Stoicism for a Better Life

Pursue goals with NO reservations and at ANY cost. Go GRAB the BULL by the horns. You get to your goal QUICKLY (preferably quicker than your competition) and you WILL find happiness. We've all been taught this garbage over and over again growing up at home, school and on TV. Today...this is a core pillar of your misery.

If you can answer this problem, then you don't need to listen to this episode: Freewill...does it truly exist? Yes, you are choosing to read this. But science tells us everything is predetermined, hence formulas that can very accurately predict things. How do you reconcile these two? How can we have freewill, if we live in a world bound by universal rules that can be predicted?

Neil Armstrong may be best known for his quote "One small step for man...", but his greatest contribution to posterity, in my opinion, is the attitude he practiced and preached after he came back from stepping on another celestial object and staring back at everything he ever knew: Life is a short term phenomenon.

See the world as it is...not as you see it. This is possibly the greatest trick the devil ever pulled (the fact that we don't even realize we're on the hedonic treadmill). We forget we are a small spec... unspecial in every way....and we freely throw false value judgments on everything.

Here's the first Q&A of the season. We've got three (technically four) questions starting with pets and ending with introspective reflection.

Strap in for some incest, murder, genocide and extinction. We're talking about how homo sapiens exterminated all other human species despite being one of the least successful species (yeah I said it...prove me wrong). Oh yeah...there's some Stoicism in there somewhere too...perhaps some wisdom, but no promises and no refunds.

You've already heard it a million times..."it's not the destination, it's the journey". Let's explain that real quick quick. Don't forget, the Q&A airs in two episodes, so get your questions in on your read-along or wtv. Instagram is a good bet or any other link on StoicismForaBetterLife.com - Let's Talk. I'm excited! Are you?

This is the way...literally. For two millennia, people have been preaching these philosophical precepts and claiming it gave them freedom and peace from within. It may not be the answer for you, but then again, it might.

Growing up I never read the preface of a book. I always thought "what the hell, I bought the book to read the damn thing...why are you bothering me with a short mis-en-context to put the whole thing into perspective in a convenient package." If only I knew then what I know now, I would have gotten so much more value out of the same effort. A preface puts the entire book into the context the author wants you to view it. Try not to skip them. But you can skip this one if you want. Except don't.