Thread by @WhatIsStoicism

Want a happy life?

CHANGE YOUR WAY OF THINKING:

A 20-tweet Stoic handbook 👇

[Graphics: @itspooran]

Gratitude

❌ I have nothing to be grateful for

✅ I am grateful I woke up today

- Gratitude for just being alive

- Gratitude for breathing in and out

- Some days that's enough, maybe it's enough every day

Comparison

❌ My friend is achieving more than me

✅ Life is not a competition

- You're on your path, they're on theirs

- Don't get pulled away from your mission for the sake of someone else's

Time

❌ I'm bored, I wish the clock would move faster

✅ I value every moment I have

- Seize and savour the passing moments

- Some go slow and some go fast

- But once they pass, they're gone

Death

❌ I have time, I'll live for years

✅ I could die tomorrow

- Focus on the important things

- Be present with friends & family

- Don't waste time on frivolous bullsh*t

Comfort

❌ If I stay in my comfort zone, difficulty won't find me

✅ If I expand my comfort zone, I will find difficulty and beat it

- Turning discomfort into comfort is a superpower

- Short term, facing discomfort gives purpose

- Long term, facing discomfort conquers fears

Doing Good

❌ If I do a favour, I expect one back

✅ I do good deeds for their own sake

- Do favours

- Do help

- Do give

- Don't keep score

Entertainment

❌ TV, news, arguing on social media

✅ Books, podcasts, learning on social media

- Most news is here today, gone tomorrow

- It is created to provoke a reaction (& therefore upset your tranquility)

- Be intentional with your consumption

Attachment

❌ I fear losing everything I have

✅ I appreciate what I have but accept it is on loan from the universe

- Attachment creates tension

- Freedom comes with the dropping of attachment

- "Without this thing, I can't be happy" is a false belief

Criticism

❌ I'm useless if I get criticized

✅ Criticism is just another opinion, their words don't touch me

- Examine criticism

- If it’s constructive, use it to improve

- If not, laugh at it

Praise

❌ I'm useless if I don't receive praise

✅ I do my best work regardless of how it is received

- Praise is just an added judgement

- It has no bearing on your true worth

- The important thing is self-worth

Adversity

❌ I can't cope with difficulty

✅ I seek the value in whatever happens

- We can't choose when adversity strikes

- But we can choose how we react to it

- We are often capable of more than we think

Opinion

❌ People always need to hear my take

✅ Not everything requires my opinion

- No need to rush to judgement

- No need to always offer the judgement when it has been formed

Judgement

❌ My friend let me down, they upset me

✅ If I am upset, the upset is in me - therefore I have the power to remove it

- We are not disturbed by events, people, things

- We are only disturbed by the views we take of them

Emotion

❌ Negative emotions are a weakness

✅ Negative emotions can be used as a signal to change something

- Feeling instinctive emotions is inevitable

- Allowing them to result in negative actions is optional

- Stop, examine, find the root cause of the emotion

Failure

❌ Ugh, I failed - just my luck

✅ No, not just my luck – just EVERYONE’S luck. Just Fate.

- Cursing our luck changes nothing

- If we learn, failure can lead to self improvement & increased resilience

- We're "lucky" that we have the strength within us to keep going

Fear

❌ I'm scared to try, the outcome will be bad

✅ I need to understand what I'm afraid of and prepare as best I can

- Curiosity – What am I afraid of?

- Understanding – Is the fear justified? How could I recover from the worst outcome?

- Action – Take the first step

Regret

❌ This thing happened, and it is terrible!

✅ This thing happened, what can I do about it

- Constantly test your mental impressions

- Removing emotional language can take the sting out of persistent worries

Discipline

❌ Discipline ruins my freedom

✅ Discipline now means freedom later

- Discipline in diet makes you healthier

- Discipline in exercise makes you stronger

- Discipline in work makes you reliable

- Discipline opens up space for so much in life

Control

❌ I wish I could control more

✅ I'm lucky I only control my own actions, otherwise my responsibilities would be endless

- You control your opinion, intention, desire/aversion

- In other words, whatever is your own doing

- Focus on this, accept the rest

Practice

❌ I can't change my thinking, it's not that easy

✅ It will require effort to change my thinking, but it's worth it

- We're all "programmed" in certain ways

- It takes effort to reprogram

- How long are you going to wait before you demand a happy life for yourself?

If you found this "handbook" useful

please consider retweeting the first tweet in the thread.

Huge thanks to @itspooran for creating the excellent graphics - for more philosophy/minimal graphics give him a follow!