Russell H Easy, PhD, MSc

Professor

And 2026 is here. This will be a year of change and renewal. I don’t do resolutions however I do take some time every January 1st to look back at the year and think about the successes and challenges. And then I look ahead and see how the existing challenges will impact the future and what I need to focus on and what I need to discard.

I share with you 7 stoic principles for 2026. They make a lot of sense to me.

Peace

  1. Focus on What You Can Control: Differentiate between external events (uncontrollable) and your responses (controllable), concentrating your energy only on your judgments, actions, and character.
  2. Virtue is the Only Good: Cultivate the four cardinal virtues—wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance—as the path to a good life, not external wealth or pleasure.
  3. The Obstacle Is the Way: View challenges, adversity, and setbacks not as hindrances, but as opportunities to practice virtue and become stronger.
  4. Memento Mori (Remember You Will Die): Contemplate your mortality to appreciate the present, live more fully, and prioritize what truly matters.
  5. Amor Fati (Love Your Fate): Embrace and even love everything that happens to you, seeing it as necessary and part of a larger, rational universe.
  6. Live in Accordance with Nature: Understand and accept your role in the natural world, living rationally and in harmony with universal reason (Logos).
  7. Practice Negative Visualization (Premeditatio Malorum): Reflect on potential losses or hardships to reduce fear, appreciate what you have, and mentally prepare for difficult times.