After I got sick in 2016 with debilitating panic and anxiety attacks, a friend of mine turned me on to a book by Ryan Holiday called The Obstacle Is The Way. The book is inspired and rooted in the practical philosophy of Stoicism, but it does not explicitly teach about the philosophy. There is plenty written about Stoicism out there, much of it by some of the wisest and greatest thinkers who have ever lived, and Holiday shares many of these writings in the book. The main message of the book, however, is this: The Stoic grows stronger and better with every obstacle they face. They rally to every challenge and thrive as a result. So can you.

After reading the book, I began to put into place the three disciplines that Holiday suggests are key to overcoming obstacles:

• The Discipline of Perception – Seeing things for what they are.
• The Discipline of Action – Doing what we can.
• The Discipline of Will – Enduring and bearing what we must.

I am now fascinated with Stoicism as both a theory and a way to approach life and business, and I work each day through my daily readings and actions to become more and more stoic as time goes by. MY quick and dirty version of this reads something like this:

“Stoicism teaches how to keep a calm and rational mind no matter what happens to you and it helps you understand and focus on what you can control and not worry about and accept what you can’t control.”

Here are eight key principles and beliefs of Stoicism and my take on how to apply them to life and business:

Live in Agreement with Nature. Living in agreement with nature is about behaving rationally like a human, instead of randomly (and out of passion) like a beast. In other words, we should always apply our natural ability of ‘reason’ in all of our actions. If we apply reason, we live in agreement with nature, because we act like humans are meant to act.

Chad’s Take: Do things that make sense to the environment that you’re in.

Live by Virtue. The Stoics believed in four cardinal virtues: wisdom, justice, courage, and self-discipline. To the Stoics it was clear that virtue must be its own reward. You do something because it is the right thing to do. You act in agreement with nature, with reason, and according to the cardinal virtues for its own sake. It does not matter what you get out of it, since acting according to virtue is rewarding in itself as you are progressing towards the Good Life.

Chad’s Take: Do the right thing, every time.

Focus on What You Can Control, Accept What You Can’t. The most appealing aspect of Stoicism is that we are responsible for our flourishing, because all that truly matters in life is up to us. So the key lesson to take away here is to focus our attention and efforts where we have the most power, and then let the universe take care of the rest.

Chad’s Take: We cannot control the outcome, so best to focus on the input. Process over Product.

Distinguish Between Good, Bad, and Indifferent Things. The Stoics differentiated between “good,” “bad,” and “indifferent” things. The good things include the cardinal virtues of wisdom, justice, courage, and self-discipline. The bad things include the opposites of these virtues, namely the four vices – folly, injustice, cowardice, and indulgence. Indifferent things include all the rest, but mainly life and death, fame and bad reputation, pleasure and pain, wealth and poverty, and health and sickness. Indifferent things can be summed up as health, wealth, and reputation.

Chad’s Take: it’s better to endure pain, poverty, or sickness in an honorable manner than to seek joy, wealth, or health in a shameful one.

Take Action. A true stoic is a “Warrior of the Mind” and puts ideas into action, whereas the false stoic is a “Librarian of the Mind” who stores ideas on the shelf. You should not be satisfied with learning of abstract ideas about how to live one’s life, but you must vigorously apply those ideas. Talk and knowledge are cheap and useless if not applied.

Chad’s Take: Imperfect action beats perfect inaction. Better to act and fail than not act at all.

Practice Misfortune. We must ask ourselves, “What could go wrong?” on a regular basis, and add a reserve clause to our thinking. You must simultaneously, 1) do your very best, 2) know that the results are out of your control, 3) accept whatever happens, and finally, 4) continue to act in accordance with virtue. Through this practice the stoics vaccinated themselves for misfortune. They prepared mentally for bad stuff to happen. This was a main reason for studying the Stoic philosophy, to prepare oneself for future events in order to stay calm in the face of adversity.

Chad’s Take: Always have a “Plan B,” and potentially plans “C,” “D,” and “E”

Amor Fati. Directly translated, Amor Fati means “The love of fate.” Basically, we can look at this in two steps: The first step is to accept that we don’t control everything that happens, and that whatever happens is okay. We simply must accept it. The second step is to not only accept, but even love, everything that happens. We simply get to enjoy it.

Chad’s Take: Learn to enjoy whatever journey you are on. Stop fighting against the tide.

Be Mindful. You are mindful when you self-monitor and observe your thoughts and actions, as they happen, so that you are fully aware of what you are doing at each instant. Mindfulness means that you CHOOSE if and how you will react to any situation that you encounter.

Chad’s Take: Choose when to react and when not to react. Do not let the situation dictate this for you.

I hope that helps you see the areas that you can apply Stoicism to both your life and business. For more on this, I highly recommend you check out www.dailystoic.com.