30 Short Stoic Habits for Wisdom, Wealth, Productivity & Happiness

Stoicism is a philosophy developed by the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno of Citium. The philosophy emphasises living in accordance with nature, accepting things as they are, and being content with what you have.

It also emphasises the importance of focusing on what’s inside as opposed to what’s outside. If you focus on your circumstances, they will eventually change, and you will be disappointed. Instead, you should look for ways to improve your life from moment to moment and cultivate habits that will help you become a better version of yourself.

It’s also about learning how to control your emotions and feelings to maintain a calm and collected demeanour in any situation. Stoics believe you should be able to manage your thoughts, feelings and actions, enabling you to take control of your life.

By practicing stoic habits, you’ll be able to increase your focus and self-control, which will help you lead a happier and healthier life. Epictetus once said, “Progress is not achieved by luck or accident, but by working on yourself daily.”

Epictetus also advocated developing ‘stoic’ habits to train ourselves to be more patient and less reactive to external circumstances. The point of Stoicism isn’t to fix yourself; it’s to learn to be more mindful of your thoughts, emotions, and actions to lead a better life overall.

These simple stoic habits are behaviours you can adopt to live a happier, healthier and wealthier life. By cultivating them, you can become more comfortable with change, build resilience and enjoy a richer, more fulfilling life.

1. Accept that life is not linear — including the fact that things will inevitably go wrong at some point. It’s your reaction to bad events that matters most.
2. Don’t beat yourself up if you are not successful yet; just focus on adopting a more positive mental outlook and do more of what’s working.
3. Everything in your control is key to your wealth, happiness and health. “Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not.”―Epictetus
4. Invest in needs, not wants. “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”―Epictetus
5. Prune the unessential: “Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realise how unnecessary many things are. — Seneca
6. Embrace short and long walks — they will help you clarify your thoughts, clear your head and reduce stress. “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche
7. Allow yourself to fully experience your emotions instead of suppressing them or acting out and regretting them later. It can help you better understand your feelings and how they affect your life.
8. Practice gratitude by acknowledging all of the good things for you instead of dwelling on everything wrong in your life.
9. Become more attuned to your surroundings to respond more appropriately when you need to. Observe and listen more.
10. Emotion (good and bad) is contagious. Be mindful of your social connections. “The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.” — Epictetus
11. Build resilience: resilience is the ability to bounce back after setbacks or failures. Building resilience will make you less likely to give up when things get tough.
12. Practice deliberate discomfort (to handle life’s hard challenges) by stepping out of your comfort zone.
13. Failure is not final — it makes you wiser. Every experience is a teaching moment. Gather as much experience as possible.
14. Defend your time. “It’s not at all that we have too short a time to live, but that we squander a great deal of it.” — Seneca
15. To attain true happiness and contentment, pursue activities and experiences that make you come alive.
16. Use every difficult situation as an opportunity to learn and grow. Be open to the many lessons in life. Rise above the human nature to seek comfort.
17. Build resilience by surrounding yourself with people who support you, believe in you, and share your goals.
18. Don’t waste time and mental energy on what people think of you. You can’t change people’s perception of you.
19. Make daily reflection a habit. It stops you from over-complicating or overthinking minor events and experiences. Meditate on your daily experiences. How can you improve your proactive and reactive actions?
20. Be more present: being present means being fully aware of what’s happening around you at all times. It stops you from overthinking.
21. “Don’t waste the rest of your time here worrying about other people… It will keep you from doing anything useful. Why do you complain rather than act?” — Marcus Aurelius
22. Tame your insatiable ego — it’s one of the greatest obstacles to a good life.
23. Your interpretation of life experiences and events is key to your happiness. Epictetus explains, “never hold anyone except ourselves — that is, our judgments — accountable.”
24. Stop complaining. Do the work. “At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for?”―Marcus Aurelius.
25. Embrace challenges rather than run from them — they build you up for the next chapter of your life.
26. Memento mori — “remember that you will die”. Always remember you are mortal. Choose your actions wisely. “Don’t behave as if you are destined to live forever. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good. Now.” — Marcus Aurelius
27. Stack good habits, one at a time — don’t overwhelm yourself. “Assemble your life… action by action. And be satisfied if each one achieves its goal… No one can keep that from happening… Action by action.” — Marcus Aurelius
28. Don’t get too attached to the outcome of any experience. Falling in love with the results before you achieve it leads to stress.
29. Free yourself of distractions that steal stillness. “Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.” — Seneca
30. Perfection is not the goal. There are no perfect outcomes in life. For everything you pursue, aim for progress. “We don’t abandon our pursuits because we despair of ever perfecting them.” — Epictetus

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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