Practice like a Stoic: Introduction

Your best bet about happiness is the Stoic one

Back in 2019 my friend Greg Lopez and I published a book that is still, insofar as I know, unique: A Handbook for New Stoics — How to Thrive in a World out of Your Control (The Experiment). 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.)

In the series of posts I am starting today I will propose one such exercise every Monday, and interested readers will discuss with me and among themselves their progress or difficulties. The goal is to try out all the exercises and then come up with a shorter list of practices that one can keep doing, potentially for the rest of their lives, in the attempt to become a better human beings in the sense outlined by Stoic philosophy.

Here is how it’s going to work. Beginning next Monday I will post the passage, from one of the ancient Stoics, that constitutes the original source for the exercise, followed by a brief discussion of its meaning. Interested readers will then look at the second part of the pertinent chapter in the book and actually carry out the exercise Monday through Saturday. On Sunday they will get a break and use the time to write down their…