As a
means of defining my mircogoals, I need to define my marcogoals. Why?
Because without a big picture, all the little stuff would be aimless
and more akin to my already messy life than a more Stoic one.
With
that in mind, I have three broad goals in which to figure out all the
small ones.
Mental
Perhaps the most obvious of the three, the mental aspect of life is
very important. I personally feel that we all have a baseline mental
state that, with it's own quirks, would make it impossible to fully
gain the tranquility of the Stoic sage. That being said, we could all
use more stability in our lives and, for me, Stoicism can help with
that goal.
Spiritual
If the writings are trustworthy, all the Stoics believed in some sort
of god or another. Now, I'm not saying I'm trying to find a god. I'm
more an agnostic at this point. Some days I think there's a god.
Other days, no. However, I still find life has qualities worthy of
reverence. This is something I would like to cultivate.
Physical
I've
come to the conclusion that – outside of medical conditions – a
Stoic shouldn't be fat. I know. That sounds a bit, I dunno,
unrelated? Whatever. But I have good reasons to feel this way and
it's because of the other two reasons. Think about it: if I revere
life, then maybe I should question eating those hamburgers, which can
have a whole herd of cattle in one patty. And a wide girth doesn't
reflect a calm mind, it reflects my uncontrolled desires for
fattening foods. All around, I agree with Socrates: “No
citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical
training…what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever
seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” To
that extension of the quote, the body is the physical of the mind.
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