Marcus Aurelius Purpose: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Marcus Aurelius Purpose, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Practices that may help
- Meditations, as Marcus Practiced It
Meditations was Marcus Aurelius’ private journal — a set of self-directed exercises for keeping his judgment steady while running an empire: writing to himself, rehearsing the day’s difficult people, separating events from his opinions about them, and remembering how small and brief it all is. The strongest evidence for these is their direct line into cognitive behavioral therapy and into expressive-writing and self-distancing research. - Orient action toward the common good
Before acting, ask: does this serve only me, or does it contribute to something beyond myself?
The Stoic Discipline of Action - Write to yourself, not for an audience
Keep a private record of philosophical self-argument, not a performance or a diary.
The Stoic Daily Review - Place it in the scale of the whole
Set your problem against the size of the universe and the brevity of all human time.
Meditations, as Marcus Practiced It - Act as a rational social animal — remember your dual nature
Before acting, check both: is this rational (consistent with reason and reality)? And is it social (does it serve others)?
The Stoic Discipline of Action - Write to yourself (the Meditations method)
Keep a private notebook where you argue yourself back to your own principles, in your own words.
Meditations, as Marcus Practiced It - Premeditate the difficult people
Each morning, expect to meet the ungrateful, the arrogant, and the dishonest — and pre-decide your response.
Meditations, as Marcus Practiced It - The Inner Citadel
The "inner citadel" is Pierre Hadot’s name for a core idea in Marcus Aurelius: your own rational mind — your power to judge and assent — is the one place that cannot be taken from you by external events. Marcus calls it the "hegemonikon" (ruling faculty). Building it means training your faculty of assent so it responds to impressions deliberately rather than being yanked by them. The practices are largely mechanistic and clinical in their evidence base, via the well-known Stoicism-to-CBT lineage. - Give full attention to the present action
Do what you are doing completely — not while managing the past or planning the future.
The Stoic Discipline of Action - Account for what you owe others
Regularly recall, by name, the people and gifts that made you who you are.
Meditations, as Marcus Practiced It
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- Everything I’m chasing right now is for me
- Whenever I write anything down, part of me is quietly performing for some imagined reader, so it comes out polished and dishonest
- This one problem has swelled up to fill my entire field of vision, like it’s the only thing in the world
- I keep landing in one of two ditches
- I know exactly how I want to handle things when I’m calm, and then the moment hits and I forget all of it
Related concerns
- How To Build Self Discipline Marcus Aurelius By Philosophies For Life
Meditations was Marcus Aurelius’ private journal — a set of self-directed exercises for keeping his judgment steady while running an empire: writing to himself, rehearsing the day’s difficult people, separating events from his opinions about them, and remembering how small and brief it all is. The strongest evidence for these is their direct line into cognitive behavioral therapy and into expressive-writing and self-distancing research.
- Marcus Aurelius Present
Meditations was Marcus Aurelius’ private journal — a set of self-directed exercises for keeping his judgment steady while running an empire: writing to himself, rehearsing the day’s difficult people, separating events from his opinions about them, and remembering how small and brief it all is. The strongest evidence for these is their direct line into cognitive behavioral therapy and into expressive-writing and self-distancing research.
- Marcus Aurelius Stoic Philosophy
Treat every day’s difficulties as training material for strengthening the ruling faculty.
Daily training of the ruling faculty
- Rational Animal Marcus Aurelius
Before acting, check both: is this rational (consistent with reason and reality)? And is it social (does it serve others)?
Act as a rational social animal — remember your dual nature
- Stoic Philosophy Marcus Aurelius
Meditations was Marcus Aurelius’ private journal — a set of self-directed exercises for keeping his judgment steady while running an empire: writing to himself, rehearsing the day’s difficult people, separating events from his opinions about them, and remembering how small and brief it all is. The strongest evidence for these is their direct line into cognitive behavioral therapy and into expressive-writing and self-distancing research.
- Stoicism By Marcus Aurelius
Meditations was Marcus Aurelius’ private journal — a set of self-directed exercises for keeping his judgment steady while running an empire: writing to himself, rehearsing the day’s difficult people, separating events from his opinions about them, and remembering how small and brief it all is. The strongest evidence for these is their direct line into cognitive behavioral therapy and into expressive-writing and self-distancing research.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.