The Emperor's New Productivity Hack: Stoic Strategies For Resistance

Ever sat at your desk and felt like the first step weighed a thousand pounds? Today I'm sharing what I learned from running, resistance, and one ancient Roman emperor with Stoic wisdom that made it easier to begin.

3, 2, 1. Let's go. Welcome to Transition Space, your gateway from thinking to doing. I'm Mia Torr. If you're called to create meaningful work, use this podcast as part of your starting ritual. Make your coffee and clear your desk while you listen, and we'll hang out as you ease into focused flow. While you create your space, I'll help you entertain the transition. Come on in.

Today on Transition Space, a story about Marcus Aurelius, loud inner voices, and tying your shoes.

I love running. I love locking into a long run while I listen to my music and breathing into it as a moving meditation. I love feeling the wind in my hair and my feet on the pavement. But it wasn't always like this.

I remember when I first decided to try. I was not a runner. I told myself a story that it wasn't for me, but there was a big annual race coming up, and the course always ran right past my apartment.

This year, I really wanted to feel what it was like to be a part of that energy. I signed up for a couch to 10K program that promised to get me there, and I committed to starting.

I followed this program religiously in sunshine and rain and snow. I went from the worst kind of self-talk and inner negotiation to being able to run that full race. I was so proud of myself for getting to the finish line.

This training program had given me a little logbook to fill in after every run. Details like my distance, the weather, and how I felt about the run. I filled it in dutifully every day, but never really thought about it until years later.

By that time, I was a regular runner, and finding my old logbook again made me smile. When I flipped through it, a pattern jumped out at me. Every single entry had a variation on the same line. I didn't feel like it today. I didn't feel like running today. I didn't want to do this today.

My inner negotiator was loud. It protested against the rain and snow, against exhaustion. I was too tired. I was too cold. I was too behind on everything else. The absolute hardest part had been tying my shoes and stepping out the door against that voice. Those emotions that said I wasn't ready.

My logbook also had a second pattern. Every single entry ended the same way, too. The run felt amazing. I'm so happy I did it.

Fast forward to me years later, sitting in front of my laptop with a to-do list and a case of productive procrastination. I was crushing everything except the one thing I actually, actually needed to do.

Listen. I had organized my sock drawer, I'd researched the perfect morning routine, and now I was eagerly reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. What I had not done was start my work.

That's when I stumbled across a quote that jumped out at me from Emperor Marcus, who apparently also struggled with getting started. He said, "At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself, I have to go to work as a human being. What do I have to complain about if I'm going to do what I was born to do?"

I slammed back my coffee and pondered. Here was this ancient Roman emperor, literally running an empire, having the exact same conversation with himself that I was having about opening my laptop.

For context: Marcus Aurelius was emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 CE, during the Antonine Plague. That was a devastating pandemic believed to be smallpox, and it ravaged the Roman Empire. It was one of the worst pandemics in Roman history, killing up to 2,000 people a day in the capital.

Despite losing his close friends and family members, managing a crumbling economy, and facing war on multiple fronts, Marcus still made time to write. He didn't write for glory. He wasn't writing to publish. His meditations weren't meant for anyone else. They were private reflections, written in the early morning or late at night, sometimes while on military campaigns. They were just notes to himself, anchors, reminders. Even when everything around him was chaos, when most people would have said, now is not the time, he kept the habit. One page at a time, one thought, one truth. Writing was his ritual, his way of remembering who he was and what he stood for. It was his version of tying his shoes.

The Stoics weren't selling motivation or promising fearlessness. They were actually giving us permission to acknowledge the resistance. Look at it directly, and then take one small action.

Open your document. Write the date at the top. That's all.

The Stoic approach is to imagine the worst possible outcome, accept it completely, and then proceed to move forward decisively.

Here's how you can use it when you're stuck. When you don't feel like doing the thing, ask yourself, what's the absolute worst that could happen if you opened your document and wrote today's date at the top? Sit with that for a moment. Accept that it will never be perfect. 

Here's what the Stoics knew and what I've come to passionately Motivation isn't a prerequisite for action. Action is the prerequisite for motivation. You have to move your feet before you hear the music. You have to tie your shoes before you feel the runner's high.

I got the message. So I bookmarked my spot in Meditations. I left my sock drawer in its chaotic glory, and I opened my laptop. I took a clear-eyed look at what was holding me back, gave myself permission to feel uncomfortable and to be imperfect. And then I wrote at the top of the page, Today, I will. Just honest acknowledgement and small, deliberate action.

These days, when I feel that familiar pull to start the laundry instead of starting the important work, I channel my inner Marcus Aurelius. I acknowledge the resistance, decide to brave a single step, and I write one sentence at the top of the page.

Whether you're making coffee or arranging your desk right now, ask yourself, what if beginning didn't require feeling ready? What if you could simply acknowledge your resistance, accept it completely, and write Today, I will at the top of the page.

I would love to hear your answer. Visit authenticnetworker.com transitionspace and tell me, what will you do today? 

Take a deep breath and arrive. You've created your space. All you need next is to take one step. Your work matters enough to begin.

This is Transition Space, where you clear your path from thinking to doing. I'm Mia, and together we've shaped what's possible. Now it's your turn to make it real.