“Lead me on, O Zeus, and thou Destiny, To that goal long ago to me assigned. I’ll follow readily but if my will prove weak; Wretched as I am, I must follow still. Fate guides the willing, but drags the unwilling.”– CLEANTHES

There are dudes who have run face first into battle knowing they were going to die. There are guys who if they fuck up one decision, people die. Sometimes I think twice about picking up the phone to order a pizza.

How the fuck did those guys do it? How have dudes, from slaves to emperors, dealt with all the shit the world threw at them? I think it was Stoicism, whether the guys running into battle, or calling the shots, or trying not to fuck everything humanely possible, knew it or not.

Stoicism doesn’t give a shit about making you feel better, it’s designed to help you understand the truth (you pussy).

The only thing that cares about you is YOU. You are solely responsible for how you handle whatever bullshit life throws at you. What you do with what comes your way is up to you and the rest just happens.

The Universe is pretty fuckin’ big.

Too big. Too big to keep track of everything happening at least. Especially for you. You can’t possibly know every outcome of every situation you encounter. Even the most meticulous of plans can go fucking sideways fast. You can’t control everything. In fact, you can control very little. One thing actually; yourself. Not even all of your self either, just a small part, a part we don’t know shit about: Your mind. You can, at best, control everything that comes from within your mind: Your desires, your goals, your expectations, your fears, your will, your reactions, your emotions. Everything else? Fat fucking chance. Things might go as you hoped if you get lucky, or a meteor may come and wipe you and everything you know of, out of existence. Who knows? The universe is funny like that. Does that mean you should put a “Meteor contingency” in every future plan? No, it means sometimes shit just happens, and when it does all there is to do is just deal with it.

A meteor might fall on you tomorrow; you might find some chicks wallet and when you give it back she fucks you silly with sloppy gratitude. Or you just get a “thx bro” and a shitty look. Oh well. You did the right thing, fuck that bitch (metaphorically this time).

Why waste time and energy worrying about random bullshit? Energy and time better spent on yourself and right now. Do the shit that needs to be done right now. There is enough to to do in a day without having to worry about all of our made up nonsense too. By telling our mind to fuck off and stop worrying about what we can’t do anything about, we start to flex our mind boners a.k.a self control.

“If a person gave your body to any stranger he met, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in handing over your own mind to be confused and mystified by anyone who happens to verbally attack you?”– EPICTITTIES

Self control is funny. We don’t know shit about it but every time we use it, it gets bigger and stronger. When you worry about “what ifs” and knock yourself back to reality, you just got a rock hard mind boner. After a while instead of getting rock hard physically for every single beautiful woman you see, you’ll get rock hard mentally. Exercising your willpower to actually resist real shit will help you stop putting off that stuff that doesn’t immediately inject you with a fat hit of dopamine.

Blasting a nut across the chest of a porcelain goddess. The pain of an 8 hour Viagra boner. All of it is only temporary. I’m just rotten meat powered by electricity. If everything is as fleeting as a fart in the breeze then what the fuck is the point of any of it?

Dunno. Figure it out. That’s the point I guess. Remember when you spent your weekend researching ancient Aztec sex rituals? Maybe you’d rather look at all that weird shit in the deep ocean, those weird looking fish are pretty neat. Everyone has that thing they are crazy about. Look back on what you spent your time on, that shit that made you so engaged you traveled through time.

If you feel better after you did it, it was worth doing. Often shit goes the other way around. We want to do something then feel shitty for having done it. Flip the script and get ahead of things. Instead of playing with your dick, for once, do that shit you don’t want to do, and feel the cathartic release of a mindgasm. It lasts longer.

Obviously this is hard to do in this shit hole that we call the “real world”. You won’t win them all. Just do your best, and when you day dream about revenge fucking your ex or fantasize about telling off that dude who cut you off in traffic two weeks ago remember that none of it matters. Shake it off and get back to whatever you were doing.

And whatever you do? Do it as well as you fucking can. Fuck the shit out of that errand. Leave it sloppy, wet and begging for more so when you walk away you can say “fuck, yeah” and never look back.

There’s more to it. But that’s the gist for now.

TL;DR:

  • You can’t control everything; You can only control your mind
  • Accept whatever happened, as what was supposed to have happened
  • Resist dopamine hits; Do what you put off the most
  • Remind yourself that everything is only temporary, good and bad
  • Do your best with what you have
  • Speak and act the same way, don’t confuse yourself
  • Always keep your shit together

It’s tough. Especially at the beginning. Just start off with this: Try to be a little better than you were yesterday. Shouldn’t be hard, you’re pretty shitty.

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Original Post: https://www.universalaxioms.com/foundations-stoicism/