Stoicism and habits - a practical tool

It’s been almost one year and a half since I finished university. While being a student, my schedule was constrained by classes, so it was erratic, with labs and seminars from 8 AM to 8 PM. This schedule makes it hard to build a daily routine because every day has its particularities. From the moment I graduated, my discipline got better day by day.

After I finally arrived at a point where I could manage my entire schedule, I focused on implementing micro-habits that would lead me to the desired mindset. A known way of changing one’s perspective is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), a form of psychotherapy that focuses on how a person’s thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes affect their feelings and behaviors.

Do you know who practiced CBT way before it was cool? Marcus Aurelius, a famous Roman emperor who happened to be stoic. In the movie Gladiator (2000), Marcus Aurelius is portrayed as the wise old man experienced in battles and diplomacy, whose moral traits inspire all his subordinates. This image created by the movie is not far from reality. In his book Meditations, Marcus Aurelius described a beautiful mental model on how people should react to factors happening out of their reach.

Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations belongs to a current commonly known as Stoicism. It promotes ideas such as continuous improvement, not focusing on what is out of your control, reconciling with the past, focusing on one task only and doing it well, not attaching to material objects, and becoming a master at your craft.

“Love the humble art you have learned, and take rest in it. Pass through the remainder of your days as one who whole-heartedly entrusts all possessions to the gods, making yourself neither a tyrant nor a slave to any person.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 4.31

I like this way of thinking, and the Stoic way of life seems like a good mindset, so I decided to expose myself more to these ideas. First, I started reading one page of Meditations every day, but that was not always possible. When I stumbled upon Ryan Holiday’s “The Daily Stoic,” in which he would write a small comment on a stoic quote for a total of 365 pages (one for each day of the year), I decided to make a Chrome Extension so that I would get my daily stoic dose with a single click, each morning. My current morning routine includes reading the stoic and meditating for 10 minutes, using it to trigger more profound thoughts.

The extension is free. I don’t get any benefits from you using it, and neither will I get any benefits in the future from you using it. Its whole purpose is to help people get exposed to stoicism. If you are interested in including the habit of reading one stoic thought a day in your routine, here’s a link to it.