A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy is a book about the Stoic lifestyle. Stoicism has been made popular in recent years by Ryan Holiday and his books, Ego is the Enemy, The Obstacle is the Way, and, more recently, Courage is Calling.
Irvine wrote this book (2009) well before Holiday (2016), not that it matters, just for context. I got the suggestion from Derek Sivers who recommended it as a 10/10 must read. I’d agree.
This is what I have underlined or noted so far while reading A Guide to the Good Life: William B. Irvine. My comments, if I have any, will be sub bullets.
Introduction
In order to live a grand life you need a grand goal. Without a grand goal, you lack a coherent philosophy of life.
We are distracted by the various baubles life has to offer
(need to make a list of my various baubles)
The second component is to have a strategy to attain your grand goal. Specify what you must do to maximise your chances.
(James Clear (Atomic Habits) suggests make each activity as easy and as atomic as possible)
Prioritise your sub-goals so you can manage conflict when it appears. Even place them in hierarchy.
(There is a method to do this, I will look for it and add it here)
What is the goal you are unwilling to sacrifice?
(reading further, to a Stoic, this goal may be tranquility)
The Cynic school advocated an ascetic lifestyle
(ascetic: abstain from all indulgence. Boring bastards! 😂 )
“Vain is the word of a philosopher which does not heal any suffering from man. For just as there is no profit in medicine if it does not expel the diseases of the body, so there is no profit in philosophy either, if it does not expel the suffering of the mind.” - Epicurus
Put this (Stoic) philosophy to work.
The Stoics realised that a life plagued with negative emotions - including anger, anxiety, fear, grief and envy - will not be a good life.
(In a conversation yesterday, I know someone who seems to wallow in misery or keeps bringing up past miseries. How much do I/we do this? To what end?)
Stoics stressed the importance of mastering desire, to the extent that it is possible to do so.
The goal of the Stoic was not to banish emotions but to banish negative emotions.
According to Musonius Rufus, if we live according to Stoic principles, a cheerful disposition and secure joy will automatically follow
(here’s hoping!).
We are unlikely to have a good and meaningful life unless we can overcome our insatiability
(here’s hoping! 😉)
One way to tame our insatiability is to persuade ourselves to want the things we already have.
We will take to heart the Stoic claim that many of the things we desire - most notably, fame and fortune - are not worth pursuing.
The Stoics (it seems) were seeking tranquility - a state marked by the absence of negative emotions such as anger, grief, anxiety, and fear, and the presence of positive emotions - in particular, joy!
Take care to distinguish between the things we can control and things we can’t.
Note: links to resources may be affiliate links where I may get a small commission. No extra cost to you though. So … go nuts and thank you. But if you don’t want to #dontstress!