Three Lessons from Stoicism

1. It cost what it costs. 

Costs are everywhere. We sometimes pay them directly and nominally like the price of a cup of coffee. 

Often we incur costs indirectly. Like the cost of health complications as a consequence of making poor eating and exercise habits over the course of a lifetime. 

Regardless we pay the cost. 

It cost what it cost. The concept is outlined brilliantly by one of my favorite authors Ryan Holiday here.

We must think of the inconveniences, the annoyances we experience in our daily lives as the tax we must pay for the life we have built. 

For example, having baggage claim lose your luggage is merely the price we must pay for the ability to have disposal income to be able to travel. 

Traffic that makes us late for work is merely the tax (or cost) we owe for the privilege of being employed. 

These are reminders that the inconveniences we experience, the slights, the annoyances we face are minor and they are nothing more than a by-product of the things we should be grateful for in the first place. 

2. Think of the Cup As Already Broken 

 Buddhist teacher Ajahn Chah once said of a lovely cup:

To me this cup is already broken. Because I know its fate, I can enjoy it fully here and now. And when it’s gone, it’s gone.

This is one of the more practical applications of Stoicism I try to practice. It teaches us the impermanence of all things. 

Epictetus in the Discourses says: 

As to something brittle as glass or earthenware; that, when it happens to be broken, you may not lose your self-command. So here, too; when you embrace your child, or your brother, or your friend, never yield yourself wholly to the fair semblance, nor let the passion pass into excess; but curb it, restrain it, — like those who stand behind triumphant victors, and remind them that they are men. Do you likewise remind yourself that you love what is mortal; that you love what is not your own. It is allowed you for the present, not irrevocably, nor forever; but as a fig, or a bunch of grapes, in the appointed season.

While this may seem cold or harsh what he is saying here is all things are temporary even the things and more importantly the people we love and enjoy. That the breaking of these items like the brittle glass is inevitable and so when it comes to pass you should not be upset or lose your temper. 

It is also a good reminder of the brief moment we have here during this time and we should enjoy and embrace the things and people we love for the short time we have them and if we think of them as already broken or gone then when the inevitable occurs we will not be upset by their destruction.

3. Memento Mori 

This concept is hand in hand with the idea of the broken cup and impermanence. Memento Mori means "Remember death". 

One day die. This is true for all of us. This is a useful tool to remind ourselves of the meaningless of everything we do especially the embarrassing or unflattering moments in our life that we think will be remembered forever are merely temporary. 

Even the greatest minds and generals and empires are nothing more than dust in the annals of time and you too will one day join them. 

Not be bleak or depressing but this is an important perspective to understand. This is not to say nothing matters and everything is meaningless it is quite the opposite. It is the reminder that what you are doing now matters and to live for the present.