Yes, Epictetus says to start from a place of intention or purpose.
He suggests strongly to not act on desire at all, for now.
But to act on aversion with good intentions or the proper use of impressions.
Cicero, argued that the only way to live is to practice living the way Epictetus taught his kids in school.
He wrote a synopsis of the good life for his son to follow.
A proper impression is to find moral good through building experience by practicing habits that help you act on aversions that build the good habit you happen to have aversion for in your present life.
By getting to know yourself, you will identify said aversion.
It is best to find a few to start, but only a few which will create work but a sufficient amount of outcomes to consider the exercise worth the effort.
The outcomes of say learning to make your bed, you may have a slight aversion to making your bed, is love and freedom.
We learn what real freedom and love can be by building good habits which instill a sense of how love and freedom feel from direct experience.
Adults may or may not wish to experience this kind of good life.
It precludes you don’t wish to live a bad life.
Adults tend to pick some of both.
To use journaling as another tool to enhance the process of good intensions towards living a good life will help one maintain the boundaries of privacy while exercising this difficult task.
Adults need a more complex method of viewing the intensions, a deeper knowledge of themselves and more time and energy to practice.
Anyone can benefit from a moral practice, but it requires experience and insight to develop the motivation to proceed.
There are numerous sources on the topic, a little research will produce a lot of free information from the internet.
A good exercise is to focus on how to live the good life.
Being mindful of the good life is all it really requires for a good start.
But it takes a sincere effort to build on the good life we already live.
Happiness is…
