How to learn like a Stoic

For the Stoics, becoming a ‘wise sage’ was an ideal, rather than a realistic goal to achieve. We are all a work in progress...

“It’s time you realised that you have something in you more powerful and miraculous than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet”

- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 12.19

I’ve been learning from and studying the Stoics for over 10 years. Their timeless wisdom from ~2000 years ago has helped me across all areas of my life and continues to be the foundation of my philosophy for life and business.

The Stoics took learning and development seriously — making sure, as far as possible, that their words matched their actions, that they lived a life of virtue and integrity, and that they helped others through teaching — mostly through lectures.

One thing they knew for sure is that there’s no end to learning. Becoming a ‘wise sage’ was an ideal, rather than a realistic goal to achieve.

We are all a work in progress.

I’d love to share all my favorite passages with you, and perhaps I can do that over time, but for today I’ve picked out three quotes that have helped me to think differently about how we learn and what we do with what we’re learning.

“To read attentively — not to be satisfied with just getting the gist of it”

— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 1.7

We can translate this into anything that we’re learning: A book, an online class, an in-person lecture.

We should think more critically about what we’re learning. We don’t simply take it all at face value — we peel back the layers, dig deep and get to the root.

Learning is not passive. To be a student means to actively study the material.

As a result, we become much more active in what we’re learning, and what we’re learning has real structure, depth, and understanding.

Yes, it’s slower, it takes more time, but it proves to be much more valuable and fulfiling.

We live in a surface-level world telling us to learn more, to learn faster, to tell everyone what we’re learning and how much progress we’re making. If we can learn to ignore all of that, we might just be able to enjoy learning for its own sake.