🏛️ For those serious about adopting Stoicism as a life philosophy, my private coaching community (Prokoptôn) is now open. Members enjoy access to live calls, guest speakers, courses, like-minded fellow Stoics, and other benefits as well. Click here to learn more.
You’re not preparing for some great future contest… the contest is already upon you.
You are no longer a child, but a grown adult. If, therefore, you will be negligent and slothful, and always add procrastination to procrastination, purpose to purpose, and fix day after day in which you will attend to yourself, you will insensibly continue without proficiency, and, living and dying, persevere in being one of the vulgar.
Epictetus could be brutal when he needed to be.
We love the idea of starting on Monday. Of getting serious next month. Of reading one more book before we really begin. There's a comfort in preparation that actual practice doesn't offer, because preparation lets us feel productive without risking failure.
But Epictetus wants us to stop prepping and start practicing: "Now is the combat," he says, "now the Olympiad comes on, it cannot be put off."
We don't get a warm-up life. This single life (the messy, inconvenient, already-in-progress one) is where everything happens. Every morning we wake up and choose how to think, act, and treat people is a round in the contest.
We're not getting ready for life; we’re never getting ready for life, because life is already here.
We don't have to win life (whatever that means), but if we hope to make any real progress we must at least stop pretending the starting pistol is still yet to fire!
Today's suggestion: That thing we keep saying we'll start doing "soon" (the journalling, the morning reflection, the difficult conversation)?
Today isn’t too late, but it is absolutely soon enough.
Stay hungry. Stay wise. Eat brekkie.
