Don’t Take Control, Take Charge

In her page-a-day book Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much, the writer Anne Willson Schaef makes a distinction that the Stoics would have certainly agreed with—there is a difference, she writes, between trying to control everything in your life and taking charge of your life. “Trying to control our lives puts us in a position of failure before we start,” Anne writes, “and causes endless, unnecessary pain and suffering. Taking charge of our lives means owning our lives and having a respond-ability to our lives.” ‘Respond-ability’ is a great word, and one we should add to our vocabulary today. The same goes with the distinction between taking charge and taking control. As the Stoics tried to teach us, only a fool thinks they can control fortune or prevent bad things from occurring through worry or endless work. Only a tyrant thinks they can determine everything other people do and say. A wise person, on the other hand, takes responsibility for themselves and says, “I might not be in control of what happens to me in life, but I am in charge of how I respond to it.” A wise person is both responsible and respond-able. And that’s exactly what we are going to focus on today. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at DailyStoic.com.

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  Don't take control, take charge. In her Page a Day book, Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much, the writer Anne Willson Schaef makes a distinction that the Stoics would have certainly agreed with. "There is a difference," she writes, "between trying to control everything in your life and taking charge of your life. Trying to control our lives puts us in a position of failure before we start," she writes, "and causes endless and unnecessary pain and suffering." Taking charge of our lives means owning our lives and having respondability to our lives. Respondability is a great word, and one

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  we should add to our vocabulary today. The same goes for the distinction between taking charge and taking control. As the Stoics tried to teach us, "Only a fool thinks they can control fortune or prevent bad things from occurring through worry or endless work. Only a tyrant thinks they can determine everything other people do and say. A wise person, on the other hand, takes responsibility for themselves and says, 'I might not be in control of what happens to me in life, but I am in charge of how I respond to it.'" A wise person is both responsible and respondable, and that's exactly what we are going to focus on today.

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  Hey, just a quick reminder, stillness is the key. It's the key to success. It's the key to happiness. It's the key to insight. It's also the title of my next book. You can get Stillness is the Key. It comes out October 1, everywhere books are sold. It's currently available for preorder. You can get it in audiobook, ebook, physical. Barnes & Noble even has a few signed copies. If you've gotten anything out of my writing, anything out of this podcast or my emails over the years, I would love your support. Stillness is the key. Available everywhere books are sold. You can preorder it now, and it comes out October 1.