Stoicism - PART 12 Virtue - Justice

I've saved the best for last! This is a concept that alot more people are familiar with under multiple contexts. Let's simply define Justice as "Doing the right thing". Justice is in some way the value that feeds all other values, there is no point in being brave, moderating yourself and having knowledge if you don't act righteously.

In the introduction of this entry series I talked about the complexity behind our ideas of good and bad, I will not try to define these as they are different for each of us. Our upbringing and circumstances contribute to define our morals and definitions of good and evil, but it is our responsibility to acquire knowledge that will help us shape our ideas that we associate as just. I won't sit here and tell you what you need to do or not do, that is up to you and it's your job to do the best you can to act just and fight for what you consider fair.

 

Justice shouldn't be something that we may or may not practice, it should be our duty as humans and part of a society to do it.  What are you doing to make the world you live in a more fair one? Are you offering support to those who need it? Think about what you can do to help them, be brave and speak up when you believe something is unjust. 

-Roberto

Stoicism - PART 11 Virtue - Temperance

 There's no doubt that this concept resonates with me, and I've touched base on it on my first and second entry. This concept is simple but as important as the rest of the values derived from Virtue. I defined courage in my last entry as almost a synonym to bravery and resilience, but temperance is needed to balance these values as an excess in bravery will cause us to become reckless. We don't want to act cowardly either, we need to limit ourselves and use reason before acting, this is where wisdom comes in. 

You can start to see how these concepts overlap each other and how they connect to create a system that allows us to act virtuously. 

Of course, pleasures are an important point to discuss here. Stoic philosophy does not avoid pleasures, you are free to have pleasures as long as you practice them moderately and don't prevent you from reaching your goals and improving yourself. We don't want to live a life without doing the things we like, after all. 

Remember, temperance is all about balance! Don't feel discouraged if you fail to moderate yourself, try again until you can find the middle ground between your goals and pleasures.

-Roberto

Stoicism - PART 10 Virtue - Courage

We all experience different sorts of hardships throughout our lives, whether these are relatively insignificant or considered by most to be flat out terrible, we often compare our hardships with those of others. Sometimes we see that other people complain over something that may sound dumb or meaningless to us, other times we see that other people struggle a lot more than us. If we compare our personal hardships, we'll never agree on what's more important or how we should feel about certain events. Use other people's hardships as knowledge and view them as challenges that may potentially be presented to you, and think about what you can do to prevent it or solve it. 

Don't undermine other people's struggles based on your own experience, think about the reaction you are giving to the person and how you would feel if you got the same response when sharing one of your own struggles. After applying this, take on your own struggles and avoid comparing how worse or better your situation is compared to others, otherwise it will lead to frustration and/or other negative emotions. Use acquired wisdom, if any, to help you make important decisions or actions that will help you deal with an obstacle.

If you ever feel like life has thrown too much at you, remember the real unlucky ones are those that rarely experience hardship. They don't know the satisfaction of overcoming a challenge, they don't know how capable they are of solving problems  and may never be able to show the world what they're made of. 

The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time is a game that takes place in a world created by three gods, which represent Power, Wisdom and Courage.

The protagonist, Link, possesses the godly artifact that represents courage. When I played this game as a child, I didn't think much of how important this concept was for the game as a whole. Link is summoned as a 10-11 year old by a forest entity and is told that he is a child of prophecy, destined to save the world from evil. I know, this isn't a very original concept at first glance. However, Link has to leave his home in the forest and travel across the landscape to stop the forces of evil. Once it seems this is completed, the antagonist gains the upper hand and Link is forced to sleep for 7 years until he is strong enough to fight the villain. After traveling the landscape again as an apparent adult and seeing those friendships and people he helped as a child pass away and become spirits you can't help thinking about everything Link loses in order to save his world. At the end, Link is taken back to the past to relive his childhood but without those that helped him in his journey. An innocent boy that sacrificed his childhood and fought to the very end despite losing everyone he knew and loved, a dark example of courage but one that I look up to.

Show the world what you're made of, don't back down when life gets hard and know that you will need to make sacrifices, so be ready for them. 

-Roberto

Stoicism - PART 9 Virtue - Wisdom

 Wisdom was viewed very highly by the Stoics, it's a key part of our continuous self-improvement process. I already talked a bit about knowledge in the previous entry and mentioned that we always need to keep an open mind. I want to talk about the value of knowledge, because some knowledge is more valuable and we must learn to identify where to find it. Yes, we have countless information at our disposal, and I said that we must be open to hearing contrary ideas, but we must make sure that we are dedicating our time to acquire knowledge that will be useful for your development and wellbeing as well as those around you. Make sure your daily activities include at least one task that will add to your wisdom and will help you get to where you want to be. 

