How many people do you know that are able to remain calm under extreme pressure? My guess is that you know very few. I can count those I know with the fingers of one hand. Serenity is not taught in school, and when people most need it, then it is far too late to acquire it.
Seneca came up with effective strategies for staying calm under pressure, although, to be fair, I must point out that he built on the ideas of Zeno of Citium (334-262 BC), Cleanthes (330-230 BC) and Chrysippus (279-206 BC).
The most important innovation of Seneca’s in this respect is that he combined the ancient Stoic wisdom with the doctrines of Epicurus (341-270 BC). The resulting advice carries, in my view, a much heavier weight than the ideas of prior Stoics.
Seneca addressed this matter fragmentarily in the 22nd and 75th Letters to Lucilius. We need to pick up those separate observations and put them together into a powerful recipe that can be still employed today.
In the 75th Letter to Lucilius, Seneca conveys the idea that most people tend to suffer gratuitously due to their poor habits. If they practised Stoicism, he argues, they would be protected from “the surrounding horrors and temptations.”
Seneca’s method for keeping a cool head
Seneca affirms that the only valid method for staying calm under pressure is “to break with bad habits and tendencies.” He is referring to the severe fear that handicaps individuals when they are confronted to sickness, poverty or social exclusion.
For staying calm under pressure, Seneca’s prescription calls for adopting good habits (intellectual and physical habits) and practising them day after day.
Seneca strongly condemns individuals who are willing to practise virtue when it is already too late. He is employing the wording “people who practise virtue only sporadically.” Let us take note of this recommendation as the first step for staying calm under pressure.
From those Letters, I have concluded that it is not generally a bad idea to complain and give other people too many details about our problems. If we do so, those problems will remain unsolved and the pressure will not relent.
Seneca acknowledges that “conversation can appear deeply appealing, almost like love or drinking wine,” but we shouldn’t engage in counterproductive actions when we are surrounded by trouble.
There is a high risk, argues Seneca, that lamentations would make things worse. Instead of solving the underlying problem, there is a high risk that those conversations would elicit “envy, disdain, fear or hatred.” Those elements can surely not help us to stay calm under pressure.
Seneca: the virtues that enable serenity
Seneca’s most sophisticated advice on this matter appears in his 22nd Letter to Lucilius. I find his advice reminiscent of Epicurus, namely, of the idea that when we leave this world, we are all better off than when he had arrived to it.
I wonder if Seneca had intentionally omitted to mention the ideas of Epicurus in this respect. Is it because Seneca wanted to argue the opposite?
When Seneca contends that, unless we adopt good ideas and habits, chances are that we will become worse as time goes by, he is referring to individuals that adopt vices instead of virtues as a way of life.
Instead of benevolence and equanimity, those persons are driven by unbridled passions, superstitions and perfidy. It is of course impossible, under those ethical conditions, to stay calm under pressure.
Bad ideas and bad habits lead to anxiety. Seneca views it as impossible to remedy the anxiety without first addressing the underlying cause. Furthermore, he observed that “inside their heart, the individuals affected by those situations have chosen themselves to follow that path.”
Serenity under pressure is the equivalent of good habits that have been ingrained in our soul, so that they become automatic and unassailable. If we fail to adopt Stoicism and practise its virtues assiduously, we will not succeed at staying calm when we are confronted with setbacks.
Seneca points to people driven by excessive ambition. It is their own fault if their oversized ambition leads to an explosive situation with the accompanying anxiety. Unless we tackle the underlying issues, chances are that the anxiety will stay high.
Seneca’s insights and Louis Vuitton’s life story
Does Seneca’s formula still work today? Absolutely. There aren’t many professed Stoics in modern times, but we can trace the Stoic mentality and values in numerous remarkable people.
Louis Vuitton (1821-1892), the French luxury industrialist, constitutes one of my favourite examples. From the beginning, he faced enormous obstacles in his professional advancement, but he dealt with them calmly, one after the other. I will just mention a couple of anecdotes that denote his Stoic values.
Born close to Switzerland, in an area that did not offer any educational or professional prospects, Vuitton decided to move to Paris. He was only thirteen years old when he left his village and did not have any money for carriages or horses.
Nonetheless, Vuitton covered on foot the distance to Paris, about 250 kilometres. He carried little more than the clothes he was wearing, but kept going until he reached his objective.
In Paris, he became an apprentice to a luggage maker and learned the intricacies of manufacturing leather products of all kinds. During the next two decades, Vuitton’s income remained low. He kept working as an employed artisan because he did not possess the capital necessary to open his own workshop.
Stoicism requires realism and the willingness to look at the big picture. Beyond today’s difficulties, there are opportunities that can be seized to improve one’s situation financially and in other areas.
In the case of Vuitton, it took two decades of steady work until he was ready to open his own workshop. How many men and women do you know that are willing to make such a long-term investment?
Seneca’s ideas remain applicable today
Staying calm under pressure is a skill that results from one’s philosophy, not from lucky breaks. Vuitton demonstrated that he possessed this skill once and again. When he finally opened his workshop, he began to introduce innovations, one after the other, that rendered his luggage items special.
While other artisans kept using only leather, Vuitton started to experiment with canvas, which he would render waterproof by applying a coating. He also improved his product design to make his luggage pieces easier to pile up and store.
Through his career, Vuitton was constantly under pressure, but coped with it remarkably well. He settled down in Paris at an early age, leaving his familiar environment behind. He was paid little during his apprenticeship, but managed to stay afloat and keep going.
Seneca would have praised Vuitton’s consistency above all. It took Vuitton two long decades before he could open his own workshop, but so what? By then, he had acquired the technical, commercial and financial skills necessary to succeed.
Stoicism remains applicable nowadays but personalities like Louis Vuitton can convey its virtues more convincingly than a collection of Seneca’s writings.
I come back to Epicurus’ quote about people being better off at the end of their lives than when they were born. Indeed, Seneca was correct in limiting the application of this principle to thoughtful people. Those are, precisely, the kind of persons most able to stay calm under pressure.
If you are interested in putting rational ideas into practice in all kinds of situations, I recommend my book “On becoming unbreakable.”