How can Stoicism improve your life? (with Bill Irvine)

1. Practice Negative Visualization

Take time to imagine specific things that could be worse in your life, such as losing your sight or friends, to reactivate appreciation for what you currently have.

2. Cultivate Easy Satisfaction

Learn to appreciate and savor the things you already possess, rather than constantly seeking more, to achieve satisfaction with less effort and avoid a life of dissatisfaction.

3. Manage and Harness Emotions

Keep your emotions in check and prevent them from hijacking your rational mind by putting your head in the ‘driver’s seat’ and your heart and gut in the ‘back seat,’ allowing for appropriate emotional responses without being controlled by them.

4. Focus on What You Control

Direct your attention and energy towards things you have absolute or some control over, such as your values and efforts, rather than wasting time on things you cannot influence.

5. Conduct Daily Self-Assessment

Before falling asleep, reflect on your day to review your actions, motivations, and consider how you could have acted differently, using this as a therapeutic practice for self-improvement.

6. Savor Current Moments

Recognize that your present experiences will someday be ’the good old days,’ which can help you appreciate and savor what you are doing now, as these abilities and opportunities may not last forever.

7. Reflect on “Last Times”

Contemplate that there will be a final time for every action and experience in your life, which can make your current moments feel more alive and meaningful.

8. Frame Setbacks as Challenges

When faced with a setback, reframe it as a test from ‘Stoic gods’ to overcome, transforming a negative experience into an opportunity for self-growth and resilience.

9. Address Unproductive Anxiety

Recognize that being anxious about others without taking action is a waste of emotional energy and time, as it doesn’t help them and only makes you miserable.

10. Experiment with Stoic Techniques

Give Stoic techniques a ’test drive’ as they are easy, inexpensive, and can be practiced privately, allowing you to quickly determine if they significantly improve your quality of life.

11. Practice Continuous Self-Monitoring

Act as both an actor and a spectator in your own life, constantly watching your thoughts and actions, probing their underlying reasons, and assessing your progress or backsliding to guide necessary changes.

12. Engage in Slow Thinking

Consciously reconsider initial ‘fast thinking’ impressions and emotional responses, allowing for deliberate analysis to avoid drawing wrong conclusions and determine if emotions are truly helpful in a given situation.

13. Actively Seek Opposing Views

Go out of your way to understand the best arguments from the ‘other side’ of a debate, stress-testing your own beliefs and fostering thoughtful conversations to gain a more complete understanding of the truth.

14. Reduce Hypersensitivity Through Exposure

Undertake personal training to expose yourself to uncomfortable situations, aiming to build resilience and avoid excessive emotional reactions that can lead to unhappiness.

15. Embrace Nuanced Perspectives

Recognize that truth is often complex and nuanced, especially in a complex world, and strive to move beyond absolute positions in popular conversations to gain a deeper understanding.

16. Justify Beliefs with Evidence

Form beliefs based on evidence-based, structured thinking and be able to articulate the evidence and ethical principles supporting your conclusions, rather than relying solely on gut feelings.

17. Use Thought Experiments for Ethics

Employ thought experiments, such as imagining creating a world where your position is determined by luck, to develop non-religious ethical principles and understand what constitutes a just and desirable society.

18. Seek Truth for Reality Grounding

Pursue truth to stay grounded in reality, as this connection significantly increases your chances of having a good life, whereas being out of touch with reality can be hazardous.

19. Prioritize Important Truths

Recognize that not all truths are equally valuable; focus on acquiring truths that are personally meaningful and help you stay in touch with reality, rather than accumulating trivial facts.

20. Self-Observe Thinking Modes

Monitor yourself throughout the day to identify whether you are operating in ’thinker mode’ (evidence-based) or ‘feeler mode’ (gut-based), especially in areas like politics, to become more aware of your cognitive processes.

21. Research Political Propositions Thoroughly

When voting on propositions, ignore lawn signs and instead read the proposition itself, then research thoughtful arguments from both sides to form a well-reasoned conclusion you can justify.

22. Study and Acknowledge Cognitive Biases

Actively learn about common cognitive biases, such as confirmation bias, and humbly acknowledge your own susceptibility to them, taking extra care to avoid falling victim to these built-in thinking mistakes.

23. Use Paired Searches to Counter Bias

When researching a topic online, perform paired searches (e.g., ‘arguments for X’ and ‘arguments against X’) and read both sets of results to gain a more balanced and complicated understanding, counteracting confirmation bias.

24. Prevent Personal Challenges from Harming Others

Ensure that your personal difficulties or mental health challenges do not lead you to treat friends or those around you badly, as this is a crucial aspect of maintaining healthy relationships.