Marcus Aurelius was the emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 AD.
He is considered as the last of the Five Good Emperors and one of the most influential Stoic
philosophers.
His work continues to inspire to this day, thanks to his daily journaling practice.
Aurelius’ journals were gathered together posthumously and were published as Meditations,
although it is unknown precisely when the work first appeared.
From his journals, it is likely that Aurelius often found it hard to get out of bed in the
morning.
He wrote about the inner struggle he had in getting started for the day, such as when
he wrote, “At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have
to go to work–as a human being.
What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for–the things which
I was brought into the world to do?
Or is this what I was created for?
To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?’”
Despite the way he felt about leaving his comfortable bed, Aurelius appears to have
done his journaling first thing in the morning.
He used this as an important exercise in preparing himself for the day ahead.
Journaling enabled Aurelius to take a step back from the pressures of being an emperor
and reflect objectively on the world around him so that he could ground and center himself.
Journaling also enabled him to keep his mind in top condition, as well as giving him a
record he could review at the end of the day to see if he really had been his best self.
The ancient practice of journaling has many practical applications in the modern world.
It is a form of daily reflection that will keep you focused on your goals and help you
live your best life, so with that in mind, in this video we bring you six ways to Journal
like Marcus Aurelius.
1.
Express Yourself Freely Marcus Aurelius says “Dig deep within yourself,
for there is a fountain of goodness ever ready to flow if you will keep digging”.
The Meditations give us an invaluable insight into the mind of a great and powerful man,
but that wasn’t why Aurelius was writing.
In fact, it is unlikely he ever intended for them to be published, meaning that he was
completely free to write whatever he wanted without worrying about an audience.
It is possible that Aurelius’ journal was one of the few opportunities he had to truly
express himself without fear of what the reaction might be.
It gave him relief from the pressures of being a leader and having to maintain his composure.
The level of self-awareness his journals allowed him to develop meant that he was able to embody
a fundamental Stoic principle: the only thing you can control is yourself.
Aurelius’ journal allowed him to reflect on how he handled the challenges he faced
and put together a plan of action for when he faced similar situations.
Many modern leaders recognize the value of journaling.
Powerful people such as John D. Rockefeller, George Patton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison,
Ronald Reagan, and Winston Churchill all kept journals as part of their daily routine.
A journal is the place where you dig deep into themes and concepts, an active tool for
you to use to improve yourself and achieve your goals.
For example, you might use your journal to keep track of your personal goals and note
your progress towards them, or you might use it to uncover subconscious thoughts and priorities
which are driving you as a person.
For this reason, many people find journal prompts useful to help them get the most out
of their journal.
You can use the same prompts every day, such as noting what you learned that day, what
worked, and what didn’t, or you can use a different prompt to uncover what’s on
your mind.
You might ask yourself a question like ‘what matters to me?’ then set a timer and write
for five minutes to see what comes out.
You can also use your journal to plan your activities.
You might like to set daily goals, weekly goals, and annual goals, and check in with
your journal about your progress.
Sometimes when you feel that what you’re doing isn’t making any difference, it’s
good to look back over a journal to see just how far you’ve come.
If you are unsure about how to start journaling, ask yourself, when you die, will you have
lived your best life?
What would those around you say about your character and actions?
In your journal, you can make a point every day of noting what people would say about
you if you happened to die that day.
Would they remember you the way you want to be remembered?
G Where there is life there is hope and you always have the chance to change your ways
to leave a legacy you can be proud of.
While it might appear to be morbid to focus so heavily on death, it can be a truly life
affirming activity.
The Stoics viewed every day they had as a blessing and understanding that your time
here is limited and that it is up to you to make the most of it while you’re here is
key to being Stoic.
You can use your journal to examine this subject from a number of angles.
Perhaps there are ambitions and dreams you had when you were younger that you haven’t
yet fulfilled.
Maybe you’ve even given up on them.
Your journal allows you to identify these and put in place an action plan to make them
a reality.
Even if you don’t see any way in which they can be possible, the simple act of choosing
to live your best life while you’re here can make a huge difference to your experiences
and attitudes.
2.
Write about your sage Marcus Aurelius tells us “Mastery of reading
and writing requires a master.
Still, more so life” The sage is someone who is considered to be
a good and virtuous person.
In classical philosophy a sage is someone who is considered to be wise or experienced
in a certain field, and who is revered for their wisdom, judgment, and expertise.
For many people this is a role model.
Stoics spent time contemplating on their sages and whether their own actions were consistent
with those of their sage.
Marcus Aurelius’ sage was Zeno, the founder of Stoic philosophy, and he would often ask
himself ‘What would Zeno do?’
To start with this exercise, all you need to do is identify your role models.
It could be anyone from your favorite superhero to your favorite character on a TV show.
They could be your friend or a relative you admire, a great philosopher or even the leaders
you respect in your industry or organization.
