It’s a simple question: What constitutes a good day? Take a few moments to think about it and see what you come up with, if you come up with anything at all. Perhaps you’ll agree with me that it’s often the most simple questions that are the toughest to answer.

In a talk about Stoicism in the Waking Up app (“The Stoic Take on Social Media”), philosophy professor William B. Irvine describes the fundamentals of a Stoic’s good day:

A good day will be one, in which you experience few negative emotions and an abundance of positive emotions, including feelings of delight, awe, and even joy. Your encounters with these positive emotions, however, will be ephemeral, often lasting for only a few seconds. Metaphorically speaking, they will be the raisins in the pudding of life. From the Stoic point of view, we should arrange our days so that they are the philosophical equivalent of a raisin pudding.

It’s a simple answer to a simple question. Above all, it’s an honest, thoughtful, and beautiful answer, or at least I think so. Why should the answer be any more complicated or spectacular than that?

Good days add up to a good life. By each day minimizing the amount of negative emotions and instead focusing on positive emotions – however rare they may be – life will inevitably taste better. And as you might expect, the Stoics have a toolbox that helps us in that.

One of the “power tools” in the toolbox is the idea of making the most out of our present situation, wherever we are and whatever the circumstances may be. As Marcus Aurelius put it: “Life is short. That’s all there is to say. Get what you can from the present – thoughtfully, justly”.

I think it’s a great tool for minimizing negative emotions and zooming in on the positive ones, day by day, year by year.