In A Guide to the Good Life, an excellent introduction to Modern Stoicism, William B. Irvine describes the “dichotomy of control”, i.e. things that are “in our power” and “not in our power”, and expands the concept into a “trichotomy of control” by highlighting the existence of things over which we have “some but not complete control”.

By not worrying about things over which we have no control, we can minimize anxiety and enhance our tranquillity – key desired outcomes in Modern Stoicism. This simple piece of advice has had a stunning impact on me.

Another piece of advice is that regarding things over which we have some control (but not full control) we should pursue internal rather than external goals. The example Irvine gives is a game of tennis, in which our goal should be not to win, but to compete as hard as we can. This, on the surface deceptively simple advice, has turned out to be much harder to implement in practice, at least for me.

Most of the stories covered and broadcasted by the news media are about things we have no control over. Perhaps it’s time to cut down on the daily news consumption again? At least if we value tranquillity above anxiety.