The Daily Stoic

Ok, you’ve been doing your reading and your journaling. You’re trying to be conscious of your thoughts and your actions. In short, you’re putting in the work. The question is, how do you know if it’s working? The journey to becoming a “sage” is one that takes a lifetime. No one hands you a certificate. Wisdom accumulates and builds on itself until one day, well, there you are. If that feels a little too inexact, we empathize, but such is life.Still, there has to be something we can look for to see whether we are making progress. Whether we are getting better as opposed to simply feeling better (or more dangerously, feeling self-satisfied?)According to Epictetus, these are signs that someone is making progress:-criticizing nobody-praising nobody-blaming nobody-accusing nobody-saying nothing about themselves to indicate being someone or knowing something-when frustrated or impeded, they blame themselves-if complimented, they laugh-if criticized, they ignore-relaxed in motivation-banishing harmful desire-they wa