Stoic practice: finding small wins and accepting impermanence

Executive overview

We resist thinking about death, but it keeps happening regardless. Stoicism offers a direct response: focus on small, daily progress rather than waiting for epic wins.

Small steps, consistently taken, are how meaningful work gets done.

Impermanence is always happening

• People whose work shaped us are already gone — this is the default condition of life.
• Marcus Aurelius noted that once-powerful names die and fall away; doctors who attend deathbeds eventually reach their own.
• No one is exempt — not Marcus, not Seneca, not anyone.
• Memento mori is not morbid; it is the prompt to stop wasting borrowed time.

The Stoic case for small wins

• Zeno founded the Stoic school after a shipwreck — happiness, he said, is a matter of small steps.
• The Stoics were skeptical of "epic wins" and quantum leaps; they urged focus on daily duties and incremental progress.
• Marcus Aurelius: "Be satisfied with even the smallest step forward and regard the outcome itself as a small thing."
• Epictetus: those who despair of progress because it isn't perfection never arrive; those who show up daily do.
• Zeno: "Well-being is realized by small steps — but it is no small thing."

Putting the process to work

• The rule for writing: a couple of crappy pages a day gets you to a draft; you can't edit what doesn't exist.
• Showing up unlocks problems — sitting at the desk, pulling a book off the shelf, a chapter writes itself.
• Many small contributions compound: as Washington put it, "Many mickels make a muckle."
• Don't get too high about a minor win; don't get too low either — just keep going.