A Student of Stoicism: Is Called "The Progressor" (Heroic +1 #1,726)

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one. In our last couple plus ones, we deliberately repeated our exploration of some wisdom from one of my new favorite books on Stoicism, Breakfast with Seneca by David Fiedler. I read the book in basically one sitting. I felt like I was having breakfast with two dear friends, Seneca and David Fiedler. It's the kind of book I was sad see come to an end. It felt like the nearly three hour breakfast I recently had with a new friend, Billy Donovan, head coach of the Bulls. What's up, Billy? That came to an end because he had to get going to get to the next city for their next game. So today I want to chat about some more wisdom from this great book. Let's get straight to work. David Fiedler tells us, and I quote, progressor is a translation of the ancient Greek term for a student of Stoicism and a procoptan, or one who makes progress. Since none of the Stoic philosophers claimed to be perfect sages, but tried to make progress each and every day through the use of self reflection and various exercises, all of the Stoic philosophers were progressors. He continues by saying in the end, to make progress as a human being, you must first realize that you are imperfect or have reason to improve, and second, have a desire to improve. It's no coincidence that one of Seneca's most frequently used words in his letters is progress or making progress toward wisdom. And as he concluded, most of progress consists in the desire to make progress, for without that desire, progress itself impossible. So the book begins with a quick look at Seneca's fascinating life. Then we take a quick look at 14 different practical themes from value your time, don't postpone living and how to Overcome Worry and anxiety to the problem with anger and how to tame adversity. The passage above is from the very first chapter on the Lost Art of Friendship, in which David walks us through Seneca's commitment to being a noble part of his community while being a good friend. The letters from which David gleans all the wisdom for this book are literally letters Seneca wrote to his dear friends. They are the embodiment of the virtues he encourages us to practice. Now, I pulled this big idea out because I love the fact that in ancient times the students of Stoicism were called a procopton, which literally means progressor, or one who makes progress. Think about that for a moment and know this. All the great sages we admire today, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, didn't consider themselves sages. They considered themselves students, progressors. And that's what made them so great. They actually practiced their philosophy with one goal in mind. To make a little more progress today. That, as George Leonard would agree, is the mark of the true master. So with that wisdom in mind, here's to diligently, patiently and persistently aggregating and compounding our incremental one Improvements. My dear fellow heroic progressor. It's day one. We're all in. Let's go.