Stoicism means submitting to the fact that you have scant-to-no control over reality.
But at the same time, it also means taking solace in the knowledge that these outside
factors can’t hurt you – only your reaction can.
You can’t control what happens to
you but you can control what you
make of that event and your own
interpretation of it. Being mentally
prepared for things that could go
wrong is one good example of this in
action. Likewise though, you might
also simply decide not to let things
affect you – to take a step back from
them and to deal with the consequences rather than thrashing against things that
you cannot change. This is something we’ll be addressing more closely in upcoming
chapters: mindfulness and the ability to decide how you want to react to the things
going on around you.
But simply by remembering that tough things happen and it’s your job to deal with
them, you should find you can
I actually think that Rocky Balboa is one of the great modern stoics – and one of his
more recent famous quotes summarises the ideas of Seneca and Marcus Aurelius
perfectly:
The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place...
and I don ́t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep
you there permanently, if you let it. You, me or nobody, is gonna hit as hard as
life. But ain't about how hard you hit... It's about how hard you can get hit,
and keep moving forward... how much you can take, and keep moving
forward. That ́s how winning is done.