Every person you've ever met has had different experiences and has acquired different perspectives and potential wisdom, remember there are many others and only one of you! This means that you are better off listening and observing more than talking, so make sure to let others express themselves freely!

In order to feel fulfillment it is necessary that we keep learning and training our bodies and mind, set short term goals and prize yourself for reaching them. Make sure you're setting new goals as soon as you reach your current ones and give yourself a break when you need to. There's no rush and no point in feeling regret for not developing this in the past, it's never too late to learn and contribute to your overall happiness.

-Roberto

Stoicism - PART 8 Virtue - Introduction

 I'm back! As promised, I will be taking on a five-part analysis of the Stoic concept of Virtue. This is arguably the most developed and studied concept  by the Stoics, as it allows us to determine morals and ethics in what I consider to be the most objective way. Our cultures and backgrounds influence our morality and thoughts on different social and political issues and this will most likely not change after covering these concepts, however our objective will be to view these issues in a way that we can empathize or at least understand contrary beliefs and ideas. This is important now more than ever since we are all digitally connected and exposed to unlimited information in our pockets, so sharing ideas and beliefs has never been more efficient and effective. 

Understanding virtue and it's components should help us with identifying our thought process and understanding how and why we have an opinion on certain things, whether these are controversial or not. This is important because we must always question our thoughts and opinions by comparing them to different perspectives and being open to ideas that seem to be against your own, only then will you be able to act just. Sadly, social media has played a big role in separating ideologies and dividing people by using algorithms that increase the exposure of news/posts that are aligned with a specific person's political or social beliefs. Most people view news and events solely through social media, this creates a biased and distorted view of reality and prevents us from seeing the truth. We won't reach absolute truth on many things, but the closer we are, the more likely it'll be for us to act virtuously. It's important that we study and view events from different approaches, as wrong as you may believe an idea to be, you should always take it as an opportunity to listen and learn from it instead of dismissing it. In fact, the more you empathize and understand other points of view, the stronger and wiser your opinion becomes since you've evaluated more scenarios and possibilities than others.

I believe we must always question our opinions and doubt our thoughts, however I also believe that we mustn't hesitate when it is time to act or make a decision based on these ideas. This may seem counterintuitive, but bear with me. If you believe in something, fight for it. Fight for everything that you believe will improve or help yourself or those around you, but always stop to listen to those who oppose you. This doesn't mean you'll change your mind, but you will show the deserved respect to those who are also fighting for their version of justice or improving the lives of those around us. Search for information from sources that you don't usually consume, look for the strongest arguments that oppose yours, compare your ideas with them and identify whether you need to reconsider any of your views or opinions. There should be no shame in changing your mind, be ashamed of staying ignorant and dismissive because this will keep you from being the best version of yourself. 

I know, I've talked mostly about the nature of our ideas and biases, but I strongly believe that these themes are highly relevant in our current time and can be potentially solved by understanding virtue. They will continue to divide us further unless we are able to understand these phenomenons, hopefully after stressing the impact and importance of these issues we are able to more easily grasp the concepts that define Virtue according to the Stoics. These are Courage, Wisdom, Temperance and Justice.

Stoicism - PART 7 Time Management

In my previous entry I talked a bit about the actions I am taking to establish a set schedule and improving on it as I identify how I can reorder my activities and responsibilities more efficiently, there's no question that the best way of doing so is by trial and error. I pointed out that once we have a set plan for our daily routine it is important that we stick to it, even if we identify a possible improvement throughout the course of the day, this is not only for us to avoid distracting ourselves from the task in hand, but to develop our discipline and doing what we say we are going to do. I can sit and plan out a routine attempting to perfect it for hours but if I don't end up following it there is no guarantee that the time I spent working on it will be of any use. 

I also did my best to express how important it is to use our time wisely, because it is definitely our most valuable non-renewable resource that we've been given. It's important that our actions are executed in a manner that we do them as if we had little to no time left. Years can feel like a blink of an eye when we don't have our priorities established appropriately and if this is the case for you then I can assure you that you are in desperate need of analyzing your short-term and long-term goals in order to start improving your time management. This is exactly what I will be doing in this entry and hopefully it will help you on your own journey of self-improvement.

Our goal here will be to set a routine that will guarantee that we end each and every day with a sense of satisfaction, in fact we will need to be able to prove to ourselves that what we accomplished during the day is something that ultimately added at least one bit to our personal development and/or goals. This means that every single day you will need to ask yourself what it was that you did today that helped you get a step closer to where you want to be. It sounds challenging, and I'm almost positive that it won't be easy to accomplish consistently. We know that there are factors in play that will be against us and hopefully by now you've read my entries on combatting anxiety and finding motivation, being prepared for those challenges will be key to being able to progress in this part of the process.

