A former colleague posted an article from Medium on her LinkedIn page this morning that immediately drew my interest. It was entitled 50 Very Short Rules for a Good Life From the Stoics by the author Ryan Holiday, and it turned out to be a great list.* Holiday, author of the book Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius, based it the premise that the work of philosophy is to define your rules. Then live by them.

This is a short but thoughtful read as you head into the weekend. It is hard to pull out the “best” of these rules, because virtually every one resonated with me. But to whet your appetite (and to encourage you to click on through to see the full list), here are a baker’s dozen to ponder:

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2. You control how you respond to things.

3. Ask yourself, “Is this essential?”

4. Meditate on your mortality every day.

5. Value time more than money and possessions.

6. You are the product of your habits.

7. Remember you have the power to have no opinion.

8. Own the morning.

15. Don’t compare yourself to others.

17. “The best revenge is not to be like that.” —Marcus Aurelius

22. Define what success means to you.

28. Say no (a lot).

34. Forgive, forgive, forgive.

46. Accept success without arrogance, handle failure with indifference.

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Have a thoughtful weekend.

More to come…

DJB

*The article can also be found on his blog, if you’ve used up your free Medium views for the month.

Image by uniquedesign52 from Pixabay