The Stoic Guide To Making Plans

Hello,

John Brooks here from the Stoic Handbook.

I'd like to begin by just thanking you for sticking around reading the emails and the posts.

I know that we're in the early stages of this handbook creation,

And I'm already getting a lot of appreciation and gratitude from the readers.

So if you're listening to this,

Thank you,

I appreciate it.

My goal with the Stoic Handbook is not to give you a really in-depth,

Detailed,

Scholarly approach to Stoicism.

My goal is to provide you with super clear,

Simple,

Practical visual aids to get the most out of Stoic philosophy,

So that you can just live a happier,

Wiser,

More fulfilled,

More meaningful,

Less anxiety-ridden existence.

I personally really like the writings of Epictetus,

And that's why I'm starting with him.

I'm simply retranslating his work in my own way,

Trying to stay as accurate to what I think he's saying as possible,

And provide visual systems to help you implement the teachings.

I wrote a recent post called How Stoics Plan Their Day,

Based on chapter 4 of the Enchiridion.

In this post,

Which I'll link to in the article that accompanies this audio,

Epictetus gives us a three-step approach.

He tells us first to rehearse our plan,

So figure out what we want to do.

After that,

We think about the things that might happen realistically,

So all of the annoying things that might happen,

All of the things that might frustrate us or trigger us,

All the things that might not go our way,

As well as the positive things that might happen too.

So we have a mental rehearsal of the plan.

Then we give ourselves the stoic intention of following the plan with wisdom,

And not crumbling and going to pieces every time something unexpected happens.

Then we are told that we should have two goals.

We should follow the plan,

But also stick to the intention of being wise following the plan.

It's a very simple procedure,

But now I'd like to guide you through a very simple exercise that you can do before you have some event that you're about to do.

This can be done before you do something that you're nervous about,

Or that you're dreading,

Or that is just important to you,

But it can also be done for simple days out to the park,

Or going to the supermarket,

Or going to the gym.

It can be done for anything.

I don't need to listen to this visualization over and over and over again like some of the other ones,

But I'd like to guide you through it this time,

And then I'd like you to try and remember it,

And guide yourself through it next time.

So tomorrow,

For example,

You can guide yourself through this exercise.

So let's begin by closing the eyes,

Relaxing,

And just getting ourselves ready to just do a bit of thinking,

A bit of reflection on the events that will soon come.

So the first question I'd like to ask you is what do you want to do?

What's your plan?

Are you going somewhere?

Are you going to meet someone?

Are you going to perform some action?

What is your plan?

Get a concrete understanding of that plan.

You can say the sentence of what you're doing in your mind.

You can picture where you're going and who's involved.

Next,

I'd like you to run through your plan.

Imagine that you are doing this thing.

You are engaged in this event.

In the article I cite,

Going to work,

Or going to the gym,

Or going on a date,

Whatever it is,

Picture yourself now following through with the plan.

But I'd like you to pay particular attention to the things that may disturb your peace of mind.

You have an understanding of the world.

You have an understanding that things don't always go your way.

What realistically could happen that might disturb your peace of mind?

Even if you've already rehearsed the plan,

I'd like you to spend just another minute.

You can start at the beginning.

Run through the plan.

Try and visualize it as detailed and accurate and realistic as you can.

But pay particular attention to the things that could happen that might disturb your peace of mind.

Now,

Let's add a stoic intention here.

So the thing is,

You do want to go through with your plan,

Right?

But I'm guessing one of the reasons you want to go through with your plan is because you think that it will be good for you.

Or you think not doing it will be bad for you in some way.

You would want to go through with your plan.

You would want to go through with your plan.

You would want to go through with your plan.

Or you think not doing it will be bad for you in some way.

You want it.

You want to go through with this plan.

But you have many wants as a human being.

And another want is that you would like to have peace of mind.

Nobody wants to have a chaotic,

Suffering mind.

So realize that you have two wants in this situation.

You want to follow through with the plan.

You also want to maintain peace of mind.

So here's the problem.

You will lose your peace of mind if you go to pieces every time something unexpected or quote unquote unfavorable happens.

Do you accept this?

Are you willing to get what you want in terms of going through with your plan at the cost of disturbing your peace of mind?

Or would you like both?

If you would like to have peace of mind and follow through with your plan as well,

All you have to do is make that intention.

So make that intention now to maintain peace of mind,

To maintain wisdom and tranquility even when things don't go your way.

Your mind's eye now,

You can practice responding calmly to the things that may disturb your peace of mind ordinarily.

That's the exercise.

It's very simple,

But it's very powerful.

If you do this before you go and follow through with an event,

You do it regularly.

Eventually you can do it quicker and quicker until it becomes almost like an automatic thinking habit before you're about to do something.

You can just quickly review it and then go about your business.

When things surprise us,

They have the power to knock us off much more than if they don't surprise us.

So if you're traveling somewhere and I tell you beforehand,

There's a big traffic jam that lasts 15 minutes and it's unavoidable and it's on your way there.

You know that before you set off.

So you simply accept it beforehand.

You think about what you're going to do while you're waiting.

Maybe you think about an album you might play or a podcast you might listen to and you just go about your journey.

You don't complain about it.

But if nobody tells you that and you're driving there and suddenly you see that traffic jam and you don't know how long it's going to last and you don't know how late you're going to be.

Suddenly these thoughts take us away and we get angry.

We get frustrated.

We start stamping our feet and our peace of mind gets disturbed.

So the whole reason we went out in the first place is often to make ourselves feel better because we want to do something.

We want to make our life go forward.

And then in the process of following out the plan,

The exact opposite happens because stuff always does happen that is unfavorable.

So super simple,

Almost common sense.

Rehearse the things that might not go your way and make the intention to maintain peace of mind.

It's really that simple.

Thank you for listening to this lesson from the Stoic Handbook.

New text posts coming every Monday delivered to your inbox and new meditations or contemplations or lessons every Thursday.

And then at the end of the month,

You get a roundup of everything that I've published.

It's really great that you're here from the beginning because even though people who join later will have a bigger library of content to look over,

That will take time for them to look over it while new content has been published.

So now you have this benefit of sticking with it and seeing the posts as they come.

So I'll speak to you soon.

Fate permitting.