LEARN HOW TO SET UP A BASIC SYSTEM FOR STAYING ORGANISED! To avoid enslaving ourselves when dealing with other people, we need to be indifferent to what they think of us. Instead, it depends on her excellence as a human being—on how well she performs the function for which humans were designed. They are also the source of some of the greatest delights life has to offer, such as love and friendship. Because of adaptation, we take our life and what we have for granted rather than delighting in them.”. Introduction. He points out that Stoicism is very different than the stereotypes we have developed about unfeeling robots, and in fact it contains a lot of timeless advice for psychological well being. Suppose you find out that someone has been saying bad things about you. The Good Life Summary & Study Guide BookRags.com. On the Good Life Summary & Study Guide Cicero This Study Guide consists of approximately 29 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of On the Good Life. “If God is pleased to add another day, we should welcome it with glad hearts.”. Tranquility is a state marked by the absence of negative emotions such as anger, grief, anxiety, and fear, and the presence of positive emotions—in particular, joy. Guidelines is my eBook that summarises the main lessons from 33 of the best-selling self-help books in one place. “To help us advance our practice of Stoicism, Seneca advises that we periodically meditate on the events of daily living, how we responded to these events, and how, in accordance with Stoic principles, we should have responded to them.”, “When contemplating whether to criticize someone, he should consider not only whether the criticism is valid but also whether the person can stand to be criticized.”, “If you are going to publish, you must be willing to tolerate criticism.”. 502 likes. The key to happiness for the Stoics is to prevent ourselves from taking for granted the things we worked so hard to get. All benefit and harm comes from ourselves, not from external things. Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome, begun each day by telling himself: “Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil.”. Fight your tendency to believe the worst about others and their motivations. The Good Life Handbook Summary. Guide to the Good Life is a weekly Australian television series that airs on Channel Seven.. A Guide To The Good Life Book Summary by Unknown. “Let us cherish and love old age; for it is full of pleasure if one knows how to use it. We're often unhappy because we are insatiable; we work hard to get what we want, but then we lose interest in the object of our desire, becoming bored and forming new, grander desires. A Guide to the Good Life is an eye-opening read about how to live a happier and more meaningful life. Without adopting a philosophy of life, there are lurking dangers: mis-living, spending our life pursuing the wrong goals or pursuing worthwhile goals in a manner destined to make us fail. “We should live as if this very moment were our last.”. Stoics spend less time wishing things could be different and more time enjoying things as they are, experiencing tranquility. “A Guide to the Good Life Summary” Let’s look at things hypothetically and imagine that you are a Greek kid living in the age of Alexander the Great (around 300 BC). Summary - A Guide To The Good Life (Paperback) / Author: Book Summary Publishing ; 9798622028113 ; Organizational theory & behaviour, Management & management techniques, Business & management, Business & Economics, Books Our goal is not merely to survive and reproduce, but to enjoy a tranquil existence. Let’s explore the philosophy, techniques, and application of Stoicism in our modern lives. In retrospective negative visualisation, Stoics imagine never having had something that they have lost, replacing feelings of regret at having lost something with feelings of thanks for once having had it. Although Irvine is advocating Stoicism, it isn’t the only option available for those seeking a philosophy in life. By contemplating their own death, Stoics fully understand that their days are numbered and seek the most out of life. The most important question in our life, according to Epictetus? In A Guide to the Good Life, Irvine offers a refreshing presentation of Stoicism, showing how this ancient philosophy can still direct us toward a better life. When insulted, pause to consider whether what the insulter said is true. For the Stoics, becoming a clear, unbiased and self-disciplined thinker allows one to understand the natural universal reason in all things (or ‘logos’ in ancient Greek). Epictetus suggests that as we go about our daily business, we should simultaneously play the roles of participant and spectator. The real danger is that if we are exposed to a luxurious lifestyle, we might lose our ability to take delight in simple things. This is my review of A Guide to the Good Life by William B. Irvine. Irvine highly suggests that we all find a philosophy to follow in our daily lives. What things are under your total control? The first edition of the novel was published in 2008, and was written by William B. Irvine. In particular, as strange as it may seem, consciously abstaining from pleasure can itself be pleasant. One of the great fears many of us face is that despite all our effort and striving, we will discover at the end that we have wasted our life. The book challenges you to think about living life as an art. The program is aimed towards older viewers, the same demographic targeted by APIA. Tranquility is a state marked by the absence of negative emotions such as anger, grief, anxiety, and fear, and the presence of positive emotions—in particular, joy. The Stoics had psychological techniques for attaining