Stoic Vs Epicureans - Developing Thick Skin

Stoic Vs Epicureans - Developing Thick Skin

Happy Thursday Everyone!

Hope you guys are crushing this week!

Did you check out Monday’s book summary?

Go check it out if you haven’t already!

Developing Thick Skin

Toughen toughen toughen up…

Wealth, happiness, and success come from that attitude.

Every person that has had some type of impact in this world had some form of courage and that has to be you and I.

We’re all too soft these days but history has shown, to get what you want out of life you have to be able to tough it up and grit it out.

In today’s world, this means taking the stairs, not the elevator.

Taking a cold shower once in a while.

Walk to buy groceries instead of driving.

Not always physical war, but learning to go to war when you hit adversity.

Go to war with your problems in life.

Seeking out adversity instead of shying away from it.

You have to try to grow an amount of toughness that can handle the grind of life.

Because life is a grind and it’s a stressful and hard one.

If your mind is weak, trust me, you won’t be successful…

Stoics vs Epicureans.

What are stoics, what are epicureans and how does this relate to today’s newsletter?

I learned this concept very early in my journey and thank god I did!

Stoics were people who lived for tomorrow, people who could endure pain and hardship.

They were people who forwent something fun today for tomorrow.

They believed in the presence, sacrificing the now to get something better in the future.

To you and me, this may look like, not going out to eat today so you can save money for something better tomorrow.

Taking care of your body today so you don’t regret it tomorrow.

Preparing for something today so you can be ready when the time comes.

Now Epicureans were the total opposite.

They were people who just lived for the now because they only had one life.

The get-what-you-can-now mentality.

The mentality to go out to eat, drink, and enjoy life because you only get one.

The mentality to not care so much about your future because you’re so focused on the present.

That can’t be you…

The more you move towards stoicism, the more wealth and happiness you’re likely to create.

Listen, we’ve all been lied to…

It’s not a yolo world…

Yolo is for suckers.

You have to be able to put aside temporary pleasure for long-term gains.

That’s the simplified definition of stoicism, and if you’re looking for greatness and achieving real impact in your life, then that has to be you.

Man, we’ve all got weak…

It’s a soft world.

Everyone nowadays is overly sensitive, they take everything personally and want to stay in a comfortable state.

All human activity is moving towards perceived pleasure and shying away from pain.

So it makes sense why we seek comfort and shy away from discomfort.

But we have to stand out from the masses if we want to make it.

I challenge you to do something tough today or this week.

Go camping, walk somewhere… Sleep without an air conditioner for a couple of nights.

Get away from luxury or stop taking elevators.

Try it, what’s the downside?

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Do it to toughen yourself up.

We used to think doing tough things makes us unhappy but scientifically, we get happier when we push ourselves!

If you remember our book summary on Flow, one of the things that put us in a flow state of mind, is challenging ourselves!

Now, am I saying you should never enjoy temporary pleasure?

No, but in the world, we live in today, there’s just too much.

I’m telling you, you don’t want to die epicurean…

As Charlie Munger says, life will hand out tremendous blows.

You’ll get hurt, lose a loved one, have a team member steal money from you, close friends will betray you.

It’ll come because it’s part of the human experience.

So If you’re too soft, you won’t make it.

Being an epicurean won’t get you what you want out of life.

In today’s world, everyone is selling us luxury and pleasure.

Whether is through music, airlines for vacations, clothes, shoes, or fast food.

Don’t fall for the marketing, they’re just selling you an idea.

Don’t be a sucker and listen to them.

Don’t spend on things you don’t need.

Another one is downtime.

The media loves to throw out this self-care and burnout message.

Burnout is real, yes, but most people don’t even work that hard, to begin with, to experience TRUE burnout.

You do need downtime, but not as much as you think.

Especially if you’re life is integrated where your work gives you as much satisfaction as your spare time does.

You don’t need another vacation or the newest designer shoes.

Take a vacation to the gym.

How about having your shoes a little dirty but investing that same money into growing yourself?

On some education, or some real assets like land, business, and stocks.

None of this happens without the stoic though...

It all starts with your ability to forego some pleasure.

Final Thoughts

If there’s one thing you’re going to remember from today’s newsletter, let it be this:

Invest in the future.

Forgo some pleasure today for something better tomorrow.

Adopt the true Stoic mentality…

Why?

Because your future depends on it…

Question:

What are some areas you’re not tough enough in and what’s 1 thing you can do TODAY to toughen up?

Leave a comment below!

P.S. I post daily tweets on frameworks, guidelines, and overall great thought's I learn from mentors ahead of me.

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