Photo credit to the author.

When you are bored, occupy your mind with your thoughts. When I have done this it often leads to self examination. That self examination allows me to unearth certain truths about myself. Once these truths are unearthed I like to further examine them, and more importantly their source. How did I come to know these things as true to me, in so much as to accept them as a part of who I am? Are these truths indeed true? Are my beliefs based in logic and reason? Or are they based on my upbringing and societal ideologies? Examining my personal beliefs with logic and reason has been a game changer for me. Having to research my own beliefs meant I had to spend time gathering information and fact checking. It also meant I had to be willing to do a certain amount of experimentation. Ultimately it meant I had to be willing to accept that some of the things I had chosen to believe for my entire life up until that point could be wrong. That was by far the hardest part for me to accept. Not just that I could be wrong, or that my beliefs could be wrong, but also that some of my actions based on those beliefs were completely contrary to what I was actually trying to accomplish. It was only after this realization that I was able to recognize those actions and gradually start working to change them. It hasn’t been a quick or easy process, but it has certainly been an educational one.

I strongly recommend that those who wish to study and practice Stoicism adopt this method of self analysis for themselves from the outset. This is the most crucial step to personal growth as a Stoic in my opinion.