12 Stoic Questions For Your Journal

Stoicism is not a get-wise-quick scheme.

If that's what you think, stop reading and go back to scrolling on Instagram.

All the Stoics had one thing in common: they knew themselves extremely well.

Seneca, in one of his letters, writes, "You ask me what progress I have made. Well, I've become myself's best friend."

But how did they do that?

How did they manage to become undefeatable by life's blows and control their every desire?

Well, by mastering the art of asking questions.

1. Who Are You Spending Time With? Let me ask you: Where do people hide their characters? in their souls or their pockets? Ryan Holiday said, "We can't change our friends, but we can change our friends. Heraclitus wrote that "character is destiny." The people you surround yourself with (their character) can shape who you become. Are your friends and companions pushing you toward a more meaningful life, or are you spending time with them just because "you feel well around them"? 

2. Is This in My Control? Epictetus said that "if God could have given us more than our ability to make proper use of impressions, he would have done so, but it was impossible." If we could control the weather or who liked us, chaos would emerge. Distinguish everything in life into what is under your control and what is not, and if it belongs to the second category, "forget about it immediately," as Epictetus said. 

3. What Does Your Ideal Day Look Like? Your life is made up of days. If you want to live a better life, you have to start living better days. Everyone has bad days. This bad day is not your life, but it is a day in your life. If you respect yourself, you'll treat each one seriously.

4. To Be or To Do? Are you more concerned with appearing important or actually accomplishing important things? "If someone says that you are stupid and you remain unfazed, know that you're on the right track to virtue," Epictetus said. Epictetus did not care about recognition, only about doing his duty: educating youngsters to master the art of emotional resilience.

5. How Are You Measuring Your Life? Are you driven solely by self-preservation and attention (animal motives), or are you genuinely making a difference in the world? "Find yourself a Cato, someone to measure yourself against," Seneca said, and keep their character on the forefront of your thoughts.

6. What Are You Missing by Worrying or Being Afraid? "When I see an anxious person," Epictetus said, " I always ask myself: 'What do they want?' Because if they didn't want anything outside their control, why would they be anxious?" That beautiful lady on the other side of the room that you're so afraid to talk to is just a human being, as you are. You are afraid because you not only want to go there and ask for her number, but also for her to respond positively and not make fun of you. The former is under your control. But the latter is not, and that's why you feel anxious thinking about it. Be careful. No risk, no story. Don't be the person who regretted much because he did little.

7. Are You Doing Your Job? In every moment, you have a job to do, whether big or small. "Focus on the task in front of you like a Roman," Marcus Aurelius reminded himself to gain the power he needed. Doing your job is enough. Why? Because the outcome is not under your control, or at least, not entirely. 

8. What Is the Most Important Thing to You? Identify what you value most. There's simply not enough time to put it off. We are not going to die at some point in the future. Seneca said, "We are dying every second that passes by." Death is happening as we speak. Let us use this as motivation and a medium to prioritize what truly matters.

9. Am I talking more than I should? "I only speak when I'm certain what I'll say isn't left unsaid," said Cato, Rome's Iron Man. Understand: Talking and doing, fight for the same resources: your time and energy. You have to choose one of them. A Stoic doesn't talk about it, a Stoic is about it.

10. Does This Actually Matter? Most of the things we get upset about are laughably unimportant. Marcus Aurelius said, "Ask yourself why the situation at hand is unbearable?" Most of the time, you'll be ashamed to answer.

11. Will This Be Alive Time or Dead Time? "Live each day as if it were your last" is a cliché. Seneca advised us to "postpone nothing and put the final touches every day in our lives." Does this mean that we should find an orgy to join? Of course not. But treating each day as a Bonus Day will never allow for Dead Time or petty fights. Leave that for the people who delude themselves by thinking they are immortals.

12. Is This Who I Want to Be? Evaluate your actions against the person you aspire to become. The Stoics asked this question every day. It was their way of making sure that they were still following the path of virtue. "Most people are sleepwalking during the day," said Socrates, meaning that they repeat the same mistakes over and over and then ask why their lives suck. Lack of self-reflection/awareness is the answer. Let us not be like them. 

Till next time,

Said The Stoic

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