The Good Life - 07/01/2023 - Less ambition *
It’s good now to leave my ambition in the rear-view mirror. It was always a small and very slight thing, my ambition—nothing to it really, though now I’m glad to leave it largely behind. I do still want. But I want for so little: I want to walk without much of a limp. Some limp is fine. But just a slight limp would be nice. I want to float in the warm sea. I don’t want to surf. Just to float in the quiet sea out there in the calm waters beyond the waves. And I don’t want to leave home much or go very far, or buy much beyond our groceries and our necessities and maybe a nice book to sit with in the yard and read. And I want to always be ready to die: To have my important affairs in good order, my close relationships settled and sound—no important words left unsaid to anyone—and my life’s work always done (if not finished) and mostly complete. So, maybe my ambition is less gone than simply settled and met? My decided purpose finished and done and, as I said, mostly complete. Maybe that’s the reason my ambition seems now departed and passed, left behind somewhere I’ll never go back—like crossing out from a range of mountains, eyes forward now to the hills and the plains and the smaller places beyond. Still there, still moving forward, though descending now with a slight limp, and a more peaceful, measured, and determined stride.
The Good Life Meditation is my daily recitation and reminder of personal objectives and principles used in pursuit of a purposeful life in spite of a universe of seeming indifference. Learn more about The Good Life at my website GoingAlone.org or by reading my book Going Alone. And visit our Discord at: https://lnkd.in/gFgfGmY6
OBJECTIVES: 1. Be Always Ready to Die 2. Make Good Use of Time and Resources 3. Develop Good and Sound Life Principles 4. Cultivate Good Emotional Reactions 5. Perform Good Actions 6. Recognize True Limits and Opportunity 7. One Thing Slowly
PRINCIPLES: 1. Principle of War 2. Principle of Reason 3. Homunculus 4. Anchorhold 5. Home of Good and Evil 6. Principle of Purpose 7. Atomic Principle 8. Principle of Nature 9. The Pirate Ride 10. Principle of Maturity 11. Social Principle
12. Principle of Family 13. Public Speaking 14. Temperance 15. Life Will Not Go Well 16. The Horror Show 17. That Which Must Be Borne 18. The Feast of Offal 19. Distraction 20. Agency and The Great Indifference 21. The Best Seat in the House 22. The Restless Man 23. The Path of Wildness 24. The Great Life Adventure 25. The Risk of Avoiding Risk 26. Sin and Damnation 27. Complete Oblivion 28. The Season of Philosophy
29. Scriptwriting 30. Bullseye Aim 31. The Uphill Climb 32. Arena and Utility 33. Nothing IS enough 34. The Principle of Fun
#Stoic #Stoicism #StoicPhilosophy
My name is Kurt Bell.
You can learn more about The Good Life in my book Going Alone.
Be safe... But not too safe.