I remember in my teen years seeing a tennis racquet advertising itself as being 23% more comfortable.
Oh, how I laughed and laughed…
That’s such a specific number – too specific for such a subjective experience. Also, it’s more compared to what?
I assume it meant something like 23% more padding or whatever, but that’s not what it said.
So be sceptical of my claim that you can be 44% more stoic.
I mean, I did measure it. It’s not like I made up that percentage. But still…
Here’s how I calculated 44%:
I was reading an article on stoicism – the philosophy of chads and emperors. It included nine principles of stoicism – nine concepts that, if you mastered, would greatly enrich your life.
And the lives of those around you.
Of those nine, Your Story Isn’t About You emphatically trains you in four of these principles.
Like how to release a lot of your fear and anger.
And why you shouldn’t blame anyone else for your lot in life.
The importance of relationships.
Cooperation as a high ideal.
Do the maths – those four out of the nine principles make up 44% of the lot. You can’t improve on any of those while stuck in your own perspective, failing to see the world as others do. It’s easy to isolate yourself and play the victim as you forget that you can, in fact, remember to imagine yourself as someone else.
I didn’t write Your Story Isn’t About You as a stoic text but… well, it’s right there in the title. That’s a damn stoic take on life, isn’t it?
Maybe that’s why it’s so transformative. Reading, rereading and applying it trains you to spot your own Failures of Sentience – which are also some of your failures of stoicism.
The other 56% of stoicism is up to you.
Actually… wouldn’t 100% of stoicism be “up to you…”?
Oh well. Learn more about the 44% I can help you with here: