Marcus Aurelius is considered to be one of the most impactful stoic philosophers. He was a Roman emperor, and his book “Meditations” is considered one of the best originals about stoicism.
Through his writings and personal notes, we see how he tried his best to live a meaningful life while being the emperor of Rome.
It is important to realize the gravity of that position and the magnitude of power that Marcus possessed. He held one of — if not the most — powerful positions in the world at the time.
If he chose to, nothing would be off-limits. He could indulge and succumb to temptations, there was nobody that could restrain him from any of his wishes.
There is a reason the adage that power in absolute absolutely corrupts has been repeated throughout history — it, unfortunately, tends to be true. And yet, as the essayist Matthew Arnold remarked, Marcus proved himself worthy of the position he was in.
the Dailystoic.com website
We have so much to learn from Marcus Aurelius about stoicism and daily habits of living an ideal life.
In this post, I will mention 4 daily habits from Marcus Aurelius to live a meaningful life. Here are those 4 daily habits —
Habit 1: Daily journal
By the way, have you read “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius?
I did. And it’s such a boring book.
It’s not even supposed to be a book. It was his diary, his personal notes. Probably he never even intended to make it public.
But see how the tables turned. His diary has been published and became such an influence for many powerful people across the centuries.
To get clear about your life, dreams, and challenges, you need to start writing. Not for the public, not for money, for yourself.
You can use physical notebooks, or if you are okay with typing, even google docs or MS Word sounds fantastic to start with.
It doesn’t matter where you write, or how much you write, or when you write. What matters is that you write your heart out; you spill every thought from your brain onto the paper or screen.
Action step
Start writing your brain out. Write about your problems. Write the possible solutions to them. Make a list of how you can help your community today. Make a wish list for the next decade.
The more you write about your thoughts and feelings, the more you will be clear in your head to make objective decisions.
Habit 2: Expect negative experiences
Here’s a famous quote from Marcus Aurelius — “When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil.”
There’s a follow-up concept in Stoicism called “Premeditatio Malorum.” It means pre-meditation of the evils.
When you start your day with realistic expectations for the day and strategize a plan by thinking of “what can go wrong here?” — you will have fewer chances of being surprised with negative outcomes. This helps you stay prepared to face the worst.
This month, in Coach Tony’s 1-year long “Heavy Mental Training,” the topic for this month’s training is “Grit and Stoicism.” A part of today’s task is to set a goal for yourself and do negative visualization around it.
So today, when we are making goals — “For next 1 week I will not eat anything fried or sugar”, we also have to think — “Cravings are natural,” and so our plan becomes — “When I will have cravings for fried/sugar, I will drink a glass of water and do 10 pushups.”
This is how expecting negative experiences can help you stay prepared.
Action step
What are your current goals and plans for your personal and professional lives?
Step 1 — Start making a list of everything that could go wrong in your pursuit of these goals.
Step 2 — Brainstorm on all the possible action plans. What would you do it the worst comes true?
Habit 3: Fewer complaints
Marcus Aurelius also mentions, “No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands, and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are unnatural.”
So much of our everyday energy is lost in complaining. Complaining is a fear-based response. Most of our complaints come from a place of scarcity.
We only feel two emotions — love and fear. Everything else is a variation and derivative of these two emotions. Happiness, joy, acceptance — these are the derivatives of love. Guilt, shame, anger — these are the derivatives of fear.
Abundance is a love-based mindset, and scarcity is a fear-based mindset. And in any given moment, we have the power and freedom to decide how we want to respond. The quickest way to change your habits of complaining is to focus more on gratitude and compassion.
The quickest way to change your habits of complaining is to focus more on gratitude and compassion.
Action step
Recognize your thoughts of complaining. Ask a friend to point out every time you complain about anything during the day. Keep a ‘complain’ count and measure it regularly.
For every 1 complaint you do, write 5 good things about that person/situation. This will impact your mind to make these shifts (to gratitude) more quickly.
Habit 4: Focus on your job
Marcus Aurelius had a reminder for himself — “Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter. Cold or warm. Tired or well-rested. Despised or honored. Dying…or busy with other assignments.”
Stoics believed in “Summum Bonum,” which means — the highest good. To sum it up in easier language, it meant — Do your job and do it right.
We gossip and chat. We avoid uncomfortable confrontations, and in fact, we lookout for ways to avoid the actual work.
Stoicism reminds us to do what’s important every day. This is probably the simplest and toughest daily habit from stoicism — do your job and do it right.
Action step
Look out for what’s important that you’re trying to avoid. It could easily become a blindspot. Go past it. Seek help. Cut out the distractions.
Summary
Stoicism is like your grandpa telling you stories about ethics and how a person should live and work. Here are 4 powerful daily habits from one of the most popular stoic philosophers, Marcus Aurelius —
Habit 1: Daily journal
Start writing your brain out. Write about your problems. Write the possible solutions to them. Make a list of how you can help your community today. Make a wish list for the next decade.
The more you write about your thoughts and feelings, the more you will be clear in your head to make objective decisions.
Habit 2: Expect negative experiences
What are your current goals and plans for your personal and professional lives?
Step 1 — Start making a list of everything that could go wrong in your pursuit of these goals.
Step 2 — Brainstorm on all the possible action plans. What would you do it the worst comes true?
Habit 3: Fewer complaints
Recognize your thoughts of complaining. Ask a friend to point out every time you complain about anything during the day. Keep a ‘complain’ count and measure it regularly.
For every 1 complaint you do, write 5 good things about that person/situation. This will impact your mind to make these shifts (to gratitude) more quickly.
Habit 4: Focus on your job
Look out for what’s important that you’re trying to avoid. It could easily become a blindspot. Go past it. Seek help. Cut out the distractions.
And put a daily reminder on your phone — do your job and do it right.
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