I am intrigued to know that almost 95% of the literate population doesn’t know what stoicism is. In today’s newsletter, I’ll guide you to start applying stoicism from complete scratch so you don’t get overwhelmed.

firstly, the most basic idea of stoicism is to know that “You can’t control what has happened but you can control how you react to it”.

For instance, you wanted to drink coffee but you find out there’s no coffee in your house and you’ll have to go buy it. (You wanted to drink it badly)T

To be honest, how would you react to it? By dwelling and complaining about it right? Being a stoic, especially in today’s world is a complete solution to the chaos.

In today’s letter, I’ll guide you through some basic practices you must do to know what being a stoic feels like. They are simple but executing them incessantly is brutal.

Before getting on to the main meal, I’ll give you an appetizer about why you need to become a stoic.

Being a stoic differentiates you from the average Joe walking around on this earth mindlessly. They don’t have the job they want, they don’t have the money they want, just locked up in a bubble of comfort. They do have to pin to burst it but most of them aren’t willing to and that will cost them their whole lives.

Stoicism will give you the willpower to burst that bubble and break free.

When you’re a stoic, you will get to learn from every person you walk by because he’ll be mocking someone, complaining about something, and saying what’s not essential. You’ll learn that you don’t have to make those mistakes.

Stoic practices to follow:

• Don’t complain, not even to yourself. People start complaining when anything happens against their will. For instance, don’t complain that you don’t have the time to do the ‘x’ thing or meet the ‘x’ person, don’t complain that you wanted to go for a run but your feelings didn’t want you to.

  NOTE: Complaining doesn’t mean that you don’t tell the other person that you didn’t like what they did or state your problem to someone because you want help from them.

• Be Resilient(the ability to overcome a difficult situation and not get trapped in it for a longer time). Get out of adversity and surmount it quickly when you’re faced with one.

• Level-Headedness: The ability to be calm even when your emotions are flooding over. It is literally a superpower. You become the type of person who just listens to other people yapping and trying to make their points through tantrums and doesn’t react to it

• Is this essential?: You must ask yourself this question whenever you’re about to do something or say something because most of what we do and say is not. If you're about to gossip or mock someone, ask yourself, "IS THIS ESSENTIAL?”.

• Say NO, to the things that aren’t essential and yes to the things that are. For instance, saying no to mindlessly hanging out with friends is equal to some more hours of productive work which will benefit your future self.

• Don’t suffer imagined troubles. By suffering before it is necessary, you suffer more than necessary.

How I implemented stoicism:

When I first discovered it, I wasn’t able to even comprehend it. I used to slack off every time, another gossip after another knowing that it was deteriorating me. Complaining even though I knew that if I kept doing the things that I always did, how would I improve?

Then I started reminding myself about being conscious of what I speak by journaling all the things that I learned.

The benefit you will get by listening to my advice is really valuable as I am still surmounting that old version of me and I know too what it feels like to relapse.

The best actionable step I can provide you is: There will be a phase in this journey when your brain just starts yapping about why you shouldn’t pursue it, it’s a terrible way of living, and all nonsense like this.

But, if you’re able to surmount that, there’s a whole new chapter of life waiting for you on the other side.