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10 Tools For Your Stoic Toolkit

Daily Stoic Emails

Welcome to a special weekend Daily Stoic email!

Stoicism is supposed to be a living, breathing thing. Not just words you look at on a page once, but something you carry with you—something you use to live. It’s designed to become almost like a toolkit, filled with things that protect and serve us each day. After all, that’s what Enchiridion, Epictetus’ famous work, translates to: something you keep at hand, a weapon you arm yourself with.

So in this email, we wanted to share some essential tools that might be helpful additions to your Stoic toolkit. Some are as free as the air we breathe. Some are critical daily exercises. Some are physical ways to level up what you’re already doing. Some make for great holiday gifts or ways to share Stoicism. In any form, these 10 Stoic tools are worth considering today.

A Consistent Practice

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In each of his letters to his friend Lucilius, Seneca would include a quote, something to chew on, a thought to guide the day. “Each day,” he told Lucilius, you should “acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes, as well.” Just one thing. One nugget. And that’s what most of Seneca’s letters to his friend are about. They have a quote in them. Or a little prescription. Or a story. It’s a wonderful way to practice Stoicism, as well as a bit of advice that has persisted through the centuries. With websites, Instagram posts, inspirational posters, tattoos and the like, it has arguably reached its apogee here in the 21st century. It’s why we include at least one quote in every Daily Stoic email, on every page of the (perfect for your desk or bedside), and book (which is also available in a to withstand the test of time). One little thing to make you smarter, wiser, calmer. This is the way to improvement: Incremental, consistent, humble, persistent work.

A Beginner’s Mindset

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The Stoics were learners. It’s hard to escape that conclusion when you read their writings. Marcus Aurelius begins by cataloging the lessons he learned from the many people in his life, big and small. Seneca was constantly looking at other people, studying their lives and what they did well and not so well. When Epictetus said that you can’t learn what you think you already know, he was describing his own worldview as well as the worldview of his hero—Socrates—who went around constantly questioning and putting things up to the test. All of them would have agreed with Emerson’s observation that we can learn something from everyone we meet, because everyone is better than us at something. This is the mindset we must take with us, day to day, in whatever position of leadership or followership we occupy.

A Reminder Of Your Mortality

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It’s easy to see death as this thing that lies off in the distant future. Even those of us who choose not to live in denial of our mortality can be guilty of this. We think of dying as an event that happens to us. It’s stationary—whatever date it will happen at—and we’re moving towards it, slowly or quickly, depending on our age and health. Seneca felt that this was the wrong way to think about it, that it was a mistaken view that enabled many bad habits and much bad living. Instead, he said, death is a process—it is happening to us right now. We are dying every day, he said. Even as you read this email, time is passing that you will never get back. That time, he said, belongs to death. Powerful, right? As wonderful as it would be if there was no such thing as death, we have to use death as a tool. We have to use it as a spur to move us forward. And we have to be made better by the fact that we don’t know how much time we have left. That’s why we made the . Filling in the Memento Mori Life Calendar every week, seeing both how much life you’ve already lived (or as Seneca says, how much you’ve already died) and how much life you’ve (hopefully) got left—you stay focused, you prioritize, and you never take a minute for granted. (For more ways to keep the idea of memento mori with you always, check out the , the , and the ).

A Compass

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Have you ever stopped to ask why the four points on a compass—north, south, east, west—are called the “cardinal directions”? This is a reference to the cardinal virtues—courage, temperance, justice, wisdom—which guide us and tell us where to go. Marcus Aurelius called those four virtues “touchstones of goodness.” The four points on the compass we can carry and use in our actual lives. The paving stones on the path to the good life. For the Stoics, life is about facing every situation, greeting every experience, with one or all four of those virtues. So memorize them. Act on them. Live them. Let them guide you day-to-day. (And if you want to carry the Four Virtues around like a compass, check out the , the , and the ).

A Handbook

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In Greek, was titled Eis heauton or “To Himself.” A more recent title also captures the essence: The Emperor’s Handbook. In one passage, Marcus writes, “When you need encouragement, think of the qualities the people around you have…Nothing is as encouraging as when virtues are visibly embodied in the people around us, when we’re practically showered with them. It’s good to keep this in mind.” Incredibly, the handbook that guided one of history’s greatest figures survives to us. We can shower ourselves in the thoughts that guided Marcus so that like him, we can do and be better. Treating this like the gift that it is, we went out and created a Premium Leather edition of . We reached out to Gregory Hays, the translator of the Modern Library edition of , and bought the rights to our favorite translation. We found a great designer to create the custom illustrations that delineate each section. And we found the best Bible manufacturer in the United Kingdom and worked with them to produce editions with a gold foil-stamped cover, gilded-edge pages printed on premium-grade paper. We created this edition ourselves because we wanted it to be able to stand the test of time, just like the content inside (to ensure the best chance of holiday delivery of the , please choose priority shipping at checkout).

