The ancient Stoics believed that we can have happy and fulfilling lives simply by living by a few core principles. After all, they thought everyone was capable of greatness, at least by their own definition.
In this post, we’ll discuss what the Stoics deemed the four “cardinal virtues” before running through personal values and a few exercises to define your own.
For a primer on the philosophy, you may be interested in Stoicism in a nutshell.
Eudaimonia & Arreté
Before diving into the Stoic virtues, it’s worth considering why they’re important. We can learn the main benefits of Stoic virtue and personal values with the concepts eudaimonia and arreté.
Eudaimonia is the idea that we thrive in our lives by being on good terms (eu) with our highest self (daimon). We achieve eudaimonia by “living with arreté”, which means expressing your highest self in every moment. Our highest self acts consistently with our core values.
A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness.
– Seneca
To achieve arreté (sometimes even translated as “virtue”) requires reason in our actions and living harmoniously with our deepest values. While it may be easier said than done, living in harmony with your values, ultimately starts by defining your core values.
The result of this pursuit is the Stoic definition of happiness.
The Four Stoic Cardinal Virtues
The Stoics had a clear idea of what it means to be happy and live a virtuous life. They believed that nature wants us to thrive in life. We even can use our actions in life to conquer death.
In Stoicism, virtue is split into to four parts:
- Wisdom
- Courage
- Justice
- Self-discipline
Everyone can interpret these four core virtues in their own way. Stoics often reflected on what the virtues meant to them in their Stoic meditation practice.
We can all use a daily Stoic routine to reflect on our progress toward virtue.
Wisdom as a Stoic Virtue
The Stoics often judged Wisdom as: good sense, good calculation, quick-wittedness, discretion, and resourcefulness. There was value in practical knowledge, good judgment and perspective.
Practical knowledge included ideas such as what we ought to choose, what we ought to beware of, and what is indifferent. There was great emphasis placed on knowledge of what was good and evil and of what was neither good nor evil.
Ultimately, things outside our control cannot be good or evil – only our actions and character can be judged good or bad. That’s where the Stoic To Do list comes in.
Opposite the virtue of wisdom are the vices of folly and thoughtlessness. To go about life without thinking about deeper meanings and the consequences of one’s actions. We must ultimately be aware of our situation to understand the opportunities we have for improvement and success.
I feel wisdom is the starting point for Stoic virtue. That’s because Stoics must begin with practical knowledge such as the dichotomy of control, amor fati and katalepsis.
Of course, the other virtues are also important. Especially in terms of implementation. Wisdom without action is foolish.
That’s why it’s wise to split our value of the four core virtues equally.
Justice as a Stoic Virtue
The Stoics valued justice in terms of piety, honesty, equity, and fair dealing. Justice goes beyond law and the courtroom, and extends to our base human instincts – to create a better world.
Marcus Aurelius, Stoicism’s philosopher king once wrote that Justice was the most important virtue. He believed that benefitting the common good was the ultimate goal – it’s “what we were born to do”.
Sympatheia is the belief in mutual interdependence among everything in the universe, that we are all one. Justice and Sympatheia were the foundation of me learning to value Kindness from a Stoic perspective. The same idea can also help us learn non-judgmental mindfulness.
We are all living a shared experience. Everything is interconnected. This concept is like Karma: What goes around, comes around.
We should always aim to treat others fairly and honestly, even when it involves difficult conversations. After all, isn’t that how we’d like others to treat us?
Courage as a Stoic Virtue
The Stoics valued courage in terms of endurance, confidence, high-mindedness, cheerfulness, and industriousness. We take responsibility for the lives we want and always aim to express our inner daimon.
We know what is right, and we are brave enough to reach our goals – no matter how difficult (or at times even futile) it may seem. As Epictetus once said, for a person to thrive:
“Two words must be committed to memory: persist and resist.”
Stoic courage is the courage to face misfortune, even to face death doing what you know is right. It’s the courage to risk yourself for the sake of your fellow man and to hold to your principles, even when others are rewarded for disregarding theirs. This courage to speak your mind and always insist on the truth is the Stoic way.
The Stoic mindset is to expect life to be challenging. After all, Hercules would not have become the great hero we know of today had he spent his life drinking beer on his couch. Instead, he spent his time battling giants and monsters, because it needed to be done. And he just so happened to grow in the process.
The Hercules metaphor can be applied to any historical person we think of as great. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, the list goes on. Great people become great by facing challenges head-on. Not simply by expecting greatness – while drinking beer on the sofa.
Life should be challenging. The Obstacle is the Way.
Self-control as a Stoic Virtue
The Stoics valued self-discipline, or temperance as it’s often referred to, in terms of good discipline, seemliness, modesty, and self-control.
