Posted on January 24, 2022

"One of the first lessons from Stoicism, then, is to focus our attention and efforts where we have the most power and then let the universe run as it will. This will save us both a lot of energy and a lot of worry."

—Massimo Pigliucci, How to Be a Stoic

This lesson comes from the dichotomy of control. As the author puts it: some things are up to us, other things are not. This doesn’t only suggest that we need to pay attention to whether anything falls into the external or internal locus of control, but also actually act accordingly. Only then, we will target all our efforts into the things that depend on us, while saving energy and worry from letting go of the rest.

Over the years I’ve been practicing this and I can attest it’s quite effective. I believe a trick to it is not putting my ego in anything: I know how good and valuable I am, and every critic is a constructive one that helps me grow. In other words, I cannot control what other people think or say, but I can control how I react to them in a beneficial way for myself, because I want to, and because I can.