“The human soul degrades itself…when it allows its action and impulse to be without a purpose, to be random and disconnected: even the smallest things ought to be directed toward a goal.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 2.16
The Stoic Chrysippus trained as a long-distance runner. Every day, as Diogenes Laertes recounts in Lives of Eminent Philosophers, he would set a time to beat, then the next day set a new, faster time. He would do this repeatedly, beating old times again and again. Because that’s what runners do, what athletes do — they try to get better everyday.
One can only imagine the influence this hard training had on Chrysippus, and how it led him toward a philosophy based on self-discipline, inner-control, and endurance. One need not imagine the influence it had on the world, however. “But for Chrysippus,” went the saying in the ancient world, “there had been no Porch” (the stoa in Stoicism).
Many of the challenges you will face not just in the New Year New You challenge but in life will require self-discipline, inner-control, and endurance. The discipline to hold yourself accountable. The inner-control to say focused only on the things within your control. The endurance to persist through difficult and uneasy days, as we talked about yesterday.
Your challenge today encompasses the practice of all of those things, and will require you to use all of them to succeed. Your challenge is to set a fitness goal that you will accomplish in 2022.
What does that look like? Well that’s up to you. What do you want to set yourself to? It could be running your fastest mile. Setting a personal record on the bench press. Swimming all the way around the lake by your house without stopping. Your max set of pull-ups or push-ups. Maybe you’re an avid cyclist — your goal could be a total number of miles for the year. Maybe you’re an avid fan of UFC — your goal could be to start training MMA. Your goal could be something low-impact — set a goal for how many nights in a row you can go walking for a half-hour after work. Or it could be high-impact — try to make the podium at an amateur jiu-jitsu tournament.
Any goal in any activity will do. But whatever it is, just make sure it is something specific. Seneca wrote about how excellence — regardless of the endeavor — is often curbed simply due to our aimlessness. “Our plans miscarry because they have no aim,” he said. “When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”
It is not sufficient to just say that you want to get in shape this year, or that you want to be healthier. It is not sufficient to just say that you want to run more or swim more or ride your bike more this year. It is not sufficient to just say you want to get stronger in the weightroom.
No, we need something concrete:
- In Atomic Habits, James Clear references a 2001 study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology. The researchers randomly divided subjects (all of which had the nebulous goal of exercising more) into one of three groups. The control group was simply asked to record when they exercised. The “motivation” group was asked the same but then also given a presentation about the benefits of exercise. The third group got the same presentation, but they were also asked to specify the goal they wanted to achieve and solidify when and where they would exercise. To start, members of the third group completed this sentence: “During the next week, I will partake in at least 20 minutes of vigorous exercise on [DAY] at [TIME] in [PLACE].” Interestingly, results among members of the first and second groups were about the same — 35–38% of people consistently exercised at least once per week. As for the third group, 91% of people exercised at least once per week. More important than motivation, the researchers found, is what they refer to as implementation intention.
Determine the exact mile time you are working towards. Write down the exact weight you want to be able to bench press. Decide the exact number of MMA training sessions you are aiming to go to. The exact number of pounds or inches you want to lose. And then, do an implementation intention — write down when and where you will exercise next.
Decide the harbor you are aiming for. Then map out how you intend to get there.
While it’s great to get or stay in shape, what we like most about this challenge is that it immediately turns you into a person who is making progress toward something. You are no longer a wishful thinker, you are someone who has a goal they are purposefully, intentionally inching their way towards, one step at a time.
This is the Stoic way. A Stoic is someone who constantly makes forward progress, who is interested in being a little bit better today than they were yesterday.
The great thing about fitness, as a Stoic practice and an exercise in personal development, is that the progress is tangible. There is nothing like looking at your watch at the mile mark and seeing that your pace is faster than it was yesterday. There is nothing like swimming a little bit further without stopping than you did last week. There is nothing like picking up the weight and realizing you can actually go a little bit heavier.
There is nothing like being in a perpetual state of what the psychologist Adam Grant calls “improving mode.” Like the Olympic athlete always striving to get a little bit better, Grant says, “Improving mode means you’re always a work in progress.”
That’s what the Stoics considered themselves: works in progress. There were no sages, they said, there were no perfect Stoics. There were just people trying to get better.
Like Epictetus said, let’s make the commitment today to be someone who is dedicated to improvement. “Finally decide,” he told one of his students, “that you are an adult who is going to devote the rest of your life to making progress.”
You can begin that journey today.