Temperance means we achieve our goals and wake up early to do our job. We show up everyday and play our parts – in the show called Life to the best of our abilities. All the while, we do not brag of our wealth or achievements. And we avoid unhealthy cravings and bad habits. The virtue of self-control is found between excess and deficiency.
Temperance is knowing that what you have is enough – not just in terms of physical things, but also in our habits and abilities. This idea of abundance, that we have everything that we need, can help us appreciate and be grateful for what we have in our lives.
Appreciation and gratitude are the foundations of happiness. It’s also the foundation of an ancient financial lesson.
Of course, we’re not limited to the four core Stoic virtues. We can build on wisdom, courage, justice and self-discipline as a foundation for our own personal values.
Why are Personal Values important?
There are many reasons you might want to better understand your personal values. Personal values can help you figure out what you should do in life by understanding what’s most important to you.
Understand who you are
Understanding your values helps you know yourself better. Values are principles you’ve developed over a lifetime. They’re the things that matter most to you, what your life might boil down to.
While the Stoics believed that everyone should live consistently with the four virtues, everyone is unique in their own personal values.
Personal values are the reason people have different goals and priorities in life. They’re usually deeply ingrained in our psyche and contribute to our unique view of the world.
Knowing what really matters to you is a competitive advantage that not everyone has. Understanding my values even helped me start this website.
Live your best life
Your values help you follow your own path and know you’re doing the right thing.
Living your best life starts with understanding what’s most important in your life. Everyone wants something different in life, so there is really no wrong answer here.
To be your best self and live your best life, first you must live in accordance with your personal values.
So how do we define our values?
How to Define Your Personal Values?
In practice, defining your values can be more difficult than it seems, even if you think you have a pretty good idea what they are. That’s why it’s helpful to ask yourself different types of questions.
Answering the following questions will help you think about your values in different ways. This should make it easier to define your personal values in the next step.
We recommend taking notes for your own reference and meditating on these questions for further reflection.
Disclaimer: We adapted the following questions from the SMRT Online Course and Donald Robertson’s Stoic Values Clarification exercise.
Direct Questions
These direct questions are pretty straight-forward and should help you understand your priorities in life.
- What’s the most important thing to you?
- What do you want your life to stand for?
- How would you want your life to be remembered?
- What do you want to spend your life doing?
- Who do you want to be in your various relationships and roles in life (e.g., as a parent, a friend, at work, and in life generally)?
Modelling Questions
These modelling questions aim to identify traits in other people that you value.
- Think about the people you admire – in general terms. What qualities do you admire about them?
- Think of three specific people (real or fictional) that you admire. What qualities make them admirable?
- Try to imagine someone perfectly wise and good. What virtues does this person possess?
When you know specific traits you value, you’re better able to develop these traits within yourself and become more like the people you admire.
Chain Questions
Chain questions involve focusing on a specific activity and probing it with questions.
- Pick some examples of things you currently spend your time voluntarily doing, such as visiting friends, or going to work, etc.
- Ask yourself what you’re trying to achieve by doing those things.
- For the “sake of what” do you do them?
Keep repeating the questions in this way, probing further in the direction of your underlying values. You may find this highlights some of your life priorities.
Chain questions may even lead you to question the importance of some of the things you actually spend your time doing.
Perspective-Shifting Questions
The following questions help us shift perspectives to see how we currently spend our time in a new light.
- If you knew that you only had one month left to live, how would you want to spend the remaining time before you die?
- If you didn’t have any anxiety, what would you choose to spend your time doing?
- What would you do in life, if you knew you were guaranteed success?
- If you could give your child one piece of life advice, what would you tell them?
Clarifying your Values
Now that you’ve answered the value-defining questions, you can begin clarifying your values. Reflect on what you deem most desirable, healthy and praiseworthy.
Desirable
What things do you find most desirable in life or spend most time pursuing?
Healthy
What do you think are the healthiest character traits a person can possess?
Praiseworthy
What qualities do you find most admirable or praiseworthy in other people?
Think beyond the core four Stoic virtues and try to make a comprehensive list of your personal values. There’s no one answer – or structure to follow. Just do whatever feels most important to you.
Writing your values down on paper makes them clearer and more accessible, which also makes it easier to put them into practice.
Putting your Values into Practice
Clarifying your values is ultimately pretty pointless unless you’re acting in accord with them, and that often means changing your behaviour, which can take courage and self-discipline.
Try to think of specific ways you can live more consistently with your core values. Specificity usually makes it easier to change habits and behaviours.
However, you may find it helpful to brainstorm a list of both general strategies or categories of things you can do, such as spending more time with your family, and very specific activities that would fall under those headings, such as Sunday dinners and family holidays.
Regular meditation and reflection will help you develop consistency and better align your actions with your core values. This is how we approach Modern Stoicism.
Develop your personal values with Stoic virtue and Mind & Practice today.