How to Escape the Rat Race for Good Using 3 Stoic Success Principles

It’s never been easier

I spent many years of my life stuck in the rat race.

When I first went to the gym, I compared my body. When I studied, I compared my grades. When I worked, I compared my salary.

And every time I compared, I felt more miserable than before.

Chances are, you feel the same.

Sick and tired of comparing yourself to others.

But just like me back then, you don’t know where to start and what to do to live a life well-lived. That’s where Stoicism comes in handy because once understood it has the power to change everything.

Here are 3 Stoic success principles you can use to escape the rat race for good.

Embrace Amor Fati & Memento Mori

But be prepared that nothing will be the same.

Amor Fati means love of fate. It’s the idea to accept what happens to you because it was supposed to. No matter how “good” or “bad” it seems in the first place.

Memento mori is remembering we all must die at some point. It’s a human obligation, but instead of fearing it, we embrace it as the last act of life.

If you combine both and apply them to the rat race, most are living in, you’ll realize two truths:

I’m exactly where I should be, having all the things I should have.

That’s a powerful realization because it frees you from the pressure of comparing yourself to others. The second is:

At some point, I must die.

No matter how much you’ve earned, saved up, and bought, you can’t take it with you. You’re leaving every material possession here.

Then, what’s worth pursuing all of them in the first place?

Amor Fati and Memento Mori alone can change how you think about feeling behind others who have more. But they are frightening, too. Why?

Because they’ll make you realize how little you really need to live a fulfilling life.

Practice resilience through negative visualization

Sometimes, the most counter-intuitive way to do things is the best.

Without even knowing, I did that when it comes to my career. I never chose the right career. Instead, I tried many things I didn’t like, until I found one thing that stuck: writing.

Negative visualization is counter-intuitive, too.

Instead of focusing on the good, you visualize the worst-case scenario. You sit down and imagine how bad your life could be. How few things you might possess.

It’s a powerful concept when you feel like you don’t have enough.

Because as soon as you face adversity — even if it’s only in your imagination — you feel grateful for what you have.

The things, you lack, become irrelevant because the things you have, take center stage.

It’s a strategy often overlooked in our materialistic world, but remember:

You could always have less.

We have more than we need, already.

As soon as you realize that, you know it’s nonsense to take part in the rat race.

Understand the dichotomy of control

It’s hard to hear for some, but there’s only so much you can control.

No matter how hard you try, certain things lie beyond your reach of control. But in contrast to what most think, this isn’t a problem, it’s freedom.

It frees you from the pressure of responsibility.

You can learn for many years, get amazing grades, and do an even better job, only to never get the promotion you always wanted. Maybe even fired.

Or you can work hard, make tons of money, and buy all the stuff you don’t need to impress people you don’t like, only to realize it never made you happy in the first place.

Then you can either be angry at your boss, your friends, your god, the universe, or life itself.

Or you accept, embrace, and make the best of it.

Don’t get me wrong, this principle shouldn’t be your excuse. Because there are still many things you’re responsible for.

But it’s a reminder, telling you it’s not your world you’re living in.

Stoicism believes in the driving force of logos, which could be god or the universe. Anyway, logos has certain plans, we can’t understand but shouldn’t fight.

When it comes to control, logos has this funny habit of reminding us that we can only do so much.

I could write for 3 years on Medium, like Eve Arnold, and nothing happens. That’s a possibility.

But it’s not in my control.

In my control is showing up every single day to try to help improve both lives.

Everything else is up to the logos to decide.

These 3 Stoic success principles give you the chance to escape the rat race for good. But you need to practice them daily to feel the benefits:

• embrace Amor Fati & Memento Mori
• practice negative visualization
• understand the dichotomy of control