![]() One of the most relatable moments in Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations is the argument Marcus Aurelius has with himself in the opening of book 5. ![]() “At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work – as a human being…I’m going to do what I was born for…Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?’” - Marcus Aurelius Rule 12: Remember: you are dying every day Rule 1: Own the morning Rule 10: Be strict with yourself and tolerant with others Rule 7: Constantly ask, “is this necessary?” Rule 4: Treat success and failure the same Rule 2: Only focus on what’s in your control It can be read straight through or if you prefer, feel free to click the links below to navigate to a specific section: In this article, we are going to detail 12 Stoic rules for life. Join over 400,000 people who start their day off with the philosophy that has guided some of history’s greatest men and women. Each email will help you cultivate strength, insight, and wisdom to live your best life. Every morning, we send a short (~500 word) email inspired by Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, and more. This post is just a small sample of the kind of lessons, ideas, and stories we write about in our daily email newsletter. So to create rules was to help ensure that we stay on the right path, that we don’t let the complexity and the nuance of each individual scenario allow us to compromise on the big, high standards we know we hold. The Stoics believed that life was complicated-more importantly, that it was exhausting. As a practice, it is a set of rules to live by. That’s why the greats have what Marcus Aurelius called “epithets for the self” or what General Mattis has called “flat-ass rules.” Know what you stand for and stick to it, he said. ![]() If left to our own devices, with enough opportunities, eventually we’ll mess up-we’ll drift, we’ll stray. It’d be wonderful if life never tempted you, if you could just go day-to-day, winging it and always do right. ![]()
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