When the standards have been set, things are tested and weighted. And the work of philosophy is just his, to examine and uphold the standards, but the work of a truly good person is in using those standards when they know them.
—Epictetus, Discourses, 2.11.23-25

We go through our days responding and reacting, but it’s rare to really pause and ask: Is this thing I’m about to do consistent with what I believe? Or, better: Is this the kind of thing the person I would like to be should do?

The work of living is to set standards and then not compromise them. When you’re brushing your teeth, choosing your friends, losing your temper, falling in love, instructing your child, or walking your dog—all of these are opportunities.

Not, I want to do good—that’s an excuse. But, I will do good in this particular instance, right now. Set a standard; hold fast to it. That’s all there is.

* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Yes, getting your wish would have been so nice. But isn’t that exactly why pleasure trips us up? Instead, see if these things might be even nicer—a great soul, freedom, honesty, kindness, saintliness. For there is nothing so pleasing as wisdom itself, when you consider how surefooted and effortless the works of understanding and knowledge are.
—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.9

Nobody can argue that pleasure doesn’t feel good. That’s pretty much what it does by definition.

But today Marcus Aurelius is reminding you—just as he reminded himself—that those pleasures hardly stand up to virtue. The dopamine rush that comes from sex is momentary. So is the pride of an accomplishment or the hearty applause of a crowd. These pleasures are powerful, but they wear off and leave us wanting more. What lasts longer (and remains more within our circle of control)? Wisdom, good character, sobriety, and kindness.

* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

The person who does wrong, does wrong to themselves. The unjust person is unjust to themselves—making themselves evil.
—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 9.4

The next time you do something wrong, try to remember how it made you feel. Rarely does one say, “I felt great!”

There is a reason there’s often vomit at crime scenes. Instead of the catharsis the person thought they’d feel when they let themselves get out of control or when they got their revenge, they ended up making themselves sick. We feel a version of this when we lie, when we cheat, when we screw someone over.

So in that split second before your ill-gotten gains kick in, ask: How do I feel about myself? Is that moment when fear rises in your throat because you suspect you may get caught really worth it?

Self-awareness and wrongdoing rarely go together. If you need a selfish reason to not do wrong—put yourself in touch with these feelings. They’re a powerful disincentive.

* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

It’s in keeping with Nature to show our friends affection and to celebrate their advancement, as if it were our very own. For if we don’t do this, virtue, which is strengthened only by exercising our perceptions, will no longer endure in us.
—Seneca, Moral Letters, 109.15

Watching other people succeed is one of the toughest things to do—especially if we are not doing well ourselves. In our hunter-gatherer minds, we suspect that life is a zero-sum game—that for someone to have more means that we might end up with less.

But like all parts of philosophy, empathy and selflessness are a matter of practice. As Seneca observed, it’s possible to learn to “rejoice in all their successes and be moved by their every failure.” This is what a virtuous person does.

They watch themselves to actively cheer for other—even in cases where that might come at their own expense—and to put aside jealousy and possessiveness. You can do that too.

* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Better to trip with the feet than with the tongue.
—Zeno, Quoted In Diogenes Laertius, Lives Of The Eminent Philosophers, 7.1.26

You can always get up after you fall, but remember, what has been said can never be unsaid. Especially cruel and hurtful things.

* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

That which isn’t good for the hive, isn’t good for the bee.
—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.54

Inherent in the Stoic concept of sympatheia is the notion of an interconnected cosmos in which everything in the universe is part of a larger whole. Marcus Aurelius was one of the first writers to articulate the notion of cosmopolitanism—saying that he was a citizen of the world, not just of Rome.

The idea that you’re a bee in the hive is a reminder of this perspective. Marcus even states the reverse of that idea later in his Meditations, just so he doesn’t forget: “That which doesn’t harm the community can’t harm the individual.”

Just because something is bad for you doesn’t mean it’s bad for everyone. Just because something is good for you definitely doesn’t mean it’s good for everyone. Think of the hedge fund managers who bet massively against the economy—they profited by rooting for essentially everyone and everything else to fail. Is that who you want to be? A good Stoic understands that proper impulses, and the right actions that arise from them, naturally carry the good of the whole, which is the wise person’s only good. Conversely, good and wise actions by the whole are what’s good for the individual.

* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Meditate often on the interconnectedness and mutual interdependence of all things in the universe. For in a sense, all things are mutually woven together and therefore have an affinity for each other—for one thing follows after another according to their tension of movement, their sympathetic stirrings, and the unity of all substance.
—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.38

Anne Lamott once observed that all writers “are little rivers running into one lake,” all contributing to the same big project. The same is true in many industries—though sadly, even inside the same company, people selfishly forget they’re working together. As human beings we all breathe the atoms that made up our ancestors and flow into the same earth when we die.

Over and over again, the Stoics reminded themselves of the interconnectedness of life. Perhaps that was because life in Greece and Rome was particularly harsh. Animals and people were slaughtered senselessly to amuse the masses in the Colosseum (events lamented in the Stoic writings). Countries were conquered and its citizens sold into slavery to expand the empire (the futility of which the Stoics also lamented). This kind of cruelty is possible only when we forget how we’re related to our fellow human beings and the environment.

Today, take a moment to remember that we are woven together and that each of us plays a role (good, bad, or ugly) in this world.

* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman