Living with Stoic Meaning and Purpose
Stoic Philosophy changed my understanding of wanting to live with meaning and purpose. In fact I had to abandon it completely. What mattered to me, was more important than extracting meaning and purpose from my surroundings. If I got meaning and purpose through my work, well that could change. If I got meaning and purpose through having friends, well that could change. If I got meaning and purpose through material possessions, that could change too. Well, all of these externals could change anytime, any day, without any warning, and I would be let adrift having to reconstitute myself. But what if I abandoned my external meaning and purpose, and simply focused on a new version of myself. This is where the stoic virtues come into practice, it’s a more resilient, lasting and enjoyable framework for living. In fact the stoic virtues injects a meaning and purpose into everyday living, an intangible that has no marked external human expression, one that makes living simply “of you, by you, for you”. The stoic virtues focuses us on the everyday, learning to experience joy in the mundane, dry, boring, repetitive, everyday stuff, of living in the present, with mindfulness, with no pre-conceived notions of outcomes — it’s a beautiful thing.
