7 Daily Stoic Habits to Buff Your Character To No Limit

1956 years ago, Epictetus, one of the most influential stoics broke free from slavery.

He opened his philosophy school and taught a young man Arrian his teachings that he documented in his "Discourses" book.

“If you want to do something, make a habit of it", says Epictetus quote. Nothing has changed in thousands of years. If you want to achieve something you desire, you should build habits.

Which one?

1. Sleep more than 8 hours

I am a fan of early rising, but you don't should be a 5 o'clock club member to achieve your desired future.

In modern times a schedule can be extremely flexible. As soon you sleep 8 uninterrupted hours at night, you'll be fine, full of productive, and creative energy to do the work.

I find early rising beneficial in terms of uninterrupted hours while everyone is asleep, but if you sleep for 5 hours each night, and are proud of your early mornings, I have news for you.

You're not as productive as you think. You're not as creative as you think. And you're slowly killing yourself.

2. Start taking cold showers

After 3 months of taking cold showers, I started to see the benefits of it.

• Weight loss

• Improves mood

• Metabolism boost

• Strengthen your mind

• Reduces muscle soreness

I am a long shower guy. 20 minutes of relaxing in a warm shower was a usual thing for me until I realized that it was a waste of my precious time and nature's resources.

Taking cold showers was the only decision for me to solve the problem. What was a decision for the problem lead to amount of positive changes:

• My abs has never been so ripped before

• I cope better with difficult situations and decisions

• and, yeah, I take a shower for 3 minutes ahah

3. Healthy breakfast

There are 3 pillars of a healthy life: movement, sleep, and diet.

I am not talking about fancy "juice" or "apple" diets. I am talking about the meals you eat every day.

I started eating healthy 2 years ago. I moved from fast food, cookies, and stuff that brings immediate pleasure. I subscribed to the services of a local meal prep company, that delivers fresh, full of necessary nutrients food to my door every morning.

Since then, I gained 15 kilos of muscle, look sharp, and my skin has become healthy. Every time I eat a piece of fast food right now, it leads to pain in my stomach for the whole day. The only negative that I don’t regret at all.

4. Read, read, read

We are conscious creatures capable of consuming, storing, analyzing, sharing, and transferring information through time.

Writing presented us with thousands of books on every topic you can imagine. Nuggets of knowledge spread all over the world.

Our ancestors made rock drawings, our parents went to libraries, and our generation has all libraries in the world in a pocket. The invention of the internet allowed the distribution of information with tremendous speed.

Those who rule the data rule the world. It's never been easier to access data. Unfortunately, most people don't use it at all.

What a waste.

5. Journal

Though we are conscious creatures, most of the processes that keep our body and mind on track are unconscious.

We don't think "how to breathe", or "how to walk", we are just doing it thanks to our unconscious state of mind. Unconscious is powerful. That's why it needs proper handling.

We can easily transfer our goals, and future vision to the unconscious, and live a robotic mediocre life without any meaning. And it will happen if you don't block time to think about these important questions of human life.

• How was your day?

• What can be improved?

• What does your future look like?

• How much money do you want to have?

• What relationships with others do you want to build?

Writing is a pure form of concentrated thinking. Conscious thinking.

Block out 10 to 15 minutes of your time every morning or evening to brain-dump your thoughts, think about important questions, and just be alone with yourself.

Don't allow your subconscious to ruin your game character.

6. Move

The first pillar of a healthy life, longevity, and "I'm 25, my back hurts" preventer is movement.

So few people engage in sports when they become adults. Even 10k steps is a problem. I have some decent advice:

• Buy a basketball. That's what I did.

• Gather 3 friends.

• Play 2vs2 every Friday.

If you don't have friends, it's okay to go dribble the ball all by yourself. Dribbling and shooting are highly addictive, even if you do it alone.

7. Set daily intentions

I encourage everyone to have a life vision to filter their daily actions through it.

The most influential ancient stoic, the ruler of the Roman Empire, Marcus Aurelius said: “You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”

What do you want to accomplish before you die?

You'll die. It's inevitable. Let it be the filter of your actions you set to your to-do list. If something on your to-do list doesn't suit your goals, priorities, values, and vision, get rid of it. You don't have time for this.

Because you can die tomorrow.