Three Stoic Principles For The Creative Arts

I’m always eager to find helpful insights for navigating life. Stoicism has been experiencing a resurgence of late, thanks in part to books like A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy and to Ryan Holiday, whose books and Daily Stoic emails have made the ancient precepts relevant for contemporary thinkers.

Stoicism is a philosophy about finding happiness in the “now” moment. It’s about controlling your emotions and the thoughts you think to maximize your life experience. It’s about understanding that anything outside yourself can only affect you if you choose to let it.

Stoic qualities and tools can be essential to building a creative career. You can’t fall apart every time you have an audition, a pitch, or you hear criticism of your work. It’s not always beneficial to get over-excited when the good news rolls in, either.

Instead, the stoics would have you ride through any storm, for better or worse, with an even keel.

In a recent email subject heading, Holiday boldly proclaims, “This is how to respond to everything.” He says, “The Stoics believed that no matter what was thrown at us, we could always respond with hard work, honesty and helping others as best we can.”

This, he says, held true for the stoic emperor Marcus Aurelius (who you might recall…