness and awfulness we need bound IES more than ever you know like minding your own business keeping your private life private not oversharing not letting people drag you down not getting entangled in other people's dysfunctions or entangling them in yours being strong enough to communicate what you like and dislike respecting other people's space and preferences this is like basic stuff but it's pretty rare these days we're you know we're surrounded by oversharers and hot messes doormats drama queens Busy Bodies push overs gossip mongers boundaries are about drawing some lines around yourself healthy borders that help determine what you share and what you won't what you let in what you don't what you focus on and what you don't actually one of the the opening passages in meditations is about this very idea Marcus realus starts book two he says when you wake up in the morning tell yourself the people I will deal with today will be meddling ungrateful arrogant dishonest and jealous and Surly right but he's not just saying hey the the world is going to be awful he's saying this is what boundaries are about he says but I won't let them implicate me in ugliness he says none of them can hurt me and I think what boundaries are about creating space creating buffers so not everyone and everything has access to your mind this is the stoic concept of an inner Citadel things that are outside US can't be allowed to touch us the news of the world the annoying coor the noises coming in one of senica's letters I open Stillness is the key with this is senica trying to concentrate in work in the midst of a very busy and noisy Rome where people were always trying to get at him uh where he had to tune out a lot of distraction and so the ability to have these boundaries to be self-contained self-sufficient is just a key stoic practice to having a well-ordered and well functioning life so you might think if the stoics were all about routine and structure and order that they were really rigid and it might seem contradictory for me to tell you that they're not right this is a video about organizing your life and here I am telling you this idea of formlessness but formlessness comes to us from the great Robert Green he says it's the most stoic law of power and again that might not be what you think of the stoics because the stoics were all about rules and structure and discipline but life is unpredictable there is so much outside of our control if you need things to be a certain way if you can't adaptt and adjust you're going to have a hard time in meditations Mark really says that adaptability is the ability to look at what Life deals you and say yes that's just what I was looking for so yes we have our preferred way of doing things but we can handle them however they are KO was one of the most vaunted and towering of the stoics but he never gave an inch on anything even in the face of the most unrelenting pressure and this in the end made him not so effective politician he refused compromise in every form he insisted on tradition down to the letter and that rigidity became a kind of fragility we need the ability to adjust and embrace change one of the Queen's mottos which I loved was if things are going to stay the same then things are going to have to change my routine is changed so much since I had kids since I moved to Texas since I became a writer different phases in season of my life my routine is always changing but these overarching principles these deeper ideas these commitments that allows me to shuffle those things around but still hold true to the same basic concepts epic tetus was once asked by one of his students like what are he was supposed to do and epicus didn't have an answer for him and the student finally said no you got to tell me what to do and epicus said it would be better if you asked me to help make you adaptable to circumstances that's what we have to ultimately be as stoics adaptable to any and all circumstances no matter what's going on in the outside world we find ways to be productive and efficient and focus on what's essential inside of them and the the last final and I think most brief thing the stoics use to shape their days and lives is a reminder of how short life is you could leave life right now Mark says in meditation let that determine what you do and say and think senica's view was even more of a paradigm shift he says don't think of death is this thing in the future that you're moving slowly towards he says death is happening right now he says the time that passes belongs to death so as we decide how to structure our days whether to procrastinate or not what order to put them in or not to do things or not we have to remember we are purchasing these things in front of us with our most precious resource our time something we can never get back and so we have to be present we have to prioritize we have to be humble we have to be flexible because life is short momento more you could go at any moment let that determine what you do and say and think and how you live every day I send out one stoic inspired email to hundreds of thousands of people all over the world if you want more stoic wisdom in your inbox you can sign up at Daily stoic. com it's totally free can 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