Philosophy Everyday 8 – Stoicism is an anagram for ‘consistent’

While the word ‘stocisim’ isn’t exactly an anagram for ‘consistent’, it might as well be. There are a lot of stoic principles that speak about consistency and for good reason. Consistency is something that drive a lot of your decision making, whether or not you are consciously aware of it. Listen to this episode if you want to learn how to harness the power of consistency to make it easier for you to start new habits and live with more honor. Why is it important to be consistent? Is there every a time when being consistent is bad? Or when being inconsistent is good? “But Ben, people need to change if we are to improve our lives! How to you remain consistent if you need to change something in your life?” How to be more consistent in your life? Listener question, “How to recover socially if you’ve made a drastic mistake?” QUOTES “To understand why consistency is so powerful a motive, it is important to recognize that in most circumstances consistency is valued and adaptive. Inconsistency is commonly thought to be an undesirable personality trait. The person whose beliefs, words, and deeds don’t match may be seen as indecisive, confused, two-faced, or even mentally ill. On the other side, a high degree of consistency is normally associated with personal and intellectual strength. It is at the heart of logic, rationality, stability, and honesty. A quote attributed to the great British chemist Michael Faraday suggests the extent to which being consistent is approved – sometimes more than being right. When asked after a lecture if he meant to imply that a hated academic rival was always wrong, Faraday glowered at the questioner and replied, ‘He’s not that consistent.’” – Page 60, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. “‘A man whose aim in life is not singular and consistent cannot be one and the same person throughout his life.’ But to say only this, without defining what his aim should be, is not enough. Except in the case of those things they hold in common, most people cannot agree on a definition of what is good. For this reason, it makes sense to aim at the common good, the well-being of society as a whole. He who strives to achieve this aim in life will be consistent in his behavior and therefore one and the same person throughout his life.” – Page 132, The Emperor’s Handbook “Don’t become disgusted with yourself, lose patience, or give up if you sometimes fail to act as your philosophy dictates, but after each setback, return to reason and be content if most of your acts are worthy of a good man. Love the philosophy to which you return, and go back to it, not as an unruly student to the rod of a school-master, but as a sore eye to a sponge and egg whites, or a wound to cleansing ointments and clean bandages. In this way, you will obey the voice of reason not to parade a perfect record, but to secure an inner peace.” – Page 56, The Emperor’s Handbook RESOURCES Things I reference: The Emperor’s Handbook by Marcus Aurelius Influence: The Pyschology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini PH.D.  The New Psycho-Cybernetics by Dan S. Kennedy Songs by Slayerment