tranquility, minimizing worry and more. In A Guide to the Good Life, William B. Irvine plumbs the wisdom of Stoic philosophy, one of the most popular and successful schools of thought in ancient Rome, and shows how its insight and advice are still remarkably applicable to modern lives. The negative visualization technique can also be used in reverse: Besides imagining that the bad things that happened to others happen to us, we can imagine that the bad things that happen to us happened instead to others. The Wall Street Journal hailed Good Life Project as one of the top self-development podcasts, and Apple recently featured it on-stage during its legendary annual event. The series, sponsored by insurance company APIA, features various lifestyle segments including food, travel, motoring, home and finance advice. A summary of “A Guide to the Good Life” Post. Instead, Stoics spent their days working to affect the outcome of future events. It's a book about Stoicism. The Stoics discovered that willpower is like muscle power: The more they exercised their muscles, the stronger they got, and the more they exercised their will, the stronger it got. A Guide to the Good Life One of the great fears many of us face is that despite all our effort and striving, we will discover at the end that we have wasted our life. What you believe, what you desire or hate, and what you are attracted to or avoid. Publication date 2017-10-03 Topics Self-improvement, best-self, improvement, life, guide Collection opensource Language English. Practicing Stoicism takes far less effort than the effort one is likely to waste in the absence of a philosophy of life. While enjoying the companionship of loved ones, we should periodically stop to reflect on the possibility that this enjoyment will come to an end. If it is, there is little reason to be upset with what is self-evident. The book challenges you to think about living life as an art. A summary of “A Guide to the Good Life” I recently read William B. Irvine’s book “ A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy “, and summarized it. For the Stoics, a person’s virtue does not depend, for example, on her sexual history. By consciously thinking about the loss of what we have, we can regain our appreciation of it, and with this regained appreciation we can revitalize our capacity for joy. The most delightful time of life is when it is on the downward slope, but has not yet reached the abrupt decline.”. Refusing to respond to the insult is probably the most effective way. To be virtuous is to live as we were designed to live; it is to live, as Zeno put it, in accordance with nature. If you lack a grand goal in living, you lack a coherent philosophy of life. Rather than feeling satisfied, we feel a bit bored, and in response to this boredom, we go on to form new, even grander desires.”, “One key to happiness is to forestall the [hedonic] adaptation process: We need to take steps to prevent ourselves from taking for granted, once we get them, the things we worked so hard to get.”, “The easiest way for us to gain happiness is to learn how to want the things we already have.”, “The Stoics recommended that we spend time imagining that we have lost the things we value—that our wife has left us, our car was stolen, or we lost our job.”, “We should love all of our dear ones …, but always with the thought that we have no promise that we may keep them forever—nay, no promise even that we may keep them for long.”—Seneca. The Stoic philosophy principles may be old, but they merit the attention of any modern individual who wishes to have a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling – who wishes, that is, to have a good life. For example, it’s not an insult if someone mocks you for being bald, when in fact you are bald. If we do this, our internal state will soon come to resemble our external state, and our anger, says Seneca, will have dissipated.”. And by working “with and for our fellow men”, as Marcus Aurelius said, we will enjoy a good life. The easiest way for us to gain happiness is to learn how to want the things we already have, summary of a guide to the good life. Doing this will help us become more empathetic to this individual’s faults and therefore become more tolerant of him.”, “When dealing with an annoying person, it also helps to keep in mind that our annoyance at what he does will almost invariably be more detrimental to us than whatever it is he is doing.”, “A good Stoic, Marcus says, will not think about what other people are thinking except when he must do so in order to serve the public interest.”, Irvine on social fatalism: “In our dealings with others, we should operate on the assumption that they are fated to behave in a certain way.”, “One of their sting-elimination strategies is to pause, when insulted, to consider whether what the insulter said is true.”, “Another sting-elimination strategy, suggested by Epictetus, is to pause to consider how well-informed the insulter is.”, “One particularly powerful sting-elimination strategy is to consider the source of an insult.”, “Under such circumstances, rather than feeling hurt by his insults, I should feel relieved: If he disapproves of what I am doing, then what I am doing is doubtless the right thing to do.”, “When a dog barks, we might make a mental note that the dog in question appears to dislike us, but we would be utter fools to allow ourselves to become upset by this fact, to go through the rest of the day thinking, ‘Oh, dear! Meditations By Marcus Aurelius. Signs of progress include less blaming others and boasting about ourselves, more ownership of their actions and, ultimately, diminished impulses and fewer negative emotions.

a guide to the good life summary

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