3 Stoic Principles For Building A Creative Career

I’m always eager to find helpful insights for navigating life. Stoicism has been experiencing a resurgence of late, thanks in part to books like A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy and to Ryan Holiday, whose books and Daily Stoic emails have made the ancient precepts relevant for contemporary thinkers.

Stoicism is a philosophy about finding happiness in the “now” moment. It’s about controlling your emotions and the thoughts you think to maximize your life experience. It’s about understanding that anything outside yourself can only affect you if you choose to let it.

Stoic qualities and tools can be essential to building a creative career. You can’t fall apart every time you have an audition, a pitch, or you hear criticism of your work. It’s not always beneficial to get over-excited when the good news rolls in, either.

Instead, the stoics would have you ride through any storm, for better or worse, with an even keel.

In an email subject heading, Holiday boldly proclaimed, “This is how to respond to everything.” He says, “The Stoics believed that no matter what was thrown at us, we could always respond with hard work, honesty and helping others as best we can.”

This, he says, held true for the stoic emperor Marcus Aurelius (who you might recall from the opening scenes of Gladiator) as well as for stoic Musonius, who dug ditches on a chain gang in exile.

Holiday’s best-selling book borrows its title from what is perhaps among the most famous stoic tenants - The Obstacle Is The Way.

1. The Obstacle Is the Way

What does that mean?

It’s about reframing a problem to look for an opportunity.

Few lives sail by smoothly with no adversity. When something is blocking you from achieving your goals, try changing your perspective to see how the problem may actually steer you in the direction you need to go. Overcoming an obstacle helps you become the person you’re meant to be.

For example, I’ve written a screenplay about the stoic and extraordinary hero-next-door Roger Cruickshank. Among the many obstacles Roger has overcome, he shattered his leg ten months before he was meant to compete as a skier in the 2006 Olympics. He lost his place on the Olympic team and the surgeon told him he’d never walk without a limp, let alone ski race again.

But Roger would have none of that.

While he was recovering and unable to ski, he set about rebuilding his body in the gym with an Olympic weightlifting coach. He put on muscle and weight. He also worked on rebuilding his mindset, working closely with renowned sports psychologist Don MacNaughton to address the fear that can set in after a crash, to cope with the pain he would inevitably feel on skis, and to develop a positive, confident mindset toward racing.

When he was finally able to get back to training, he was faster than he had been before the accident. In the very last competition before the Games, he regained his place on the team… and in dramatic fashion - by only seven-hundredths of a second.

The obstacle, his broken leg, led him to improve his overall physical condition.

In my own life, I’ve always wanted to write screenplays… but I didn’t know how and I didn’t come from a world where anyone worked in the industry. So instead, I drafted novels I hoped one day to publish and then sell the rights so someone would turn them into movies. Rather a long way to the goal! When Covid hit, the company for which I worked went under. I took the opportunity of the time off to learn how to write a screenplay.

It was challenging, a little intimidating… and also exciting! I was finally doing what I’d always wanted to do and I was loving it. But it took the obstacle of losing my job to find myself.

The stoics have a saying: “amor fati” - love of fate. In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius says: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way." If you’re facing an uphill battle, believe the hill is there for a reason. It can make you stronger.

Another quote from Meditations provides a great visual image: “a blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.”

For proof of concept, look back on the challenges you’ve faced and ask yourself if you are stronger, better, and wiser now.

2. “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” William Shakespeare

On the first day of ninth-grade history, my teacher said something that has stuck with me all my life: truth is perception. We take in the facts of any given situation, interpret them, and create a version of reality for ourselves over which we have control.

This is glass half-full, half-empty kind of logic.

Marcus Aurelius put it this way: “Choose not to be harmed - and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed - and you haven’t been.”

As an example, Stage 32’s Jason Mirch said, “NO stands for Next Opportunity.”

Recently, I was in a situation where a frenemy was chosen for something I wanted. I was frustrated, angry, embarrassed… jealous. Not my prettiest colors.

I had to do a lot of soul-searching.

Then, in a clear “aha!” moment, it came to me. I was choosing to allow myself to be bothered.

I was feeling insecure about my own abilities and my ego was irritated that there was now objective proof I wasn’t as good at this particular skill. But I didn’t have to feel that way.

