A new identity

I don’t write on Nerdgineer often, other than shaving my Shave of the Day posts. I like to think that I am making changes in my life, creating a better version of myself. I’m not sure that I am though.

I previously started reading through The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, and while there are some good ideas in there, they haven’t become engrained in my life. The idea is still there, but I feel like it is somewhat just a fad tapping into the bandwagon of swearing in books and their titles.

However, a YouTube recommendation opened my eyes to Stoicism through a video by Ryan Holiday. I can not remember the exact video, but it opened a rabbit hole right in front of me.

I have been on another spending spree buying books written by some of the original stoics (actually their English translations), as well as Ryan himself. The books I bought include:

• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Martin Hammond)
• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Gregory Hays)
• Letters from a Stoic by Seneca (Robin Campbell)
• The Daily Stoic (Ryan Holiday)
• Lives of the Stoics (Ryan Holiday)

So I fell down the rabbit hole with these books, and I have started reading them. I am also listening to podcasts where passages are read, and then the speaker shares their thoughts on that particular passage.

I’m feeling as though I might take on a position here of sharing my thoughts for these passages based on a combination of my reading and thoughts on them, the thoughts of those I listen to, as well as the translators for the versions that I am reading.

My gut says that this will become another one of my fanciful ideas that I start, but in three months decide that it isn’t working for me and stop writing altogether.

So there are some real questions I need to answer:

• Do I start writing to potentially stop in 3 months?
• Do I not write at all and rely on my memory to change?
• Do I try to call myself a stoic and write as a way of enforcing my new stoic identity?
• Something else altogether?