We’ve all got our comfort zones. And to be honest, they are pretty important. It’s where we are able to do the things we love without being worried about what other people will say. It shelters us from the rest of the world. 

It might come as a surprise, however, but if you want to succeed in life, then you’re going to have to step out of your comfort zone.  

Seneca states in Letter 13.10-11 :   

Let us, then, look carefully into the matter. It is likely that some troubles will befall us; but it is not a present fact. How often has the unexpected happened! How often has the expected never come to pass! And even though it is ordained to be, what does it avail to run out to meet your suffering? You will suffer soon enough, when it arrives; so look forward meanwhile to better things. What shall you gain by doing this? Time. There will be many happenings meanwhile which will serve to postpone, or end, or pass on to another person, the trials which are near or even in your very presence. A fire has opened the way to flight. Men have been let down softly by a catastrophe. Sometimes the sword has been checked even at the victim's throat. Men have survived their own executioners. Even bad fortune is fickle. Perhaps it will come, perhaps not; in the meantime it is not. So look forward to better things.

People fail due to a variety of reasons. Failure is something that occurs in every aspect of life. 

Meditations 5.10.1 states “The natures of things are so covered up from us, that, to many philosophers, and these no mean ones, all things seem uncertain and incomprehensible. The Stoics themselves own it to be very difficult to comprehend any thing certainly. All our Judgments are fallible. Where is the infallible man, who never changes his opinion? Consider the objects of our knowledge; how transitory are they, and how mean! how often are they in the possession of the most effeminately flagitious, or of a whore, or a robber! Review again the manners of your contemporaries, they are scarce tolerable to the most courteous and meek disposition; not to mention that few can well comport with their own manners, but are often angry with themselves.” 

Knowing why most people fail can help others learn to avoid the same outcome.

If you tend to set high bars for yourself and always try to put your best foot forward to achieve your goals, your perfectionism could be killing your attempts to live a full life. 

"No man ought to glory except in that which is his own. We praise a vine if it makes the shoots teem with increase, if by its weight it bends to the ground the very poles which hold its fruit; would any man prefer to this vine one from which golden grapes and golden leaves hang down? In a vine the virtue peculiarly its own is fertility; in man also we should praise that which is his own. Suppose that he has a retinue of comely slaves and a beautiful house, that his farm is large and large his income; none of these things is in the man himself; they are all on the outside." Seneca, Moral Letters 41.7

While striving for perfection can help you achieve great results, it can also prevent you from being your best. 

If you find often find yourself wishing you could get more done, you’re not alone. Most people wish there was more time in the day but this simply is not possible.

Meditation 9.32 states You can cut off a great many superfluous things which crowd and disturb  you; for they lye wholly in your own opinion: and by this you will make a great deal of room and ease to yourself. As, by comprehending, by your judgment, the whole universe; by considering the age you live in; and by considering the quick changes of each thing, in particular; how short the time from its birth to its dissolution; how immense the space of time before its birth; and the time after its dissolution, equally infinite.

Whether you want to do more in the same amount of time, need more motivation for getting stuff done, or are looking to reduce the amount of time you waste in a day, some simple habits can help you improve your productivity. 

Feeling anxious every once in a while and having an anxiety disorder are two very different things. When you have an anxiety disorder, you can become fixated on a thought or feeling that leads you down a rabbit hole of anxious thoughts. 

Discourses 2.13.1 When I see any one anxious, I say, what does this man mean? Unless he wanted something or other, not in his own power, how could he still be anxious? A musician, for instance, feels no anxiety, while he is singing by himself, but when he appears upon the stage he does; even if his voice be ever so good, or he plays ever so well. For what he wishes is not only to sing well, but likewise to gain applause. But this is not in his own power. In short, where his skill lies, there is his courage. Bring any ignorant person, and he does not mind him. But in the point which he neither understands, nor has studied, there he is anxious.

While there are different types of anxiety disorders, a common thread between them all is that it interferes with your daily life 

The limiting beliefs that you are told your entire life shape everything that you do. They have even prevented you from seeing opportunities and reaching your goals. To identify the limiting beliefs in your life, you have to ask yourself why things aren't working out. 

Meditations 2.16 The soul affronts itself, when it becomes, as far as it can, an abscess or wen in the universe. Freting at what happens, is making itself an abscess from that nature, which contains all other parts. Again, when it has aversion to any man, and opposes him with intention to hurt him, as wrathful men do. And thirdly, it affronts itself, when conquered by pleasure or pain. Fourthly, when it does or says any thing hypocritically, feignedly, or falsly. Fifthly, when it does not  direct to some proper end all its desires and actions, but exerts them inconsiderately, without understanding.Whereas, even the smallest things should be refered to the end. Now, the end of rational beings should be this, to follow the  reason and law of their most antient and venerable city or country

Many people try to be successful without using a single one of their strengths.

Discourses 3.23.1 states “First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. For in almost everything we see this to be the practice. Olympic champions first determine what they would be, and then act accordingly. To a racer, in a longer course, there must be one kind of diet, walking, anointing, and training; to one in a shorter, all these must be different; and to a Pentathlete, still more different. You will find the case the same in the manual arts. If a carpenter, you must have such and such things; if a smith, such other. For if we do not refer each of our actions to some end, we shall act at random; if to an improper one, we shall miss our aim.”

People don’t use their strengths nearly as often as they should to achieve success. 

There are some things that you can do to make sure that you are using your strengths to help you achieve your goals and become successful. 

Each person is different and each success story is different. It is impossible to compare your journey to anyone else’s, so you have to do something else entirely. You have to compare yourself to yourself. 

Seneca writes in Letter 32.2 “This is sound practice – to refrain from associating with men of different stamp and different aims. And I am indeed confident that you cannot be warped, that you will stick to your purpose, even though the crowd may surround and seek to distract you. What, then, is on my mind? I am not afraid lest they work a change in you; but I am afraid lest they may hinder your progress. And much harm is done even by one who holds you back, especially since life is so short; and we make it still shorter by our unsteadiness, by making ever fresh beginnings at life, now one and immediately another. We break up life into little bits, and fritter it away.”

The best way to accomplish this is by comparing your current self to your past self. The thing that many people do is live as their past selves instead of forgetting about that person and living in the present. 

No matter who you are, if you have any goals worth having, you are going to spend some time achieving them. Any goal that is actually going to bring you success will almost certainly take a long time to realize. There are no shortcuts in life. 

But in order to get that long-term success, you almost always have to make short-term sacrifices. The practice of Stoicism helps to understand that these sacrifices are for something better. 

Meditations 6.9 states  “All things are accomplished by the nature presiding in the whole; nor can they be influenced by any other, either surrounding it without, or contained as distinct within it, or externally annexed to it.”

Short-term sacrifices are a vital part of achieving your goals and most people have trouble with them.  But there are ways to implement them.

Healthy emotions are essential for success in life and the practice of Stoicism. It also leads to a better mindset.

Meditations 5.21 states “Reverence that which is most excellent in the universe; which employs all parts of it as it pleases, and governs all. In like manner, reverence that which is most excellent in yourself. Now, this is of a like nature with the former, as it is what employs and directs all other powers in your nature; and your whole life is governed by it.

The mind-body relationship is becoming clearer thanks to the advent of modern science. Likewise, the link between our thoughts and our emotions are also becoming better known. Research has demonstrated an obvious correlation between good emotions and a strong psychology.