Member-only story
Practice like a Stoic: 14, Evaluate your goals
Always keep an eye on your integrity
[This series of posts is based on A Handbook for New Stoics — How to Thrive in a World out of Your Control, co-authored by yours truly and Greg Lopez. It is a collection of 52 exercises, which we propose reader try out one per week during a whole year, to actually live like a Stoic. In Europe/UK the book is published by Rider under the title Live Like A Stoic. Below is this week’s prompt and a brief explanation of the pertinent philosophical background. Check the book for details on how to practice the exercise, download the exercise forms from The Experiment’s website, and comment below on how things are going. Greg and/or I will try our best to help out! This week’s exercise is found at pp. 94–97 of the paperback edition.]
“Take care that we do not labor for what is vain, or labor in vain; that is to say, neither to desire what we are not able to obtain, nor yet, having obtained our desire too late, and after much toil, to discover the folly of our wishes. In other words, that our labor may not be without result, and that the result may not be unworthy of our labor, for as a rule sadness arises from one of these two things, either from want of success or from being ashamed of having succeeded.” (Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 12)
