I quite like just about everything about stoicism.
I’m not sure if he’s trying to tell me something or not… The article I mention in this review has now finally been published - if you are interested you can read it online here: Ī friend of mine got me to read this book, and while I was reading it I realised that over the years he’s encouraged me to read a couple of books on stoicism. The Stoic Challenge is a practical guide to using centuries- old wisdom to help us better cope with the stresses of modern living. These include minor setbacks like being caught in a traffic jam or having a flight cancelled, as well as major setbacks, like those experienced by physicist Stephen Hawking, who slowly lost the ability to move, and surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost an arm to a shark.īy using the updated Stoic strategy, we can transform life’s setbacks into opportunities for becoming calmer, tougher, and more resilient. Irvine combines key lessons from the ancient Stoics- thinkers including Marcus Aurelius and Seneca-with modern psychological techniques such as anchoring and framing to develop a surprisingly simple strategy for dealing with life’s unpleasant surprises. We often think that these responses are hardwired, but fortunately this is not the case.
Some people bounce back in response to setbacks others break. If you’re new to Stoicism start with ‘A Guide to the Good Life‘.Ancient Stoic insights combined with modern psychological research help us overcome-and even benefit from-everyday obstacles. The final chapter: ‘ Death: Your Exit Exam’ was worth the price of the book alone. A fair amount of the material here can be found in the first book but there are several interesting extensions and for me the core ideas of Stoicism are worth rereading any number of times. He continues to be a personable and friendly Stoic guide.
Every technique is actionable-Stoicism as a practical ‘philosophy of life’ after all.Īs with his previous book, Irvine fashions a modern interpretation of Stoicism that is easily conceptualised and understood. Irving presents the reader with a series of mental models, methods and exercises all designed to improve how we frame and deal with difficulty. The book is essentially resilience training. Facing obstacles, trials and tragedy is very much part of the human experience and the way we deal with these challenges in many ways defines us. ‘The Stoic challenge assumes a basic understanding of Stoicism and dispenses with most of the history, going straight to the heart of the matter: dealing with set backs. Just recently the author published a second book titled, ‘ The Stoic Challenge’.
William Irvine’s ‘A Guide to the Good Life’ is widely regarded as the best introduction to Stoicism for modern readers - I read it recently and agree.
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