Stoicism is a guiding framework in my life, but so is business. I can think of no better school of thought than business when it comes to manifesting ideas into reality—big, complex ideas. Schools of business and businesses in practice are fountains of knowledge when it comes to organization, efficiency, and scalability. They provide frameworks on how to approach enormous challenges. Philosophy is like this, too. It gives us direction. Imagine I wake up one day and say, ‘Today, I’m going to start living better.’ It’s a great intention, but it’s laughably unspecific. Now, imagine I share the same statement with a trusted mentor. They would probably ask, ‘How are you going to do this?’ I might reply with, ‘I’ll start exercising, eating better, and reading more instead of watching YouTube.’ The mentor would likely ask, again, ‘How are you going to do this?’
Living well is no small feat, especially if we’re trying to reverse a tendency of living unwell that we’ve built up over years. This is why it’s useful to unpack philosophies like Stoicism and discuss their distinct teachings. One such teaching is the Three Stoic Disciplines. Doing this regularly gives us that structure that we so often lack when trying to mount a major change in our lives. Let’s explore the Three Stoic Disciplines here, and I hope that we can all revert to them whenever we’re feeling a bit lost or when we waver from our good intentions.
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The Stoic Discipline of Assent
The three Stoic disciplines come in no particular order, but I lead here with the Stoic discipline of Assent because I believe it is both the most fundamental of them all and the one that causes the most confusion.
Assent is not a word we use every day. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as, “an act of agreeing to something especially after thoughtful consideration.” The Stoic discipline of Assent teaches us not to give our assent to first impressions of events. It’s the act of withdrawing our assent from our first impressions. In other words, we should not ‘agree’ with or be led along by our first impressions or initial reactions.
I don’t like the word Assent to describe this Stoic discipline because unlike the other two disciplines, assent is a negative—giving assent to first impressions is what we should not do. I’m not the only one. Other practitioners and scholars of Stoicism refer to the Stoic discipline of Assent as ‘Stoic mindfulness’, because it is arguably a more useful and intuitive term.
Stoic mindfulness, as a term, communicates the skill required to have the effect we’re looking for, which is not reacting on impulses. Mindfulness, no matter which tradition we derive it from, is a practice that over time builds the ability to remain calm, measured, and composed when faced with external or internal challenges.
Stoic mindfulness is also more useful as a term than Stoic Assent because I don’t know of any handbooks on how to get better at withdrawing assent from your initial impressions. I do, however, know that volumes of practical advice have been written on how to practice mindfulness. I also know that although mindfulness is a comprehensive and challenging life practice, it is simple—simple enough that I can explain how to practice mindfulness in just a few words: try to focus on one thing such as your breath and when you become distracted by thoughts simply return your focus and repeat this for 10-30 minutes a day.
We don’t see imagery of the ancient Stoics like Epictetus, Musonius Rufus, or Marcus Aurelius meditating in lotus position. Maybe they did not meditate this way. But they certainly had the ability to control their responses to tough situations. They exercised restraint. They had the ability to pause for a moment, recall their intentions to live virtuously, and respond (not react) to a situation with equanimity and compassion. In this sense, they were very much practitioners of Stoic mindfulness.
Related article: How To Stay In The Present Moment
The Stoic Discipline of Desire
While the Stoics may not have been explicitly famous for mindfulness, the Stoic discipline of Desire is where we find a few hallmarks of Stoicism. To the Stoics, the discipline of desire was all about knowing what and what not to desire.
The Dichotomy of Control was one mechanism the Stoics used to figure out what was worth wanting and what was not. The Dichotomy of Control is the simple exercise of, either through discussion, reflection, or journaling, listing the elements of a situation that are within your control and those that are not in your control. It’s simple, yet powerful. What lies within your control is worth pursuing. What is not within your control should be set aside.
A fundamental skill required to practice the Stoic discipline of desire is acceptance. Although the Dichotomy of Control is a simple exercise, it’s not always easy to let go of those things that are not within your control. Moreover, it’s not easy to be honest with ourselves and admit that certain things are outside of our control. We like to think we can do it all—cram it all in, work a little faster, work a little harder. When we lack the courage and temperance to drastically shave down our list of things we’re actively trying to affect in this world, we suffer. We become overstretched. The things that do deserve our attention suffer, too, because we are distracted by extraneous matters. The Stoic discipline of Desire, the Art of Acquiescence, is fundamentally a tradeoff—you let go of some things so that you can focus on others.
Related article: Master The Art Of Acquiescence For Resilience & Perspective
The Stoic Discipline of Action
In modern times, the Stoic discipline of Action may evoke imagery of the likes of David Goggins, a former Navy SEAL known for extreme mental toughness and discipline. We may think of him in action, running shirtless while hollering motivational slogans at the camera. Even depictions of the ancient Stoics like Marcus Aurelius that we see on social media show them with unrealistically chiseled bodies, evoking an image of physical strength by way of intense physical activity.
However, more accurate figures to represent the Stoic discipline of Action would be the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Malala Yousafzai, or lesser-known folks like Holden Karnofsky, co-founder of the charity evaluator GiveWell.
The Stoic discipline of Action is Stoic philanthropy. It is closely related to the Stoic virtue of Justice, which reminds practitioners of Stoicism that the study and embodiment of ethics and morals is not a closet practice. We work hard to live better so that our positive actions ripple outward, making the world a better place in small or large ways. We strengthen ourselves so that when someone else is in need, we’re capable of helping.
There are many things within our sphere of influence that we can do to make the world a better place. For anyone looking for ways to make an impact, I strongly recommend the book Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Help Others, Do Work that Matters, and Make Smarter Choices about Giving Back by William MacAskill (paid link).
Final thoughts
I’ve been writing The Mindful Stoic for nearly five years now. I’ve read dozens of books on Stoicism. I really do try to implement what I’ve been studying in my daily life. Despite some experience under my belt, I still need to return to the fundamentals because I tend to slip back onto an easier path—I waver from my intention to live a principled life. I love teachings like the Three Stoic Disciplines because they are easy to digest. But they’re also so useful. Mindfulness and the ability to respond rather than react to situations, the ability to simplify our desires and focus our energy on what truly matters, and finally, a north star of philanthropy and altruism…. Is there a simpler way to live a meaningful life?
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