Sunday Filter #021 | Image: Daily Stoic
Memento Mori
Hey friends, happy Sunday and welcome to the new-look Sunday Filter!
Whenever I’m struggling for mental clarity I often return to Stoicism. At first I didn’t really get Stoicism. From the outside Stoic philosophy seems pessimistic but once you dig a little deeper you begin to see how optimistic Stoic philosophy actually is.
Stoicism places a heavy emphasis on our own mortality. Marcus Aurelius talked about how “You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”
The latin term Memento Mori translates to ‘remember that you must die’.
But Memento Mori isn’t meant to be morbid. Instead, it should inspire and motivate you, helping to achieve mental clarity.
When you’re caught up in your own head it can be easy to have a skewed view of what’s important and what’s not.
Once you start to view decisions through the lens of your own mortality all external expectations, ego, fear of embarrassment or failure fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly essential.
Steve Jobs said “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
Memento Mori is a great reminder that life is short. Regularly meditating on your own mortality helps to gain clarity over what is truly important in life.
Once you identify what’s important you can take the necessary actions to design and build a meaningful life focusing on what matters to you.
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. - Marcus Aurelius
Two Ideas from Me
I.
“Information is abundant & attention is sparse.
Learn to control your inputs & the outputs will take care of themselves.”
II.
“Your actions reveal your real values.
If something is important enough you’ll find a way to make it happen”
This Weeks Finds
🔐 Stillness is the Key : This is the third book of Ryan Holiday’s trilogy on stoic philosophy and a book I’d highly recommend grabbing a copy of.
This book focuses in on achieving stillness and peace of mind. Controlling your thoughts and emotions to carve out your own path, something that’s becoming increasingly difficult to do.
“All this noise. All this information. All these inputs. We are afraid of the silence. We are afraid of looking stupid. We are afraid of missing out. We are afraid of being the bad guy who says, “Nope, not interested.” We’d rather make ourselves miserable than make ourselves a priority, than be our best selves. Than be still . . . and in charge of our own information diet.”
⚽️ Lionel Messi is Impossible : I’m fascinated by elite performers in any field. This breakdown of Lionel Messi is an interesting insight into one of the best athletes of all time.
💸 $500 Client vs $50,000 Client : This perfectly encapsulates how freelancing works…
End Note
If you enjoyed this edition of the Sunday Filter then I’d love it if you could share it with a few friends. You can send them over here to sign up.
Have a great Sunday,
- Stephen
