The View We Take š¤
Hey everyone,
Just now before I sat down to write this newsletter, I was worrying about a few things. Nothing crazy, just the usual: money, what would happen if I lost my job, etc. etc.
The thing is, most of the things I worry about havenāt happened yet. And even if they did, it wouldnāt necessarily be the end of the world. In fact, seemingly bad things could present opportunities for learning and growthāthe way I interpret things is in my control. This idea isnāt new, but is a key teaching from an ancient philosophy: Stoicism.
Stoicism has become popular in recent years, especially among the tech/Silicon Valley/personal productivity people that I tend to follow (and is also the basis for modern cognitive behavioral therapy). In my view, it provides tools for dealing with setbacks and breaking free from our emotions. To quote Tim Ferriss, itās āan operating system for thriving in high stress environments.ā
I try to come back often to the idea that most of the time, itās my own interpretation or emotion that drives what I think about things. As the stoic philosopher Epictetus said,
Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.
Thereās a lot more to Stoicism than just the few things Iāve mentioned. If you find these ideas interesting or helpful, Iād suggest checking out further reading like Meditations by Marcus Aurelius or Tim Ferrissā compilation The Tao of Seneca.
Iām making it a goal for the week to try and internalize some of these things a bit more. How about you?
Peteās Picks ā
Newsletter: I wrote last week about Nat Eliasonās blog, and I donāt want to wear you out on him. That said, Nat announced this week that heās joining the Everything newsletter bundle with his own publication, Almanack. The latest post (on automation) was fantastic. If youāre into all of this self-improvement/productivity stuff, Iād check it out.
Website Builder: Iāve been working on a little project that I might talk about in a future newsletter. That said, Iāve been using a great little website builder for the landing page, which is called Unicorn Platform. If you need a quick landing page for a project youāre working on, Iād highly recommend this one.
Cheers,
Peter