The Stoic Student

Happiness. Everyone wants it. But nobody gets it just enough . It’s always around the corner, yet it vanishes as soon as we pass that corner. Then, we end up running corner after corner to get it, just to realize we’ve been running in circles for a while. Maybe chasing it was not the right way to go, after all. Duality of opposites Everything involves opposites: day and night, hot and cold, happiness and sorrow. Heraclitus preached the unity of opposites. Contrary qualities are found in us ''as the same thing''. When you think about this, it makes a lot of sense: hot and cold are the two sides of temperature, pleasure and pain are both feelings, etc. Everything comes in opposites, so by trying to only feel pleasure and happiness, we must fail. That is because we have to get both counterparts, both opposite. What goes up must come down. Happiness comes as different from sorrow, as they are two opposites. Yet, they are also two parts of the ‘same thing’. Because no coin...

Devrions-nous poursuivre notre propre bonheur dans la vie? Le bonheur. Tout le monde le veut. Mais personne n’en a assez . Il est toujours au coin de la rue, mais il disparaît aussitôt qu’on dépassé le coin. Puis, on finit par courir courir partout dans la ville pour l’avoir. Tout ça pour finalement réaliser qu’on courait en rond depuis un moment. Peut-être que le poursuivre n’était pas la bonne chose à faire, après tout. La Dualité des opposés. Chaque chose implique deux opposés : le jour et la nuit, le chaud et le froid, le bonheur et la tristesse. Le philosophe Héraclite disait fermement que les contraires étaient, au final,  une unité. Des qualités contraires se trouvent en nous comme “la même chose” . Quand on y pense, c’est très logique : le chaud et le froid sont les deux facettes de la température, le plaisir et la douleur sont tous les deux des sentiments, etc. Toutes les choses viennent en paire de contraires. Alors, en essayant de ressentir que du pl...

I once travelled to Victoria BC for a language-learning program. I was very exited because it was my first trip without my parents. In my program, one of the activities was a martial arts class. It ended up being one of my favorites.  I absolutely wanted to try their classes out. But, I didn't want to ask in front of everyone because I was too shy, so I waited until everyone left and asked the coach if I could come to one of their practice.  - You can come whenever you want, he said. Come try our classes out! I was exited. So, I took my excitement with me back to my room and waited... But thinking about it, I didn't have money to spend on martial arts class if I wanted to eat. I still went to the class that day, though.  All the excitement came back into me when it was the day. As I came in the dojo, I was greeted by the coach I talked to earlier. I told him about my money problem.  - If you want to come to our classes, you can come for free, he told me. I'm friend w...

  “Do your best, even if it’s not enough ” is the best way to fail in life. In Alex Hormozi’s video, he describes this mindset as the best way to stay poor. This goes further than only money, though.  This principle was a hit for me because I could recognize myself in it. For example, I would go try and get a girl’s number but I was neither trying my best nor was I doing enough. My “best”, therefore, wasn't enough. If your best isn’t at the level of what you'd like it to be in any particular skill, you have to level it up. This comes in two main steps, Learning Practicing You first learn the theory on how to get better and you make an action plan (how can you put the learning into action). Second, you have to actually put that theory into practice. Example: if you want to get better at drawing, it would look something like this: You learn the drawing techniques You think about how you can integrate these techniques into your drawings You draw and use these techniques so much ...

  Pepsi got caught back in 2013 lying about their Naked Juice’s products being ‘all natural’. They had to pay $9 millions dollars to make up for that. Even more, we ' re left with a poor opinion of the company today. We value authenticity because when someone is honest with us, we feel important and valued. When someone is authentic around us, we also feel allowed to be like that and we let go of the fear of judgement.  Then why are most people fake? I think it is partly because we are all trying to become somebody we are not and also because we don’t want to get judged or rejected. If so many people value authenticity and honesty, there is a reason and you can apply that to your life. In my article, you will learn why you need to value honesty to become an adult in the mental sense of the word.   1. Transition between boyhood to manhood We are all trying to become better people. I already said that improvement is the essence of life! Being authentic and honest is such a...