Transcripts
1. Class Introduction: Hi, my name is Part
zani and welcome to this course on the stoic
Virtue of temperance. I'm an author, podcaster, and success mentor
to high achievers. Through my writing, podcasts, courses, and other
meaningful creations, I enjoy sharing life changing ideas and insights related
to personal development, philosophy, success mindset,
and the human condition. My recent books include The Daily Apple Thriving
in the New Normal, and books from the
Daily Learners Series. I also created a course called Stoicism one oh one,
not too long ago. For more information and
other useful resources, check out my website,
parshony.com. This course is all
about empowering you to cultivate the stoic
virtues of self control, discipline, and
rationality in a world driven by excess and
instant gratification. Through captivating narratives
and poignant lessons, you'll discover how
temperance is not a restraint but a liberation, a path to embracing challenges
with grace and resilience. I invite you to join me on
a transformative Odyssey, where the stoic virtues of
wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance converge to
illuminate the way forward. This course transcends
philosophical rhetoric, offering a tangible roadmap to achieving a life of purpose, tranquility, and
enduring significance. In the sus as a master class, you learn how to
walk on the path of self discipline upon which
all the other virtues depend. Master yourself, your thoughts, your emotions, and your actions, maximize your potential, and
improve your relationships, your finances, and your
physical well being. And live a balanced
and virtuous life under all circumstances and cultivate happiness and contentment no matter
how successful you are. These sessions are
for all levels, and you don't need
any prior knowledge, tools, or experience before
beginning the class. I've included some exercises
and prompts for reflection and writing in the accompanying
PDF worksheets, as well. To make sure that the lessons in the stessm master class stick, I encourage you to
ponder upon them and write down your unfiltered
thoughts in the worksheets. So with those things discussed, let's get rolling right
away. I'll see you inside.
2. Lesson 1: Less Is Better: Macus Auilius, the
Roman emperor and a relentless student of philosophy was an
incredibly busy man. After all, he was a king, and he had countless
obligations and responsibilities that he had to fulfill as a
leader of the empire. In one of his
personal reflections, he wrote, If you seek
tranquility, do less. He further clarified
that by doing less, he meant not doing nothing but doing what's
essential and added, which brings a double
satisfaction to do less better. This is the core principle behind the notion
of essentialism. Less is better. In his book, essentialism, the disciplined pursuit of less, Beth Mcewen explains
that most of us in this day and age are
busy but not productive. We overstuff our schedules, put too much on our
already full plates, and start giving priority to other people's agendas
and saying yes to them instead of
focusing on ours. Most of the tasks that
we think we must do, and most of the tasks we end up doing are actually
not essential, but we still do them out of
habit, guilt, or obligation. We do them out of greed, ambition, and faulty thinking. And then we question
ourselves when our productivity and
performance plummet. We wonder why we lose interest in doing those tasks and why attaining a good work
life integration remains a distant dream. But deep down, we know that
our heart isn't really in doing so much of what we do because there's
no point to it. Once we give ourselves
permission to stop being a super human
and try to do it all, only then we'll be able to focus on things that really matter and perform the daily
tasks that reflect our values and take
us towards our goals. Instead of repeating
our misaligned hamster wheel patterns, we can start walking on
the path of essentialism. Which is nothing
but a disciplined, systematic approach
for establishing where our highest point
of contribution exists, and then making the execution of those key things
almost effortless. As we let go of the
non essential stuff, we'll attain the freedom to do what's essential
and do it better. In doing so, we'll be able to get intimate with
tranquility and also experience that
double satisfaction that Marcus Aalius talked about.
3. Lesson 2: Leave People to Themselves: Michelle Rogers Wright said, learning how to
leave people alone and go on with your
life is a needed skill. Master it for the sake of your own dignity
and peace of mind. In his private journal, Marcus Aurelius once wrote, it's best to leave someone else's transgression
there with him. Through these words,
he was basically reminding himself to
focus on his own lane. Do not let others
follies and misdemeanors impact him and sway
him from his path. Our everyday lives,
many of us get tempted to offer sage
advice to others. Rather than minding
our own business and resolving our own issues, we interfere in
people's lives while rationalizing that we
are doing so because we have their best
interests in our hearts. But it's always best
to practice the mantra live and let live. If you encounter someone taking an immoral route or
participating in a self destructive habit
and find it difficult to stop yourself from
offering your $0.02, tell yourself, it's
their problem, not mine, so I'll not
let it affect me. Refrain from correcting others, coaching them or worse
criticizing them. Keep in mind that progressing in the journey of
philosophy and bettering yourself requires
unwavering determination and single pointed focus, embracing and
emboring the art of living isn't about
judging others. It isn't about projecting
the lessons you learn and enforcing
them onto the world. No. On the contrary, it's about internalizing
them and letting them influence your own
thinking and behavior. This is what Marcus Aurelius
meant when he wrote, being tolerant with others
and strict with yourself. Your goal must be to live
a good and virtuous life. Not only will it enhance
your circumstances, but it will also
enable you to make a meaningful impact on
the lives of people around you because
you then guide them through your example,
not through your words. As Mahatma Gandhi put it, be the change you want
to see in the world. Be open to the
idea that you will encounter individuals
who will be slackers, wrongdoers, lawbreakers, scam artists or anything
else. Let them be. That's their business.
That's their life. Plus, that's something not within the realm
of your control. You only have control
over what you do. Therefore your priority
must be to be disciplined with yourself and your
reactions. That's it. Leave other people
to themselves. You have enough
battles to fight. You have enough
shortcomings to tackle. You have enough vices
to worry about. So detach from others and their choices and be
strict with yourself.