There isn't much I can dive into regarding the specifics of our daily tasks, we all have different goals and responsibilities that we will need to integrate into our action plan, and I will try to generalize the thought process of my situation as much as possible so you can apply it according to your circumstances. So, there are two main activities that I will prioritize in my plan, these being my work hours and exercise. I will be creating my schedule around these two main activities that in my current situation are the most important to reach my goals. (You don't need to follow the same priorities)

The reasons behind these priorities are due to my goal of career growth and paying off my credit debt by the end of the year. Secondly, I have a long-term goal of keeping myself physically fit as this has proven to be key in my overall energy, motivation and mood. Below is a simplified example of what your schedule can end up looking like, for the sake of simplicity I've left out additional activities such as reading, playing soccer and family time:

Time	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
7-8 AM	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast
8-9 AM		Portuguese	Portuguese		Portuguese	Portuguese
9-12:30 PM		Work	Work		Work	Work	Work
12:30-7:00 PM	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
1:30-7 PM		Work shift	Work shift		Work shift	Work shift	Work shift
7-7:30 PM	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner
7:30-9 PM	Gym/Jog	Gym/Jog	Gym/Jog	Gym/Jog	Gym/Jog	Gym/Jog	Gym/Jog
9-9:30 PM	Hygiene	Hygiene	Hygiene	Hygiene	Hygiene	Hygiene	Hygiene

I've pointed out several times how important it is that we follow the schedule we planned, but there are bound to be exceptions like social gatherings and special occasions. We don't want to keep ourselves from enjoying life as it ultimately beats the purpose of what we are trying to accomplish here, which is a state of wellbeing and continuous improvement. We must find a balance that allows us to maintain a level of discipline in order to make the most out of every day, this is where we will need to be proactive and quickly identify what changes can be made to further improve our productivity and overall wellbeing. Mistakes will surely be made, potentially even requiring us to completely reorder our routine, but we mustn't feel discouraged, every step of the way is a lesson learned and will help us get to where we want to be. 

Think of your daily tasks as a ball that you need to push up a mountain. When you fail to do a specific task, the ball rolls a bit back and it will require a bit more work to get it back to where it was, but as you get the ball up that mountain every single day it will become easier and easier, until eventually that mountain is no longer big enough for you. That's what will happen when you reach one of your set goals, and once you do you should immediately look for a bigger mountain, or you will quickly lose strength that you gained from all of that pushing! The more consistent we become the easier it will be to overcome even the highest of mountains, be patient and believe in yourself. 

See ya!

Stoicism - PART 6 Overcoming Anxiety

 A couple of days ago, as I was going through Marcus Arelius' "Meditations", I realized something that caught my attention. Generally, we view Stoics as people who are able to conquer their emotions and are, in a nutshell, mentally invincible. That being said, Marcus Aurelius mentions anxiety in his quotes more times than you would probably imagine. There's no question that he, as any normal human, suffered from anxiety quite often. (I mean, he was running the biggest empire in the world at the time!)

I also realized that I didn't have a plan or anything to reduce anxiety even though I am often highly susceptible to it. I've gone through the quotes that Meditations has to offer so we can establish a clear path that will potentially prepare us to reduce or even eliminate anxiety from creeping up to us while we go through our daily activities. Before we continue I do want to note that this is a personal analysis and I will be tackling this from a specific perspective according to my situation, I'm not a psychologist so please take this information with a grain of salt.

So, now that that's out of the way, I want to describe where I believe my anxiety and uneasiness feelings come from. I've realized that I am often mentally displaced when doing a specific task, I mean that I will suddenly lose concentration of what I'm doing and begin to think about what I will be doing afterwards, or even what I did before I started the task. For example, if I have an important meeting or need to speak in front of a group of people after completing my current activity, I regularly disconnect completely from the task at hand and begin to hastily recap whatever it is I'm going to be presenting or sharing later that day. It's not hard to figure out that this negatively affects both your current task/activity and the one that your mind is desperately overthinking. The way to prevent this? Focus completely on the task at hand, if you start to deviate due to this reason, reassure yourself that you are prepared to share your thoughts and information in an effective manner, don't try to change what you've already planned at the last minute, it rarely goes well. (Considering that you properly prepared of course! Otherwise, you should analyze your time management and establish priorities accordingly.)

