Stoic strategies for staying grounded in turbulent times

Executive overview

Uncertainty, disruption, and injustice are constants — not exceptions. The Stoics developed practical tools for remaining principled under pressure, tested across centuries of real crisis.

Focus on what is yours to control, do your job regardless of circumstances, and protect your inner clarity through deliberate practice.

The Stoic commitment to justice

• Cato's defining trait was hatred of bullies, not conservatism or tradition.
• "Sic semper tyrannis" traces to Stoic general Scipio Aemilianus — opposition to tyranny is foundational.
• Washington's vision: everyone safe "under their vine and fig tree," bigotry given no sanction.
• Tyrants, online mobs, exploitative systems, and abusive bosses are all forms of the same threat.
• Speaking out for the vulnerable is not optional — silence is complicity.

Focus on what is up to you

• Epictetus — enslaved, exiled, tortured — defined the chief task as separating what is and isn't up to us.
• External: geopolitics, inflation, others' health, the news cycle. None of it is yours.
• Internal: attitude, desires, response, who you are. All of it is yours.
• Clarity on this distinction is the foundation for action under pressure.

Read old books instead of consuming the news

• Breaking news rarely explains the present; history does.
• Prioritise information with a long half-life — unlikely to be contradicted next week.
• The Stoics have endured 2,000 years; their insights about power, suffering, and the human condition still hold.
• Churchill said it helps to put a couple thousand years between you and the present moment.
• Books leave a lasting impression; news articles disappear from memory within years.

Do your job — regardless of outcome

• Marcus Aurelius: nothing stops you from acting with courage, justice, discipline, and wisdom.
• Helvidius refused to stop speaking in the Senate even when threatened with death: "You do your part and I'll do mine."
• Your obligation doesn't change with the president, the economy, or your employment status.
• The duty remains even when the consequences, recognition, and pay change.

Invest in multigenerational impact at home

• Parental choices ripple across generations in ways public life cannot match.
• Raising children is one of the highest-leverage actions available to most people.
• Deliberate study of parenting — like studying philosophy or business — compounds over time.
• Frustration with the world can be redirected into what happens inside your own home.

Keep a journal

• The Stoics waged their "spiritual combat" on journal pages, not in arguments or protests.
• Marcus Aurelius used Meditations to stay principled during a period as chaotic as the present.
• A journal is where misinformation and noise get sifted out and replaced with truth.
• Orwell: keeping a record of your thinking helps you see what is right in front of you.
• If you are not examining your mind, no one else is doing it for you.

Treat people well — it is always within your control

• Marcus opens Meditations Book II by expecting people to be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest.
• Knowing this in advance removes the shock — and removes the excuse for responding in kind.
• You control your business policies, your tone, your vendors, your benefits, your wallet.
• How you treat strangers, your team, and your family is yours to decide, always.

Cultivate stillness

• Ataraxia — Stoic stillness — is the source of insight, clarity, contentment, and perspective.
• High-performing CEOs studied by executive coach Randall Stutman shared one pattern: a quiet hobby with few voices.
• Fly fishing, archery, running, classical music — activities that create inner space.
• You do not control the chaos of the world, but you control whether you get sucked into it.
• Stillness must be built into routine deliberately; it does not arrive on its own.