A “philosopher” literally translates from the Greek into a “lover of wisdom,” someone who loves to learn how to live, someone who wants to attain practical wisdom concerning how to actually live their life.

What is it then that we have control over? Only a few things—our voluntary judgments and actions. We can decide what events mean to us and how we want to react to them

Who cares what others have? You can decide for yourself what’s truly important and what isn’t. Focus on yourself. Recognize how life has been generous with you. You don’t need more and more stuff. You need less. And you’ll be freer.

Personally, I do the good, better, best exercise. I ask myself three simple questions: Good: What did I do well today? Better: How could I improve? What could I do better? Best: What do I need to do if I want to be the best version of myself?

“When you are offended at any man’s fault,” Epictetus tells us, “turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.” Often, when we judge others for their misbehavior, we’re actually not better at all. We just like to think we are.

It’s childish behavior to tell what good you’ve done. As a child, when I did something that benefitted our whole family, I made sure everybody knew what I’ve done.

The Stoics think the best path to freedom is by imagining what we fear as it’s going to happen and examining it in our mind—until we can view it with detachment.

Practice 25 Beat Fear with Preparation and Reason “We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.” – Seneca

this example shows that Stoic acceptance has nothing to do with passive resignation. Edison started rebuilding everything the very next day. He accepted his fate graciously and tried to make the best with it. And that’s what the Stoics advise us to do: Don’t fight with reality, but bring your will into harmony with it, and focus on where your power