Massimo Pigliucci - Live like a Stoic: 52 Exercises for Cultivating a Good Life

A wonderful and potentially life-altering way to encounter the wisdom of the Stoics, Live Like a Stoic provides readers with structured lessons and exercises to explore Stoic philosophy alongside the lives they, themselves, are living. Professor William B. Irvine, author of A Guide to the Good Life

A wonderfully simple approach to the core concepts and techniques of Stoicism, Live Like a Stoic gives readers an easy way to train themselves in Stoic practices, broken down into weekly exercises spanning a whole year. Through this book, Pigliucci and Lopez have managed to make Stoicism accessible to anyone. Donald Robertson, cognitive behavioral psychotherapist and author of How to Think Like a Roman Emperor

Live Like a Stoic not only serves as a cure against an age that equates virtue with frenzies of outrage and denunciations of others failings. It is also an inspired self-help manual that, with insight and sympathy, nudges a person in the direction of the happiness and equanimity born of strength of character and wisdom. Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex, and recipient of the National Humanities Medal

In this book, Pigliucci and Lopez offer a great hands-on introduction to Stoic philosophy and practice while also providing valuable ideas for long-time students of Stoicism. Well-researched and carefully structured, with practical exercises that complement ancient texts, Live Like a Stoic will guide you through Stoic practice step-by-step throughout the year. Gregory Sadler, editor of Stoicism Today

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Copyright 2019 Massimo Pigliucci and Gregory Lopez
Cover Design by Two Associates

Massimo Pigliucci and Gregory Lopez have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

First published in Great Britain by Rider in 2019
Published in the United States by The Experiment, LLC under the title A Handbook for New Stoics

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9781473562455

Any references to writing in this book refer to the original printed version. Readers should write on a separate piece of paper in these instances.

We would like to thank our agent Tisse Takagi for encouragement and very helpful feedback when we first undertook this project. Many thanks to the entire team at The Experiment, especially Batya Rosenblum, our editor, for her patience, thoroughness, and many constructive comments. We also appreciate Taya Kogans reading and input on the manuscript. In addition, we thank our students at the annual Stoic Camp in New York and Stoic School in Rome, who have been our willing test subjects for ideas on how to teach and practice Stoicism. We hope they have benefited from the process as much as we have. We also wish to acknowledge our intellectual debt to Larry Becker, whom Massimo has had the fortune to call his friend. Larry passed away recently, but his contributions to modern Stoicism continue to be an inspiration for all students and practitioners of the philosophy.

Its easy to think that we have control over our lives when things are going the way we want. But what happens when we experience uncertainty? Consider our friend Alice who faces this question at her job. Her quarterly performance review is coming up, and though shes been doing well, a familiar anxiety floods her body as negative what-if scenarios cross her mind. Could learning more about whats really in her control help Alice? What effect would that have on her psyche?

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Of all existing things some are in our power, and others are not in our power. In our power are thought, impulse, will to get and will to avoid, and, in a word, everything which is our own doing. Things not in our power include the body, property, reputation, office, and, in a word, everything which is not our own doing.

Epictetus, Enchiridion, 1

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Epictetuss words may be more familiar to you in the form of the famous Serenity Prayer adopted by a number of twelve-step programs:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

The prayer was written by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr in 1934, but it reflects wisdom that is common to Jewish, Christian, and Buddhist traditions, and of course to Stoicism. Indeed, the underlying concept is central to Stoic practice and is often referred to as the dichotomy of control. Epictetus begins the Enchiridionhis manual on Stoicismwith it, and it is one of the most cited Stoic sayings, having countless applications in daily life. So, too, we begin our practice, and our study of the Discipline of Desire, with a study of control.

Let us first understand exactly what Epictetus means by his words. He is dividing the world into two big chunks: the set of things under our (complete) control and the set of things not (completely) under our control. If it occurred to you that there has to be a third set, that of things over which we have partial control, dont worrywell get to that concept next week.

The basic idea is that it is imperative to use our mental energy to focus on what is under our complete control, while regarding everything else as indifferent. For those things that are not under our complete control, it isnt that we stop caring about them, but rather that we come to a deep understanding that we cannot guarantee that these indifferent things will turn out the way we wish them to. The way we come to this understanding is through constant practice. This practice is the path toward ataraxia, the Greek word meaning serenity. We become serene by training ourselves to only want what is completely in our controlso in a very real sense, well be serene because we always get what we want! This is the promise of the Discipline of Desire.

Taking a closer look at Epictetuss categories, what does he say is in our control, and what is not? Under our control, according to him, are thought, impulse, will to get and will to avoid, and, in a word, everything which is our own doing. We need to be careful here, because these English words dont necessarily carry the same connotations as their original Greek counterparts. Moreover, modern Stoics (such as ourselves!) may want to take into account advances in the cognitive sciences that were not available to Epictetus, and so we may arrive at a somewhat modified list of what truly is under our control. To understand what Epictetus is getting at, lets break down the process further, starting with thoughts since it is listed first (for good reason, as well soon see).