I’m a little weird when it comes to choosing my next book.

I usually avoid books that are more than 600 pages because I feel like it’ll take me too long to finish.

But then I also find myself steering away from books that are less than 100 pages because I have a weird feeling they’ll have nothing valuable to take away from it.

If it has something to offer, why would it be so short?

So you can assume my hesitancy when I picked up The Enchiridion.

At a whopping 25 pages, I’ve held TV manuals thicker than this.

And the only reason why I read it was because it’s by one of the most renowned Stoics who ever lived.

Epictetus.

Well if you want to get technical it was written by Epictetus’ student Arrian. It was a type of notebook that he used to write down all of Epictetus’ teachings during his lectures, but you get the idea.

And for those of you who know me, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is my favorite book of all time. Not that it matters, but it’s 170 pages.

And to give you a better perspective, The Enchiridion almost beat Meditations for first place.

That’s how good it is.

And I’m not exaggerating when I say this, but it truly changed my life.

There’s not a single page, actually, not a single paragraph that I didn’t take away something profound.

It’s not just a manual on overcoming anxiety, it’s also a guide on dealing with others, becoming your best self, disciplining your mind, and strategies on blocking out not only negative thoughts, but negative people.

And what makes it better is that it gives you the affirmations and methods to doing so.

It isn’t one of those books that hype you up about all this stuff you can do without even telling you how to do it.

Everything you could ever need to level up your life is all within 25 pages.

As much as I’d love to share with you every lesson I got from it, I only have time for one:

Pretty early in the book, Epictetus constantly reiterates the point of how it’s up to you to determine whether or not something, or someone, will affect you.

Specifically, “It is not events that disturb people, it is their judgments concerning them.”

In other words, it’s not what happens to you that causes your anxiety, it’s how you perceive it that upsets you.

I’ll give you an example.

About a month ago I was in the car with my girlfriend right after she found out the shop she works at got a bad review on Google.

Let’s just say she didn’t take it well.

She wasn’t only worried about getting reprimanded by her boss, but she was also anxious about other customers seeing it and the shop getting a bad rap.

And luckily for me, I was in the car when she called her co-worker about it.

And before I tell you how he reacted, this was someone who was working with her, helped prep the customer’s order, saw the customers, and dealt with them just as much as she did.

Can you guess how he responded?

For a moment he was angry, but it quickly died down to “So what?”

He explained to her that there’s nothing to worry about and that their boss will understand.

The exact same scenario, two different people, two different reactions.

One person perceived the event as catastrophic, and the other didn’t even bother giving it a second thought.

And it’s all because of their perception.

And luckily for us, our perception is something that we choose to create.

I’m not telling you that you have to always be optimistic, but I’m not saying to always be pessimistic either.

So next time you sense that anxiety start to well up inside of you, just ask yourself, “Am I causing this?”

Don’t let yourself be the reason why you can’t live a peaceful life.

And I shared this story because I wanted to show you how this little book is still relevant even 1,900 years later.

Even if The Enchiridion doesn’t sound like it’s up your alley, I still implore you to read it. Like I said, 30 minutes in and out.

You never know when a single book can change your life.

I know it did for me.

Until next time,
Isaiah Taylor

Dive Deeper

What I’m Currently Reading - I’m now reading Zero-Resistance Selling by Maxwell Maltz. A book on how to achieve extraordinary sales results using the techniques of Psycho-Cybernetics.

Quote Of The Week - “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” — Friedrich Nietzsche