8: You don’t have to stay on course all the time as long as you’re generally heading in the right direction

And how do you know it’s YOUR right direction?

Tranquility and peace of mind. Or the Greek „euthymia”.

You believe in yourself and trust that you are on the right path. You’re not in doubt and thus resistant to follow the countless directions that all the others seem to be heading to. 1

And this belief you establish through clarity of vision.

Euthymia is when you’re in a cheerful state. Your soul lives calmly and steadily. You don’t need to compare yourself to others and you don’t change your mind every other second when you heard some new exciting piece of information. Fear, superstition, affinities, and other desires don’t disturb you.

So… Identify your path and stick to it. You stick to your path like chewing gum (still flexible), not like a Gorilla Super Glue.

Stay on course, make adjustments naturally, and ignore all the siren calls from the side or in front of you. They wanna steal your most precious asset: your cool.

Further readings

• Summum bonum (and in German: Höchstes Gut)

• Euthymia (medicine)

• Euthymia (philosophy)

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1. Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (p. 23 - January 15th), Kindle version ↩︎