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This Self-Mastery letter is a bit different from normal and rather fittingly, I’m writing it from a coffee shop in Milan, Italy.

Let’s get into it.

Stoic Wisdom

I’ve been a fan of stoicism from the moment I first discovered it 5 years ago.

I was 17, scrolling the internet and I came across a quote by some guy called Marcus Aurelius.

I ended up going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole and became obsessed.

There was something about the quotes, written 1000s of years ago by the most powerful men alive yet still applicable to a lost 17-year-old in the 21st century searching for something, anything.

There was something about the philosophy, for the first time in my life, it allowed me to feel in control. It allowed me to realise life is mine for the taking. It was both empowering and liberating.

Stoicism changed my life.

Now, in all honesty, when I first discovered stoicism at 17, I didn’t do much with it.

It was something I would read but not implement (like everything I tried at that age)

It wasn’t until 3 years later that I started to take action, embody the stoic philosophy, and see the true power it had.

Creating The Path

In my eyes, stoicism opened the doors.

It lead to me exploring similar philosophies, creating my own conclusion, connecting dots, and eventually stumbling across and crafting my own idea of Self-Mastery.

You see, in my eyes, stoicism was an early version of Self-Mastery.

It laid the foundations for what was to come.

Stoicism’s main philosophy is focusing on what you can control - yourself - and not worrying about anything else. Because why would you? If you can’t control it, you can’t change it, and worrying about it is only wasted energy that could be spent on what you can control.

Let’s compare that to Self-Mastery.

Self-Mastery is about mastering your thoughts, actions, and craft - or in simple terms, mastering yourself (I see your craft as an extension of yourself)

Mastering yourself requires you to focus solely on what you can control (yourself) and not worrying about anything else - the stoic philosophy.

To achieve Self-Mastery, you must be stoic in every way.

Self-Mastery requires stoicism, but it is not stoicism.

Stoicism is a mindset where you focus on what you can control, Self-Mastery is a culmination of mastering different areas of your life to allow you to master your mind, actions, and craft.

The stoics paved the way for Self-Mastery, and very likely embodied it without ever being aware of it.

One of the first steps to achieving Self-Mastery is rewiring your mind and part of that is removing limiting beliefs but also building empowering beliefs - one of which is stoicism.

Without it, you’ll get so caught up in things that don’t matter and things you can’t control that achieving mastery of anything is impossible.

I believe Self-Mastery is a natural evolution of stoicism.

If we take stoicism to be an early (or maybe the earliest or earliest recorded) train of thought that involves self-control, it makes sense that over time it would develop, change, adapt, and become mastery of mind, actions, and craft - Self-Mastery.

Zeno of Citium, the first stoic, has my favourite quote of all time, “Man conquers the world by conquering himself.”

Self-Mastery or Stoicism?

After all of this, you might be thinking “Wait, Ross, are you telling me to forget about Stoicism?”

No.

This isn’t an “or” situation, this is an “and” situation.

Instead of Self-Mastery “or” Stoicism, it’s Self-Mastery “and” Stoicism.

However, I do believe Self-Mastery will be the next wave that takes over the world.

Every day I see more and more people putting “Self-Mastery” in their bio, creating content around it, and discussing it - the movement is spreading.

Now, I do believe Self-Mastery has some advantages over Stoicism.

It’s well-rounded.

Stoicism focuses largely on 1 area.

Self-Mastery focuses on every area.

It gives a goal and direction

Stoicism is a philosophy that you can embody, but that’s it.

Self-Mastery gives you a goal, it gives you something to aim toward - mastering every area of your life.

It’s actionable

Because Self-Mastery gives you a goal and direction, action follows.

But again, this isn’t an “or” question, it’s an “and” statement.

Stoicism is a foundational layer of Self-Mastery and should be embodied.

Either way, Self-Mastery is the natural evolution of Stoicism.

So if you’ve embodied stoicism to any level, welcome to the world of Self-Mastery.

- Ross

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