Another way that anxiety has manifested in my life is that I suddenly start to think about what I'd rather be doing at any given time. If I'm spending time with loved ones or family, I'll question myself as to whether I should be studying or recapping information for a meeting, or even a mundane task like doing laundry instead. This is quite tricky at times because occasionally, you will realize that you could have done things differently and it would've given you a better result. Again, focus on the task at hand, if you already scheduled your activities for that day make sure to stick to your plan. There will be time to think about priorities and managing your times later, during your personal free time or at the end of your day. Yes, maybe you could have dedicated more hours to studying, but ultimately due to the anxiety that was created, the valuable time you are dedicating to your family at that moment will be less rewarding or engaging. You always want to get the most out of your time, there will be a moment for you to re-plan, but the time lost will never be recovered. I cannot stress enough how important it is to value and use your limited time here as effectively as possible, not solely because you will be more productive but because those memories, knowledge and engagement will help you reach the maximum amount of motivation and overall positive energy that will make your time here as pleasant as can be!

In conclusion, anxiety is not just unpleasant but failing to address it will cause you to degrade or even lose quality time, knowledge and cherished memories. I decided to keep a journal where I can plan my day, create routines and log notes that will help me evaluate and further improve my schedule structure and make the most out of my time. You can use digital tools to help you with this, but I personally prefer a physical journal that I can carry in my backpack at all times. To finish off this entry I'll leave a few quotes from Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius that stood out for me and helped me with this analysis. 

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. 

— Epictetus

Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems. 

— Epictetus

We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality. 

— Seneca

But life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future. 

— Seneca

All you need are these: certainty of judgment in the present moment; action for the common good in the present moment; and an attitude of gratitude in the present moment for anything that comes your way.

 — Marcus Aurelius

If you suffer from more severe anxiety or feel like it is not something you can overcome by yourself, don't hesitate to look for professional help. Here are resources that are more specialized and will help you better understand your situation: https://etherapypro.com/anxiety/

See ya!

Stoicism - PART 5 Seeking Motivation

One of the things I have struggled with over recent years has been lack of motivation. Feeling like you aren't improving or progressing towards your goals is never a fun experience. It's somewhat common for me to wake up some days with no desire to go through my day, so I've taken the step to analyze why I struggle with this and how to handle it. The simple answer is to just do it, there will be bad days and good days and there surely is someone out there who would wish to have the life you're living now. However, this doesn't help much for how we feel. I'm grateful for what I have, but there must be something else that can help with this problem, perhaps even eliminate it completely. It wouldn't be wise to rely solely on external or materialistic things to give us that extra boost when times are hard.

One of my hobbies is learning history, sometimes I will sit and read history articles or watch documentaries for hours. It's a rather strange interest but I can't stress enough how fascinating it is to me when I find out about things that I never would've imagined happened hundreds of years ago in the other side of the planet. Even more so when I dive deeper into an event that I thought I had a solid understanding of, only to gain a new perspective and completely changing my opinions on a topic. Knowing this, if you asked me if I would rather be able to meet my ancestors or descendants (Theoretically, of course), which one do you think I would choose? This is a question that someone asked me not too long ago, and I didn't hesitate to answer. That answer was meeting my descendants.

What? I just wrote that knowing about the past and our ancestors is fascinating to me, so why did I give that answer?

As it turns out, being a history nerd has taught me something that I hadn't even thought of until after I had that conversation.  I've read about world leaders, military generals and historic figures that have left us with inventions or ideas that we cant even imagine living without in our current time. We seem to view historic figures in either a negative or positive way, this is natural as we tend to view history as a story, with good guys and bad guys and categorize events as either catastrophic or completely positive, this can't be further from the truth. Events and people are complicated, events happen in a chain reaction and are a product of everything that came before. People are not inherently good or bad, we have ideas and take actions according to our understanding of how things work. The one thing that historic figures have in common, whether their reputation is good or bad, is that they left a legacy. They had an impact on the lives of many who came and will come after, they had the courage, skill and motivation to make a change. What could be more valuable than bettering the lives of as many people as possible? 

So here lies the reasoning behind the answer I gave, as much as I would have loved to see ancient greece, the roman empire and ancient egypt, I am more interested in knowing what legacy and impact I will have for those who come after me, whether it's one person or thousands. 

As I reflected on these thoughts, I realized that I had found motivation and an appreciation for whatever it is we are doing now to better ourselves and therefore better the lives of those around us. Perhaps I won't appear in a history book a hundred years from now, but that shouldn't mean that I won't do my best to leave as much for this world as I'm capable of. 

These thoughts surely won't magically provide a lifetime supply of motivation, but perhaps will help you in your day to day life, at least a bit. You may occasionally feel stuck or like you're going backwards from your goal, but know that as long as you are doing what is in your hands to provide value to your loved ones and those around you, feel no shame or frustration as you are already doing more than you can even imagine. Dedicate time to yourself, your thoughts and your body. Valuing yourself as much as everyone else will help you take good care of your physical and mental health, it is your only chance and tool to make the place we live in a better one, which I believe is our purpose in this giant sphere of water and dirt we call home.

See ya! 

-Rob