Handle what is in your control and practice indifference to the rest.

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive — to breathe, to [Coach Tony]( Coach Tony [@tonystubblebine]( “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive — to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love” — Marcus Aurelius From [6 Drawing on How to Be a Stoic]( by [Mark Moschel](. _ A Simple Stoic Exercise. Handle what is in your control and practice indifference to the rest. Just reminding yourself of where you do and don’t have control is an eye-opener. I can choose to not be angry. I have total control over it. The train has already left the station. I have no control over it. I have a competition coming up. I can win it. I have partial control over it. That’s from A Guide to the Good Life by William Irvine. And [a helpful and nuanced take on this concept of Trichotomy of Control]( by [C Chakrapani](. I find Stoicism and Grit to be related. Grit is a “just do it” mentality and Stoicism often answers for me, “do what?” Math nerds, how would you interpret this study? I’ve held off on including much academic research on grit because everything I’ve found has looked suspect: either wrong, overblown, or likely misunderstood. It’s enough for me that grit means something to you all and that I’ve seen practical results from working with past clients. Here’s an example of [a grit study]( that I could use your help interpreting. Does grit help soldiers pass special forces training? Look at the R-squared in Table 1B. Am I reading that right that ~2% of the explanation for why someone stuck with the training is based on their grit, independent of fitness and intelligence? In my opinion, that is a meaningful amount, but still, the study leaves me with plenty of questions. That’s why I say, suspect. This is a very nascent research area. The problems with psychology research. You probably already know this, that a huge number of [psychology research fails to replicate](. My experience is that even the good ones are probably a shade misunderstood. For example, see my experience on how [growth mindset needs to be understood as a habit change]( rather than just an educational change. This is why I always encourage you to be your own scientist when it comes to your goals. We are complicated creatures living in a complicated world. No advice works the same for everyone. So don’t be afraid both to try something and to move on if it isn’t making your life better. Related, here is a [great discussion here about whether the marshmallow study has or hasn’t been replicated]( by [Sabine Doebel](. _ Question for you: What is in your control that you should start controlling? A thing that always bugged me about the coaching industry was how vague the specialties sounded. What is a life coach exactly? Can a business coach really help with any area of business? That seems like a stretch. So when I launched a [coaching directory](, I tried to list coaches who had easy to understand specialties. For example, I just hired a coach who is specialized in "write better newsletters." He's not a business coach, which sounds too broad to me, he's a newsletter coach. Next time you have a big goal, even now, please feel free to reach out to me. My mission is to make available a coach for every goal you could ever imagine. Don’t miss out on the other issues by Coach Tony [Become a member for $5 per month]( Did you enjoy this issue? [Yes]( [No]( [Coach Tony]( Coach Tony [@tonystubblebine]( Tips, inspirations, and knowledge on productivity, happiness, health, and making an impact on our world. Official email of the Better Humans publication on Medium. (@bttrhumans) You can manage your subscription [here](. In order to unsubscribe, click [here](. If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe [here](. Created with [Revue by Twitter](.