Ever hear of a philosopher named Epictetus? He is credited with writing a little handbook entitled The Enchiridion. The core philosophy is Stoicism and many of the concepts encourage responsibility and self-discipline. There is a lot about this philosophy that appeals to me and I wanted to offer a brief introduction to those that might visit here.

The very first lesson in The Enchiridion is perhaps the most significant one of all. He starts out by telling us that some things are in our control and others are not. Thats a pretty common sense idea and I doubt many would argue with it. But what he challenges the reader to do next exceeds the capacity of most people - don't concern yourself with things that are not under your control. Be aware of those things, but do not allow yourself to worry and fret over them. Its a waste of time and provides no benefit to you or your loved ones. Its far better to use that time and energy to focus on the things that are under your control. Don't waste time wishing that the 18-wheeler bearing down on the family minivan would scootch back over into his own lane; use that time to move your own vehicle out of harm's way.

Next Epictetus states that one sure way to be miserable is to allow yourself to develop aversions to those things which are prevalent in day-to-day life. For example, he mentions that "if you are averse to sickness, or death, or poverty, you will be wretched" because all these things are unavoidable byproducts human existence. If you rid yourself of these aversions you will not be made miserable by them. Reducing misery is good.

The one teaching from which I derive the most reduction of misery in my life is this one:

"Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things. Death, for instance, is not terrible, else it would have appeared so to Socrates. But the terror consists in our notion of death that it is terrible. When therefore we are hindered, or disturbed, or grieved, let us never attribute it to others, but to ourselves; that is, to our own principles. An uninstructed person will lay the fault of his own bad condition upon others. Someone just starting instruction will lay the fault on himself. Some who is perfectly instructed will place blame neither on others nor on himself."