It was the first time in my life that I understood the saying “other people’s opinions of me are none of my business.” I don’t have to concern myself with what the frenemy thinks of me. I don’t have to let myself feel inferior and embarrassed. I could choose to feel happy with what I’d received and know that I’m actually not in competition with anyone else; my journey is my own.

A weird thing happened when I decided her opinion had no power over me… She changed. She stopped the little competitive digs she’d made for years. I could feel the shift between us and suddenly, after all the time I’d known her, we became real friends.

Decide not to be bothered by anyone else’s actions or opinions. Be in charge of what goes on in your brain. You can feel good any time you want simply by consciously choosing your thoughts.

Find something - anything - to feel good about: your neighbor’s beautiful flowers; bird song; a slice of pizza; a stranger’s smile. When you’re feeling low, retreat to your immediate “now” and think about what you like and what you can look forward to.

Too often, we are our own worst enemies, feeding our self-doubt and insecurities. Instead, we should pick ourselves up the way we’d expect a friend to do… pointing out to ourselves our worth. Reminding ourselves not to sweat the small stuff (or the big stuff for that matter).

After all, nothing really matters unless you decide to let it.

Our first job is to determine what we can control and what we can’t. Many are familiar with the concept thanks to Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer”:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

The creative arts, in particular, are so subjective. There are gatekeepers whose decisions on any given day about the work that means everything to us could come down to whether they are hungry or tired or stressed at the moment they read our submission or see our tape. Nothing we can do about that.

When we stop worrying about the things we can’t control, we set ourselves free. Holiday says, “Suddenly, we don’t need to think as much about the past or the future. We don’t have to care what people think about us. We don’t need to compare ourselves to anything or anyone.”

When you leave aside what is within other people’s control, you’re left with yourself. From yourself, you can expect your best if you are concerned moment to moment with choosing the action that will serve you best.

In The Obstacle is the Way, Holiday writes about Nick Saban, the coach of the University of Alabama football team. His method is to follow “The Process,” which entails focusing only on what’s immediately in front of you and within your control: this drill, this play, this game. Simply do what you need to do right now and don’t be distracted by larger, longer-term goals like awards or championships.

Holiday also points to Amelia Earheart. She wanted to fly. When she was offered the chance, it was not the circumstances she would have chosen. She wasn’t actually going to pilot the plane. The men who would chaperone her were paid a whole lot more. She was told she wasn’t the first choice and that her death was a very real possibility.

She could have let ego stand in her way. She could have said no on principle. But she didn’t. She jumped at the chance to fly any way she could. She got her start and built momentum. Less than five years later, she was the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic (Holiday, The Obstacle is the Way, pg 71-72).

Earheart couldn’t control the opportunity that was presented, but she could make the most of it and that’s what a stoic would do.

You can’t control if a casting director wants “to go another way,” or if the job you’re offered is smaller and less glamorous than you were hoping. All you can do is offer your best effort, make the most of any opportunity, and let the chips fall where they may.

3. Strength, Perseverance, and Self-Control

Stoicism isn’t a philosophy for the mind, it’s a guide for living.

In his Daily Stoic email on June 1, 2022, Holiday wrote:

Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius’ adopted father and predecessor, was not a Stoic… … And yet, of all the people in Marcus’ life, Antoninus was the most Stoic. He was cool under pressure. He quietly went about his business. He was hard-working, self-sufficient, and never got worked up. He was a beloved leader. His mere presence put other people at ease.

From Antoninus, as he details in Book 1 of Meditations, Marcus learned how to get the best out of people, how to keep a simple diet and to serve others. Marcus learned the importance of compassion, self-reliance, taking responsibility, asking questions, surrounding yourself with good people, enjoying things but never overindulging. “Strength, perseverance, self-control,” Marcus writes to close out everything he learned from his stepfather, “the mark of a soul in readiness—indomitable.”

Antoninus… was what you might call a lower-case stoic: He didn’t know he was practicing philosophy. He just lived it. Which, as we frequently say, is the whole point of Stoicism. It’s what you do. It’s who you are. It’s acts of virtue. It’s what Epictetus said: Don’t talk about your philosophy, embody it.

Stoicism is largely about developing a new relationship between your mind, your emotions, and your actions. It’s about getting your ego and emotions out of the way so you can make the most of life’s adventures.

If you’re feeling a little lost, Stoicism might help you find a path straight to yourself and who you’re meant to be.

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