Welcome to Stoic Snippets,
The philosophy that is short on time,
But not on wisdom.
Cicero was a famous lawyer,
Statesman,
Writer and philosopher.
But most famously he was a great orator,
In fact,
He was known as the greatest orator of all time.
Although he wasn't a Stoic,
He would be called Stoic-adjacent these days.
He was full of wisdom and reading up on him is such a pleasure.
I wanted to share some of his wisdom with you today,
So listen up.
A lot is spoken about gratitude these days,
But back in 65 BC,
Cicero stated,
Gratitude is not only the greatest of all virtues,
But the parent of all others.
Cicero understood the importance of appreciating what we had and recognizing how much easier the other virtues came if we started from a place of gratitude instead of a place of envy or despair.
I know this too well with serious injury plaguing my sporting and working life.
For a long time I concerned myself with how this could happen to me,
Why had God done this to me,
What had I done to deserve this.
Those feelings turned to anger and jealousy towards my friends as I struggled to come to terms with why they got to continue their careers while I didn't.
It took me a long time to realize that my knee injury was just one part of my life,
That I still had plenty of ability and capacity and opportunity to do other things.
As the Stoic Epictetus pointed out,
Lameness is an impediment of the leg,
Not of the will.
I focused so intently on my leg and my old life that I failed to see the opportunities in front of me,
The ways in which I could use my other limbs and my mind and more importantly I failed to see how my old career was in many ways holding me back.
I failed to see how this injury had freed me to pursue things closer to my heart,
Things like this,
What you're listening to right now.
As a stuntman I was rarely satisfied or stimulated.
I loved the group of guys I worked with,
I still do,
But my soul felt empty often.
I felt like I was always just trying to get through the day.
As such I was often restless and agitated on these long days.
I had no academic stimulation and looking back that's something I've always craved.
I had no idea then though that my career was going to be jeopardized severely.
What I could have done with during my injuries was more gratitude to appreciate the rest of my body and my mind.
What would have alleviated much of my hurt towards my accident was gratitude that I get to do something new with my life.
And what I could do with every day is gratitude that I have another day to make changes and embrace all the gifts that come with each rising of the sun.
In every instance I was better off with gratitude and I think you will be too.
So my advice,
Follow Cicero of course and bring gratitude into each and every day even when things are hard.
And that starts today.
If you enjoyed this and want to learn more about these legends from Roman and Greek times then check out my two courses in Stoicism available now in my courses.
I'll see you there.
