01 Oct - 07 Oct 2018
This week is Stoic Week, and because I’m a glutton for punishment I’ve signed up for both the Stoic Week 7 day course and the Daily Stoic’s 30 day challenge. In happy coincidence, the fifth week of my 5 week journaling challenge was to concentrate on Stoic thought. I decided to align week 5 with it so I paused my journaling to align it properly with this week.
In other news, this week I have felt I’ve just been playing catch-up at work. After my birthday weekend last week, I ended up skipping my weekly review, which was a big mistake. To top it off, I’ve struggled with a headache for 3 days of the week. As a result I barely got anything important done. At the weekend I decided to try to relax and recover a bit. Most notably we met up with friends at Shugborough. Since we last visited, the National Trust has taken over the whole site so we got to have a look round the mansion. We barely scratched the surface so I hope we’ll get to go back again soon.
5 week journaling challenge
It’s been tricky to decide what to concentrate on, so I’ve chosen to study the Stoic Week challenge more closely since the first few days of the Daily Stoic have been more about beginning suitable habits, some of which I already do on a daily basis or at least regularly. They are a good reminder that I need to build more of them into my daily routine though.
My mid-week malaise has been a bit of a challenge to it, my headache made me feel so bad that I skipped a few days, limiting myself to listening to the daily meditations and reading the texts. I couldn’t really bring myself to sit, reflect and write. Thinking more clearly now, I do wish that I had pushed myself a bit harder to break through that.
Reading Progress
I’ve been mostly reading Traitorborn this week. It’s a straight continuation from the first book and it feels more enjoyable than the first. I think mostly because the characters are already nicely established so the story can take centre-stage from the get-go.
I have made the smallest of starts on Daring Greatly but due to time and headaches I’ve not been in the mood to read and take notes.
A week in Stoicism
Whilst it was Stoic week I still continued to reflect on the topic in my Daily Stoic journal. This week we were encouraged to practice silence. Especially in today’s world, we’re encouraged to speak out, having opinions on everything. Instead, try to listen more and hold your tongue, learning from others instead of spouting your own nonsense. I am especially prone to this when I think I know something so it’s been a helpful reminder that I must listen more and talk less.
To the youngster talking nonsense Zeno said, ‘The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is so we might listen more and talk less.’ Diogenes Laertius
weeknotes