After you identify them, ask yourself – what are the qualities in them that make them so
ideal?
In your journal, write down all of your role models, past or present, and the best qualities
of these individuals, discarding their negative character traits.
Once you have everything written down, spend 5-10 minutes every morning visualizing how
they would go about dealing with the different aspects of their day.
You can also write down your favorite quotes or important principles of any philosophy
you wish to follow and read them out every morning before you start your day.
This act of journaling, of reminding yourself each day about your role models and the important
principles they espouse will serve you as a meditative experience.
The idea behind this exercise is to see whether your actions are in line with your role models.
If so, and if you repeat this wisdom over and over again, it will soon become muscle
memory and you will start acting like the people you admire in the way that you think,
the way you talk and of course, the way you act.
3.
Write about the worst possible outcome According to Marcus Aurelius “When you wake
up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful,
arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly”.
Marcus Aurelius, despite being a man of great temperance and discipline, is said to have
practiced the technique of negative visualization as a part of his morning routine.
Each morning he would write down all the negative qualities people could exhibit, and reminded
himself that none of them could hurt him or make him feel angry.
This way he prepared himself for the people he might encounter, and was ready to handle
anyone, no matter how difficult or abrasive they may be.
By visualizing the negative qualities of people, he was practicing the principle of
dichotomy of control.
The dichotomy of control is the Stoic idea of separating things that are within our control,
from the things that are outside of our control.Things that are within your control are your thoughts
like your opinions, your goals or your desires and your actions like how you pursue your
goals or how you react to events.
Things that are outside of your control is everything else like the outcome of an event,
your wealth, your health, the past or your reputation.
The idea behind this principal is to focus on the things you can control.
So the only thing we can do when things go wrong is to react in the most appropriate
manner, without frustration or anger.
But it can often be difficult to act in an appropriate manner when misfortune catches
you off guard.
This is where morning preparation journaling can become useful.
All you have to do is take a couple of minutes each morning and write down all the things
that could go wrong in your day.
If you have a rough idea of what your day looks like, then it shouldn’t be difficult
to think about things that could potentially go wrong.
An important presentation, exam, or first date are all the things you can write down
as potential encounters with misfortune.
You could forget your USB stick that has your presentation, mess up your exam, or have an
allergic reaction in the middle of that date.
Once you have written the things that could go wrong, remind yourself not to worry and
start thinking of ways you can best handle the situation if it arises.
This way you are preparing yourself to handle such events, and when the inevitable mishap
happens, it will be easier for you to go into problem-solving mode or accept it with equanimity,
instead of sulking about it.
You can also use negative visualization to face your fears.
There are many forms of negative visualization and one of its variations is fear-setting.
Fear-setting is all about defining your fears and conquering them.
Fear setting is not a daily exercise.
It is only done once in a while or when there is something you’re unsure or afraid about
pursuing.
Here are the four steps of fear setting: Step 1 – Write down the thing you’re unsure
or afraid of doing.
It could be anything like standing up to your bully, asking someone out or quitting college
to work on a startup Step 2 – Write down the worst that could
happen.
If you confront your bully, you could get beaten up, if you ask someone out, they could
turn you down, or your business venture could fail after investing money, time and resources
on it.
Step 3 – Write down what you could do if the worst-case scenario happens.
If you get in a fight, you may get a few bruises.
If you get rejected, you can move on or if your venture fails, you could go back to school
or take what you’ve learned and work on a new business idea.
Step 4 – Write down the best-case scenario.
Your bully will stop bullying you.
The person you ask out says yes.
Your startup succeeds.
By following the four steps, you will realize that the worst-case scenario is not that bad,
and the best-case scenario is worth the risk.
Fear setting can be tremendously helpful when you’re unsure about taking a risk in life
because it not only prepares you for the worst case scenarios but it also gives you the courage
to take necessary leaps of faith in life.
4.
Reflect on your day In the words of Marcus Aurelius “These are
the characteristics of the rational soul: self-awareness, self-examination, and self-determination.
It reaps its own harvest….
It succeeds in its own purpose…”
In addition to journaling in the morning, the Stoics also saw the value in writing for
a short time in the evening.
The purpose was usually to review the events of the day so that you can work on improving
your flaws.
Journaling gave Marcus Aurelius a record he could review at the end of the day to see
if he really had been his best self.
If you wish to become a better person, first, you need to be aware of your faults; that
is what nightly reflections are for.
We too can start reflecting on our days.
Ask yourselves questions like - 1.
What did I do well today?
2.
What did I do wrong today?
3.
Did I embody the quality of my sage in my actions?
4.
How can I improve?
To answer each question, you need to go through your day in your mind and consider all of
your actions throughout.
Think about when you followed your good habit, or reacted to something rationally instead
of acting out.
Also, consider the times when you gave into your temptations and continued a bad habit
or let your emotions get the better of you.
Then think about what aspect of your actions you could improve.
