Mastering Impulse
This week you are working with one of the most practical problems in Stoic life: the gap between knowing what is good and actually doing it. Impulse is where philosophy meets the moment, and where most of us lose ground. Over seven days you will move from understanding what an impulse is, through the techniques for catching and redirecting it, all the way to a practice of active, ongoing guardianship of your own inner life.
Passage
SOME THINGS are under our control, while others are not under our control. Under our control are conception, choice, desire, aversion, and, in a word, everything that is our own doing; not under our control are our body, our property, reputation, office, and, in a word, everything that is not our own doing. Furthermore, the things under our control are by nature free, unhindered, and unimpeded; while the things not under our control are weak, servile, subject to hindrance, and not our own. Remember, therefore, that if what is naturally slavish you think to be free, and what is not your own to be your own, you will be hampered, will grieve, will be in turmoil, and will blame both gods and men; while if you think only what is your own to be your own, and what is not your own to be, as it really is, not your own, then no one will ever be able to exert compulsion upon you, no one will hinder you, you will blame no one, will find fault with no one, will do absolutely nothing against your will, you will have no personal enemy, no one will harm you, for neither is there any harm that can touch you. With such high aims, therefore, remember that you must bestir yourself with no slight effort to lay hold of them, but you will have to give up some things entirely, and defer others for the time being. But if you wish for these things also, and at the same time for both office and wealth, it may be that you will not get even these latter, because you aim also at the former, and certainly you will fail to get the former, which alone bring freedom and happiness. Make it, therefore, your study at the very outset to say to every harsh external impression, “You are an external impression and not at all what you appear to be.” After that examine it and test it by these rules which you have, the first and most important of which is this: Whether the impression has to do with the things which are under our control, or with those which are not under our control; and, if it has to do with some one of the things not under our control, have ready to hand the answer, “It is nothing to me.”
— Epictetus, Handbook 1
Reflection
Epictetus now gives you the structural reason why impulse mastery matters at all: because most of what triggers your impulses falls outside the circle of what is truly yours. The body, reputation, what others think, what others do, these are not your own doing. When you treat them as if they were, you put your peace at the mercy of things you cannot finally control. What is yours is desire, aversion, choice, how you conceive of things. The discipline of impulse is really the practice of knowing which circle you are in at any moment, and refusing to reach outside it.
Go deeper
Identify a current situation where you feel a strong pull, either desire or resistance, and trace it carefully: is the object of that impulse actually within your control, or are you directing your energy at something that ultimately belongs to the 'not your own' column?
Practice
The Two Circles
Draw two circles on a piece of paper: label one 'mine' and the other 'not mine.' For twelve minutes, list the things currently on your mind, worries, wants, irritations, hopes, and place each one in the correct circle. Be honest and specific. When you finish, look at where most of your mental energy has been going this week. No further action is required; the seeing is the exercise.