Enhance your experiences, increase your learning curve
Have you ever tried a roundhouse kick after you watched a YouTube Video? Or tried to make this incredible dance move you've recently seen? You may realize that all the video lessons in the world, all the books, and podcasts don't make up for the real experience. It's nearly impossible to learn something without experiencing it first-hand.
This is true for Stoicism as well! Reading and listening are essential starting points to tackle the theory, but to truly understand and grasp Stoicism and build eudaimonic happiness, we must experience all the teachings on our own.
TL;DR
- Experiences and practice are essential in Stoicism, as learning something without experiencing it first-hand is nearly impossible.
- Reading and listening are great starting points, but to truly understand Stoicism and build eudaimonic happiness, active and daily practice of the principles is needed, which is the first key to making progress.
- The second key is reflecting on experiences to extract valuable insights to unleash Stoicism's potential.
- Lastly, sharing your knowledge with others can help them on their journey and give you a different perspective.
Make experience through practice
"No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such." Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Reading all this stuff about Stoicism is great (even my articles). It opens your mind to new ideas (hopefully) and inspires you, but still, you're getting nowhere. You end up with the same behavior ever since, getting angry, dissatisfied, sad, and jealous as you ever did. It feels like Stoicism isn't working for you, so you're going to search for something different. But there, you have the same experience, and finally, you start to believe it is all hopeless; you're not made for such things and go on with your life, accepting a sense of unhappiness.
But stop! This is just the beginning. What you've failed so far is practicing Stoicism! I don't mean journaling for a month or reading quotes from the ancient Stoics. I mean the active, daily practice of the principles of Stoicism, such as the dichotomy of control or the four Stoic virtues.
A Stoic should be like an athlete. In the same way, athletes aren't born with perfect muscles but develop them through regular exercise; we, too, must build up our internal muscles that help us improve.
The key to success lies in practice! Only when you test yourself you can unlock essential experiences to figure out what works for YOU. In Stoicism, there's no shortcut, blueprint, or one-size-fits-all way of doing things. You are an individual, and like athletes must find training methods fitting to their body constitution, you must find methods working for your mind. Stoicism is mind training, no more, no less. It's nothing magical but requires work as well as the will to change and improve your mindset to thrive as a person.
Think of it as you would think about physical exercise: You start slowly and gradually build up your body over time. It's the same with Stoicism - start small, experiment a lot, and find out what works.
Embrace your journey: You're not alone. The Stoic Buddy app offers a lot of exercises and learning paths to get you started.
Reflection as part of the experience
Making experiences is one big part of making progress. But every seeker of wisdom and eudaimonia would miss a huge opportunity to learn and deepen their knowledge when not reflecting on their experiences. Reflection is a powerful learning tool you should have in your toolbox.
Reflecting on experiences is crucial because it'll help you extract the most value from them. Think about it: you might have had a challenging experience at work, school, or at a sports competition, but if you don't take the time to reflect on what happened and why it happened, you might miss out on valuable insights that could help you grow and develop.
Reflections allow you to distill the fundamental principles or takeaways and keep them at hand to apply them to future situations. As a consequence, you'll learn from your experiences more deeply, and it helps you avoid making the same mistakes over and over again.
It allows you to become more self-aware as you gain insights into your own strengths and weaknesses. What have you done well? What bad? And where can you improve? Answer these questions to every experience, and you can figure out where you need to focus next and develop strategies for doing so.
Furthermore, reflecting on your experiences will help you develop critical thinking skills. You become more open to considering multiple perspectives and analyzing situations from different angles.
If reflections haven't been part of your Stoic practice, now is the time to start. Don't overthink it; just start. Even a few minutes to think about what you learned from a particular experience can be incredibly valuable.
Share experiences
Last but not least, share your experiences. Once you have enough practice and knowledge, you can start sharing and discussing your experiences. Have you ever tried to explain Stoicism and its concepts in easy words? Not that easy, right?
You can join a Stoic community like Stoic Buddy. Or you can explain your ideas and experiences by writing to imaginary friends, journaling, or starting your own blog to write in public. Whatever you do, it'll force you to think more about what you've learned and how you can make it easily digestible for others with no knowledge of what Stoicism is about.
Sharing your knowledge and experience will not only help others on their Stoic journey but also give you a new perspective. The feedback you get from fellow Stoics might teach you something entirely different or open your eyes to a different take on things.
That's it. You know now how you get the most out of your experiences and can unleash their true power. At Stoic Buddy, you'll find all you need to flourish; Stoic exercises, the possibility to note down your reflections and a community to share and discuss what you've experienced. Join us today and start your Stoic journey.
Happy practicing, and all the best!
