You Broke the Streak. Now What?

The Stoics, who get sold to us as the sternest people in history, would have no patience with this at all.

So start with what they actually believed about perfection.

Stoic ideal is this sage, this wise person, the person of complete wisdom who never slips.

And their own tradition said, bluntly, that this person is about as common as the phoenix.

One every 500 years, maybe.

In other words, it's not you, it's not me, it's not your teacher, and it's not theirs.

We don't see any phoenixes around here.

Extremely rare.

Epictetus was once asked whether it's possible to be entirely without fault.

And his answer reported in the discourses was, No, it can't be done.

This from the man with the hardest reputation in the whole school.

So what was the practice for if nobody ever arrives at this fully perfected state? Their word for the working state was prokope, progress.

The person practicing wasn't called a sage.

They were called simply one making progress.

That was the entire job description.

Not clean records, but just direction.

Now listen.

Epictetus, coaching an actual habit in the wording of Ward Farnsworth uses.

He says, if you wish not to be quick to anger, don't feed your habit.

Don't throw it farther on which to grow.

As a first step, keep quiet and count the days on which you didn't get angry.

Then he voices the count for you.

I used to get angry every day, then every other day, then every third day, then every fourth.

Every day, then every other day, then every third.

Do you hear what's inside that sentence? Lapses.