Being Stoic in the Face of Uncertainty

I have studied Stoic philosophy in some detail and I am certain that their greatest contribution lies in the consequences their philosophy has for how we should be living our lives, and how we should be dealing with adversity. I think that these Stoic insights, this Stoic attitude, is particularly relevant to all South Africans in the current SA political climate, given the uncertainty many of us face.

The best way to show how the Stoic attitude is helpful is give the analogy the Stoics used when explaining how we should be living our lives. The Stoics compared living a good life to the art of archery. The idea is that we must live our lives in the same way in which a skilled archer should practice the art of archery.

With archery, a skilled archer should concern himself with practicing the art of archery excellently, i.e. he must attend to his stance, draw, sight profile, release procedure, etc. and ensure he gets all these things right. Whether or not the archer manages to hit the target is dependent upon factors that are external to the archer. Something might come in between the arrow’s trajectory and the target, the target might move, some force may affect the flight of the arrow, etc. As such, the target is only relevant as a facilitator of the techniques of archery; it provides the raw materials for the practice of archery. Hitting the target, whilst the point of the whole endeavour of archery, should not be the main concern of the skilled archer. The skilled archer must focus on the processes of archery, the things that are within his/her control. Furthermore, it is only through such deliberate attention paid to the actions involved in archery that one can master the art of archery. It is only by getting the process right that the archer can have any hope of hitting the target. The archer aims to hit the target, but does not concern himself with hitting the target, he concerns himself with archery.

Living a good life, similarly to archery, is about concerning oneself with what is in your own hands, your contribution, and not about producing or realising a particular result, even if it may be considered appropriate. What actually happens is always beyond our capacity to truly control. What is significant is that we concisely pursue the course of action that is appropriate and do it solely for the sake of doing it well. Once we have determined what the best course of action is, we must only worry about doing it well, and put concerns about the result out of our minds. This is what is in our power, whether or not the action realises in the manner otherwise expected is not within our power, and so is not relevant to living a good life. There can be no uncertainty we worry about what is in front of us.

This is very helpful to bear in mind, particularly during times of whole-scale uncertainty. The beauty of the Stoic attitude is that we can achieve peace of mind and happiness, even in the most uncertain times, if only we can remember to concern ourselves with what is in our power.

These ideas should not be foreign to us. We all know this. We are all aware that we can overcome our doubt and anxiety about the future by choosing the appropriate course of action and concerning ourselves solely with doing it well. “The world is falling apart, but I am happy because I am doing my job well.”

The lesson the Stoics taught was to let go of the outcomes. Allow that which is not in your power to become irrelevant to you. Concern yourself only with what is in your power, which is the thing directly in front of you. The task immediately at hand which you must, for the sake of your own happiness, do well because your happiness lies in doing it well, just like the pleasure of the archer lies in doing the movements of archery perfectly.