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Stoicism for Work
Work is a steady training ground for the things Stoics cared about: doing what is in front of you well, not outsourcing your calm to outcomes, and treating colleagues as fellow travelers. Focus on the task, not the applause.
Stoic ideas for this
“Waste no more time arguing about what a good person should be. Be one.”
Marcus Aurelius · Meditations
“If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”
Marcus Aurelius · Meditations
“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”
Epictetus · Discourses
Philosophy is not a skill for display, but a discipline for living.
Musonius Rufus · Lectures
“He who is everywhere is nowhere.”
Seneca · Letters from a Stoic
“Every habit and faculty is preserved and increased by correspondent actions: as the habit of walking, by walking; of running, by running.”
Epictetus · Enchiridion
It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.
Seneca · Letters from a Stoic
Leisure without study is death, and burial of a man alive.
Seneca · Letters from a Stoic
Both for the body and the soul, the practice of endurance is necessary, if we wish to become better than we are.
Musonius Rufus · Lectures
“The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.”
Marcus Aurelius · Meditations
A man should be upright, not kept upright.
Marcus Aurelius · Meditations
Be a man of action rather than a man of much talk.
Marcus Aurelius · Meditations
Progress is not achieved by leisurely browsing through books.
Epictetus · Discourses
The mind requires nourishment as much as the body.
Seneca · Letters from a Stoic
Let your deeds outnumber your words.
Marcus Aurelius · Meditations
Great things are not suddenly done; they are the end of a long series of small things.
Epictetus · Discourses
Hard labor and discipline are good for the soul, not only for the body.
Musonius Rufus · Lectures
When thou risest in the morning unwillingly, remember that thou risest to do the work of a man.
Marcus Aurelius · Meditations
Work for the sake of virtue, and the reward is in the working.
Musonius Rufus · Lectures
No man is able to make progress unless he trains himself, little by little, in what is difficult.
Epictetus · Discourses
Practice is the only teacher; you learn by doing, not by reading about doing.
Epictetus · Discourses
Put it into practice
A Stoic tool is only useful if you actually use it. Try this small loop the next time work shows up:
- Name it plainly. Say what is happening without the story you are adding on top of it.
- Split what’s yours from what isn’t. Invest your energy only in the part you can actually choose.
- Do one small thing. A single deliberate action today beats a week of intending to.