It could be anything from spending quality time with your family to being more honest
and having the courage to say no.
Write as many answers to each of the three questions as you like but to prevent making
this into just another chore, one or two answers for each question is enough.
You need to only spend around 5-10 minutes at this exercise, but if you do it consistently
you will become more mindful throughout your day to continue the good habits and not to
repeat the bad ones.
Soon you will have fixed many flaws that you once thought were impossible to improve upon.
If you continue this for a few months, you will also be able to read through old entries
and see just how far you have come since then.
5.
Be Grateful Marcus Aurelius writes “To the gods I am
indebted for having good grandfathers, good parents, a good sister, good teachers, good
associates, good kinsmen and friends, nearly everything good”.
The Stoics understood that gratitude is an essential part of happiness.
Marcus Aurelius in his Meditations said thank you to all of the people he felt he owed something
to.In our modern world, we often believe that happiness is something to be chased after,
something you get once you’ve achieved a certain goal or bought some expensive product.
After eventually achieving our goals and milestones, we realize that happiness that we are looking
for doesn’t actually reside there, so we go looking for it in the next one.
The truth is happiness can only be found within yourself because it is not determined by any
external factor and one of the most effective ways of “obtaining” happiness is through
gratitude.We all have something that someone doesn’t, something perhaps someone believes
to be their key to happiness.
It could be anything from having some friends to family to having food on your plate.
By appreciating these things in life, you will realize that you have much more than
you thought, and there is no reason for you to be unhappy.
There are two ways you can incorporate gratitude into your Stoic journal: One is to write about
all the things you are grateful for in your life.You could be grateful for anything and
everything.
It could be your job, your family, the house that you live in, the food that you eat, the
bed you sleep in.You could also write about how grateful you are for past adversities
making you the person you are today, or write about current ones because they are giving
you the opportunity to grow.
Write it down once and go through this list daily after your evening reflections.
The second way is to pick three to five things every day that you're thankful for and write
them down in your journal.
This could be anything from your colleague getting donuts for your team, to coming home
to your happily excited pet, or simply just being thankful for being alive.
Expressing gratitude daily comes with a lot of benefits.
It lowers your stress levels, gives you a greater sense of calm and a whole new level
of clarity and as you continue the practice, you’ll be able to focus your time and energy
on appreciating things that truly make you the happiest version of yourself.
6.
Be consistent In our final words of wisdom from Marcus Aurelius
for this video, he teaches us that “You must build up your life action by action,
and be content if each one achieves its goal as far as possible-and no one can keep you
from this”.
The Stoics believed that in an ever-changing world, routine is a prerequisite of excellence
and good habits are a safe haven of certainty.
They were all about following the system, their routines and repetition.
They were all about knowing what the right thing is and doing it daily.
Marcus Aurelius himself was a man of great self-discipline and was very consistent with
his writings.
He wrote the majority of the twelve books of the Meditations at Sirmium, modern day
Serbia, where he spent time planning military campaigns and strategy during the Marcomannic
Wars.
A few of the books were written while he was positioned at Aquincum on campaign in Pannonia.
And, the internal notes tell us that the first book was written when he was campaigning against
the Quadi on the river Granova, modern-day Hron in Slovakia.
For most of us, with the ever growing demand of our modern world, finding time to write
in your journal can be difficult at first because it feels like another thing on your
never ending to-do list, but after you get into the routine it becomes second nature.
You can choose to write in the morning like Marcus Aurelius while planning for your day
or you can choose to write in the evening like Seneca as a part of your daily reflection
routine but the best way to make the most out of this habit is to write for 10 mins
both in the morning and evening.
This way it will be easier for you to prepare for the day ahead and review the day that
just passed.
Journaling will improve your life in a lot of ways but to avail those benefits, you need
to be consistent.
Say after watching this video, you start journaling and you do it for a couple of days, but on
the third day you put it off, then on the fourth day you will say – I will do it from
next Monday or from the coming month.
Don’t wait for this coming Monday or next month to start with it all over again.
Just forgive yourself for not writing on that day and start writing again from the next.
A bad day doesn’t have to become a bad week, and a bad week doesn’t have to become a
bad year - Your ability to keep going is what molds you into a disciplined and strong person.
If you know that you want to start journaling, but you’re struggling with knowing where
to start, then we highly recommend Practicing Stoicism by Jason Hemlock.
It contains daily prompts and Stoic exercises to support you on your Stoic journey and allows
you to build a personalized record of your experiences so you can discover what works
for you and what doesn’t.
We are all on our own unique path and what works for one person won’t necessarily work
for another.
Your journal allows you to identify the positive impact Stoicism has on your life and build
on your achievements to take your life in new, exciting directions.
If you are interested, click on the link in the description to get your copy and
if you enjoyed this video, please do make sure to check out our full philosophies for
life playlist and for more videos to help you find success and happiness using ancient
philosophical wisdom, don’t forget to subscribe.
Thanks so much for watching.