A Comrade(s)

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Yes, a Stoic is strong. Yes, a Stoic is brave. Yes, a Stoic does their duty—without complaint, without hesitation. A Stoic carries the load, and willingly carries the load for others when necessary. But they also aren’t afraid to ask for help. Because sometimes that’s the strongest and bravest thing to do. “Don’t be ashamed to need help,” Marcus Aurelius wrote. “Like a soldier storming a wall, you have a mission to accomplish. And if you’ve been wounded and you need a comrade to pull you up? So what?” That’s what Seneca and Lucilius were: comrades. As we talked about above, in each of their letters, we see them helping each other, fortifying each other. Marcus talked about how, except for beasts, no one can get through this life. You can’t carry out this mission alone. You need comrades.

A Love Of Fate

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Last year was hard. Next year will be hard. Life is hard. We get bad news. We mess up. We face so many problems, and no one–no matter their station in life–can escape them. What you need to survive all of that is a very particular attitude: Amor fati—a love of fate. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche described it as his formula for human greatness. That one not merely accepts everything that happens, but loves it. That one is like “a blazing fire,” Marcus Aurelius wrote, and “makes flame and brightness out of everything thrown into it.” It is that image that inspired our . We carry it in our pockets, we feel its weight and are reminded that amor fati is the Stoic mindset for making the most of everything life throws at us. No matter what it is, we find a way to work with it, to use it to our advantage, to love it.

An Appetite For Challenges

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There’s that cliched bit of advice: Do one thing each day that scares you. The Stoics might say to do one thing each day that you’d rather not do. Seneca regularly took cold plunges and intermittently fasted. When Marcus discovered philosophy, he made a habit of sleeping on the floor. Cato made his walks around Rome barefoot in the warmer months and bareheaded in the colder months. Epictetus exercised or lifted weights. “The body should be treated more rigorously,” Seneca wrote, “that it may not be disobedient to the mind.” During the good times, we strengthen ourselves and our bodies so that during the difficult times, we can depend on it. How? Seeking out challenges. Lean into difficulties. When faced with competing options about how to do things or what things to do, choose the harder one. Get the and complete one challenge each day. Iron sharpens iron, resistance builds muscle, challenges remind ourselves who’s in charge. You, not the pull to be comfortable. You, not the desire for everyone to like you. You, not the need to sound smart and all-knowing.

A Role Model

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Where did Marcus learn to be Marcus? Ernest Renan writes that Marcus was very much a product of his training and his tutors. But more than his teachers and even his own parents, “Marcus had a single master whom he revered above them all, and that was Antoninus.” All his adult life, Marcus strived to be a disciple of his adopted step-father. While he lived, Marcus saw him, Renan said, as “the most beautiful model of a perfect life.” Seneca tells us we should each choose a Cato—a great and virtuous person we can allow into our minds and use to guide our actions. A role model to provide a standard to live by. In Roman times, people kept busts of their heroes in their homes to be constantly reminded of the principles that they aspired to mirror in their own lives. In his own time, Marcus’ statue was displayed in homes across the empire (following in this grand tradition, we collaborated with an awesome sculptor to create our hand-sculpted busts of and ). Whether or not you put them on display, you need a role model. A Cato or a Marcus. A beautiful model of a perfect life.

A Good Character

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The immutable, inescapable law of human existence comes to us from the Stoics through Heraclitus (one of Marcus Aurelius’ favorites): Character is fate. After death and taxes, this is a timeless adage that the Stoics believed will determine our destiny whether we like it or not. And just a quick glimpse around the world and across history confirms it: Liars and cheats eventually destroy themselves. The corrupt overreach. The ignorant make fatal, self-inflicted mistakes. The egotistical ignore the data that challenges them and the warnings that could save them. The selfish end up isolated and alone, even if they’re surrounded by fame and fortune. The “robbers, perverts, killers and tyrants” Marcus Aurelius wrote about always end up in a hell of their own making. It’s a law as true as gravity.

When we create products for Daily Stoic, we strive to produce them here in the U.S. or use U.S.-based companies. We prioritize building deeper relationships with our manufacturers so we can find ways we can reduce waste, produce ethically, and have as little environmental impact as possible. The sales of our products fund all of the content we produce, and thanks to the generous support of this community we doubled our staff in 2022. It’s allowing us to produce more , more , more , and more content to help you cultivate strength, insight, and wisdom to live your best life. Products don’t make the Stoic. That can only come through action. But we’ve found these items helpful in our journey. Hopefully they can help you on yours.