When things are about to go really bad, imagine that you are entering the world of Epictetus. Epictetus was born into slavery over 2000 years ago. After a severe beating, leaving him lame, his Roman master allowed him to study the ancient philosophy of Stoicism, which can be a great help to anyone met with an overwhelming challenge.
The key lesson of Stoicism lies in how you react to a situation.
When recent Cars Yeah guest, Perry McCarthy, finally realized his dream of driving an F1 race car, he found himself on a very underfunded team and in a car that in one race only made it 18 yards, down pit lane. Perry didn’t let these details defeat him.
Perry is a Stoic and framed his situation in a positive way.
2020 has certainly thrown us all great challenges. Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BC. It is a philosophy of personal ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world. Epictetus wrote a book of positive sayings useful to us today, a handbook of self help, Selected Stoic Writings
“It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you react to it that really matters.” – Epictetus
Perry learned how to control his reactions to challenge. By the way, Perry became the original STIG on Top Gear and he wrote a book, Flat Out Flat Broke, about his experiences as an F1 driver and more. He is a Stoic and you can become one too. Want to learn how? You can learn more about Stoicism by reading a book by Bill Irvine, The Stoic Challenge.
If you get this right you are not a victim and instead you become a stoic.
Take control of the frame around the cards you are dealt and choose to be a stoic.
Right on!!
Great post Mark. I was listening to a podcast which touched on stoicism as well so it seems to be trending as a topic. Very relevant to our times. Love refusing to be a victim.
ABSOLUTELY 😃👏👏👏👏… SHAKE THE EARTH PEOPLE BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT MAY FALLOUT!!!
I think we spend our lives learning how to control our response to circumstance beyond our control as well as developing a belief system that challenges create opportunities. We are all a work in progress and this perspective from STIG is a great reminder of how little control we have on everything except our response!