4. Lesson 3: Focus On Yourself, Not the Noise : Let's start this session with a couple of quotes by Epictetus. Keep your attention focused
entirely on what is truly your own concern and
be clear that what belongs to others is their
business and none of yours. And here's a second
one. There is only one way to happiness, and that is to cease
worrying about things which are beyond
the power of our will. If you find yourself
glued to the media and news in order to stay
updated day in and day out, then it's an indicator
that you are just an average person
living a mediocre life. Yes, you might find the
statement harsh and blunt, but I'm just telling the truth. And as your success guide, I truly want you to
become cognizant of this pointless habit and
get rid of it altogether. It's not a coincidence
that if you ask the Uber successful and the
elite these same questions, they'll give you this
simple response. I don't know. That's
not my concern. Don't get me wrong. This
is not self centeredness. This is just a healthy
form of selfishness. You might be reading, listening to or watching the
news every day, telling yourself that
you need to do it because you must stay informed. But if you pay close
attention to it, you'll realize that the
bulk of the stories have no significant impact
on you or your life. It doesn't offer any
information that's inspiring or uplifting or propels you
to take constructive action. On the contrary, it only
upsets and angers you and takes you down
the rabbit hole of negativity and despair. Before it gets too late, stop this insanity.
Just stop it. Instead of using your
precious minutes to consume incessant news
throughout your day, schedule just 10 minutes once a day to go over the
latest happenings in your local community
and the city via a reliable source or a few dedicated RSS
feeds, if you must. That's more than enough news and media consumption for you. In today's world, your time and your attention are the most precious resources
that you have. And instead of squandering
them by focusing on events and stories that are
outside your influence, it's much wiser
to invest them in your own personal development,
happiness, and prosperity. Think like the stoic philosopher Epictetus and just focus on the things that are
in the realm of your control and
let go of the rest.
5. Lesson 4: Silence Is the Key to Remarkable Strength: We have all come across
occasions when we said something
stupid or hurtful to the other person and later regretted it and had to
deal with the consequences. In our attempts to look smart and cool and impress others, we say certain things, but in the end, talking more backfires on us and
we appear inauthentic. Zeno, the founder of stoicism, once said, better to trip with the feet
than with the tongue. Robert Green has also written, powerful people impress and
intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are to say
something foolish. In this day and
age, social media encourages us to comment and have an opinion
about everything, even if it's not relevant
to us or our lives. We live in a world that makes it so easy to talk and express ourselves through so many
outlets, a blog article, a Vlog on YouTube, a Facebook post, a tweet, a snap, or a nicely
filtered photo with a cool caption
on Instagram. The compulsion of telling others what we are thinking
and feeling has never been so rampant and it's mainly due to these
sites and apps that are exploiting the masses
by giving them the creative freedom
to express themselves. Moreover, the validation
that we get from our friends and peers via likes, hearts, comments, shares, and retreats further adds
fuel to the fire. We are living in a loud
culture right now, and in order to stand out
and be seen and heard, we start talking at the top of our lungs and become
loud as well. But there's very
little point to it. It just leads to trouble,
hurt, and misery. That's why as paradoxical
as it may sound, the truly loud thing to
say is to say nothing. The more we talk, the
more likely we get to fall into a trap,
lose opportunities, give up our personal power, avoid helpful
feedback, feel guilty, and cause ourselves
unnecessary suffering. As Teneca has rightly said, silence is a lesson learned from the many
sufferings of life. Silence is the way of those who are strong, certain,
and grounded. Those who are
inexperienced, uncertain, or fearful end up talking more to feel better and
reassure themselves. In his book, the Daily Stoic Ryan Holiday
highlights this point. The ability to listen to
deliberately keep out of a conversation and subsist
without its validity is rare. Silence is a way to build
strength and self sufficiency. From today onwards,
be extra careful with the words that you speak and see how much you can
hold your tongue. When you become bold
in your silence, you end up becoming bold
in your life as well.
6. Lesson 5: You Must Undergo the Hard Winter Training: Epictetus advised his
students to participate regularly in an exercise
called voluntary discomfort. In this exercise, he
suggested they deliberately put themselves through
uncomfortable situations. The goal was to not let comfort have an upper hand over us and to be prepared for anything and everything that
may come our way. Epictetus said, we must undergo a hard winter training and not rush into things for which
we haven't prepared. During ancient times, wars were not fought
during the winter, and the opposing armies
typically disbanded, a practice that went on past
the American Revolution. Why Epictetus gives
the analogy of hard winter training
to explain that we must always be
committed to being prepared and train ourselves
hard no matter what. We can exercise voluntary
discomfort in many ways. Here are a few ideas
sleeping on the floor, exercising in the morning, washing clothes by ourselves, fasting for a day, and taking cold showers. They will help you
become comfortable with being uncomfortable. They will get you desensitized to difficulties and challenges. You'll train yourself like a navy seal and harden
yourself in the process. It's much better to be prepared and ready instead
of slacking off. Otherwise, it may lead to
negative consequences. As the Spartan Warriors
creed, Maxim goes. He who sweats more in
training pleads less in war. There's no time off in this roller coaster journey of life. We never truly know when life may throw a curveball at us, and that's why it's best to
prepare ourselves in advance by undergoing rigorous training
and cultivating mental, physical and
emotional fortitude.
Parth Sawhney, Author and Success Mentor
