Stoic Lessons: Train discernment

If you wish to make good use of these pills of stoicism, try for a week to commit to putting them into practice. Make it your priority and then see how and if your life changes. If they prove useless you will have lost little as they are free. I assure you, however, that they are able to provide a real breakthrough if only you are able to make them your own.

This week's one is about the ability to distinguish what you have the ability to act upon versus what you can't. Do you hear yourself complaining about the weather? Or of someone who is not you? With your bank? Or your "boss" at work? All these things belong to the outside and you have no chance of doing anything about it. The time you use complaining or even worse thinking and planning something that changes them, is simply time and energy thrown away and a source of frustration.

If you can clarify this distinction within yourself, you will have more time and energy for what you can influence as well as avoid unnecessary tension.

m.m.