The Stoic Mantra for Personal Agency: Playing The Cards You’re Dealt

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." - Maya Angelou

In life, we are all dealt different hands.

No one is the same.

And the sad truth is that you don’t have a choice other than to play the hand you’re dealt.

You can’t choose your family.

You didn’t choose your genetics.

You can’t choose what era you were born in or what socioeconomic status you were born into.

These were the cards you’re dealt. The ‘choice’ was already made for you.

That said you do have a choice everyday —a choice that extends far beyond selecting your outfit or brewing your morning coffee.

It's the choice to set the tone for the entirety of your day.

Setting the tone is your way of controlling your environment and your attitude, not just physically but emotionally and energetically.

It's the key to how you interact with others, the mood and energy of the room, and the attitude you choose to wear.

Setting the tone is a conscious decision to take charge of your life.

It’s your ability to play the cards you’re dealt with the intention of your own choosing.

You can either wake up with a positive attitude or a negative one.

You can either dread the commute or relish in the serenity of it.

You can roll your eyes or greet your coworker with a smile.

You can either tell yourself you are tired or tell yourself you are alive.

You can win the day or you can lose it.

Enter Stoic philosophy, a timeless guide that beckons us to recognize the locus of control within ourselves.

The Stoics believed in the power of personal agency, emphasizing that external events are beyond our control, but our reactions are not.

Viktor E. Frankl, an Austrian psychologist and holocaust survivor, wrote in his book Man’s Search for Meaning,

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

This encapsulates the heart of setting the tone—it's not about controlling the world around us, but about taking charge of our responses and attitudes, regardless of the good or evil that surrounds us.

Applying this concept to your interactions and relationships, you become the architect of your life’s blueprint. You decide whether the atmosphere is harmonious or discordant, and this decision is the imperative to shaping your experience and life.

You can choose your actions.

You can choose your attitude.

You can choose your desires, pursuits, opinions, and aversions.

You are the one that sets the tone.

Own the Process,

Tim

Author of Mastery Monday

Student & Founder