Lessons from a stoic (Part 1)
Hey guys welcome to another article. Todays article will be different and the first of many to come. I will be talking about lessons I have learnt from books written by renowned stoics like Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, etc I hope we learn something today.
The first lesson I learnt today about stoicism is from the book “ Letters from a stoic” by Seneca, to be honest I was shook when I found out that Seneca was alive around the same time as Jesus Christ, mind blowing right? I am sincerely grateful to the people who preserved these letters.
In his Letter 2 in the book he said “to be everywhere is to be nowhere” and it holds water even to this day. For most people we want to be everywhere, do everything, read everything etc but does that help? Maybe in the short term, it gives you a peripheral knowledge of things and you lack the ability to go in-depth about those same things. At the end of the day we are filled with knowledge but lacking in wisdom, a museum of knowledge.
He compared being everywhere to eating different types of food all at the same time, you might think you are doing yourself a favour but in the long run you find out you just signed up for stomach upset.
If you love to read like me, he advised we read only “well-tried” authors and if at any point we want to change an author we should go back to the ones we have already read, from my experience there is always something new to learn when you reread a book.
Now, if we apply this same stoic formula in life, it helps us to focus on things that are actually important to us. We follow well tried people on our SM platforms, we listen to well tried people. Listening to many people and trying to do as they say is like eating different delicacy expecting nourishment, sorry boo you might have diarrhea to deal with later. You “contaminate” your mind when you listen to people who are not well tried in any route you have decided to follow in life.
In other words, pick something and keep to it. Replace FOMO with JOMO that's how you gain mastery at something.
He also stated that a cheerful poverty is an honourable state but, if it is cheerful it is not really poverty. A poor man is not someone who has little but the one who always wants more.
What is the proper limit to someones wealth? Having what is essential (food, clothing, shelter, water, health etc) and having what is enough.
How much is enough for you? Well, only you get to decide.
I have this friend who told me that 1 million naira doesn’t freak him anymore and I was like 😶 it made me realize that our gratitude meter reduces as we get more (more money, more clothes, more children etc)
This is my understanding of the second letter and I would love to hear your thoughts as well.
