Meditations Full Book Guide: How to Think & Act Like Marcus Aurelius

Meditations is one of the most influential philosophy books in history.

I’d go as far as saying it is the most famous philosophy book ever written.

It is the only document of its kind ever made - the thoughts of one of the most powerful persons who ever lived, writing to himself about how to live a virtuous life while dealing with the responsibilities and obligations of being an emperor. Not the emperor of any random empire, but the emperor of the 2nd most powerful empire in human history.

Trained in Stoic philosophy, Marcus Aurelius would sit down every single night to do a series of spiritual exercises where he would write his thoughts and remind himself to not only be humble, empathetic, and patient but to be strong amidst anything he was facing at the moment. All this while directing Rome’s most important military campaigns.

So, who was he? 

Marcus was the Roman emperor from 161 to 180 A.D. He practiced Stoicism and wrote about his practice in his private journals. More specifically 12 journals that make up the 12 chapters of the book. 12 chapters where you can get into the mind of one of the best leaders of all human history.

It is worth mentioning that he is considered, by lots of people, one of history’s most exemplary leaders. Niccolo Machiavelli, the author of “The Prince,” considered his reigning time “The Golden Time” and he described Marcus as “unassuming, a lover of justice, hater of cruelty, sympathetic and kind.” An exemplary leader overall.

He was born into a noble family but when he was young, both his parents died, so he was adopted by his grandfather. From a young age, he had a great education, the best teachers, and he was trained under the Stoic philosophy where he was taught how to live simply and avoid comfort and luxury. 

As a soldier, Marcus was capable and successful. As an administrator, he was prudent and conscientious. Although steeped in the teachings of philosophy, he did not attempt to remodel the world in any way. He did some unwise things, like any other human being. But the strong point of his reign was the administration of justice. He made laws to protect the weak, to make it easier for slaves, to step in as a father in case of the fatherless, educate poor children, and help cities and districts.

He also didn’t have a perfect life by any means. Reigning an empire as big as the Roman empire came with a lot of trouble, but throughout these struggles, he never gave up. He is an example for us to think about when we face struggles in our lives.

Now, why am I talking to you about his life?

I wholeheartedly believe that when reading something, having a close idea of who wrote that thing is key. You’ll have a better context, and if you like the author, you’ll like the book even more.

Not only that, Marcus’s story is worth reading and I really encourage you to read more about his life. I know lots of people are looking for someone to look up to and to emulate their lives and characteristics. If you’re one of those people, make sure you dig into Marcus Aurelius’s life philosophy.

Now that you know what the book is about and that you know more about him, I’m going to give you the 3 main reasons I love this book and why I recommend it to everyone.

1. The book will change your perspective in life completely. 

Lots of people would think a man as powerful as Marcus would have a very different perspective on life and how everything works. Sometimes we assume a guy like him wouldn’t have the kinds of problems we regular people have, but his journals prove the exact opposite to be true. He had a son he didn’t deem worthy, he got cheated on by his wife. 

Not only that but in his journals we can find lots of common emotions described in his Stoic exercises. He also felt anxiety, anger, and uncertainty. Some days he would write about how lost he felt. Isn’t that crazy? The most powerful man on earth of his time and there he was, not knowing what to do or asking himself if what he was doing was even worthy.

This, at least for me, shows that his life, in some sense, was not that different from most people’s. He faced problems like everybody does, but he pushed through those problems relentlessly.

2. It wasn’t written to be read.

This book is perhaps the only one of its kind ever made. Unlike 99.9% of books, it was not even written to be read.

He didn’t write it for the benefit of an audience, he wrote it for his own benefit. He wasn’t thinking about being a New York Times bestseller or about making lots of money, these are his pure, raw thoughts. 

That’s what makes the book so special and unique, it never was intended for us to read.

In fact, it didn’t even have a title. The original title of the journals was (Ta eis heauton) which roughly translates as To Himself.

In my opinion, this is what makes the book inscrutable. It was for personal clarity and not for public benefit.

3. How practical and accessible the book is. 

The book, because of the fact it just was Marcus’s thoughts and Stoic exercises, is embodied philosophy.

I seriously think you CAN’T read the book and not learn something from it. 

Not only that, but the book is super easy to read. You can just pick a random chapter of the book, without having to read the rest of it and learn something you can apply to your own life immediately. 

The book is all about actionable advice and its teachings were meant to be practiced and used.

Now that you know a little bit about who Marcus is, and why so many people including me love this book, I will give you a few practical things you can learn from him and his life philosophy.

I synthesized the most relevant points from the book so you can apply them to your life and improve it.

Keep in mind that this guide is not going to be the full book. All I am doing here is giving you practical advice that you can use. 

I beg you to read the book at least once. I can promise you with 100% certainty that it will change your life. So if you found the introduction interesting, do yourself a favor and go read the book. Then come back and read this guide so you can reinforce what you read. You can also read this guide first and then read the book. Whatever suits you and your learning style the best.

Enough talk, let’s get right into it.

1. Purpose

In his private exercises, Marcus Aurelius put a lot of emphasis on purpose. For him, a life without a purpose was not a life worth living.

This makes a lot of sense and I didn’t expect less from someone like him. Think about it real quick. Most of the most masculine and achieving men in human history had a purpose. They had something that got them out of bed with a burning passion every day. 

Marcus used to think that all of us have a function on this planet and that when we wake up every day, we have to work towards that function, that purpose. More importantly never cease to work on it, especially when we don’t want to or when we are facing any sort of adversity, our purpose needs to be above everything else.

Our main objective in life has to be reaching our purpose without losing focus. Only when we do that, do we stop caring about stuff that doesn’t really matter, which in the process gives us the freedom and control of our life, that freedom and control we all crave so badly. 

Success and happiness are extremely related to the purpose we give our lives to. Only by following that purpose, and focusing all of our attention and energy on it, we succeed. 

So every day, prioritize free time outside of distractions, find that thing that gets you out of bed with a burning passion, and once you find it, put all of your energy and attention into it. Only by doing that, you’ll live a life worth living.

2. Hedonism & Legacy.

Marcus as I already mentioned, was born in a noble family. He had everything he could ever wish for throughout his whole life. Just put yourself in his shoes for a moment. 

You’re the richest and most powerful man on earth. What would you do? How would you act? 

I’m 100% sure that 99.9% of people would go absolutely NUTS if they had that much power and money in front of them, yet Marcus was never like that, why is that?

You can see guys making $10k/month spending it all on materialistic stuff in Dubai and acting like dumbasses, yet one of the most powerful men in history never acted that way. 

I truly think he understood something people never get to understand in their whole lives, and that is, that you don’t need much to live and be happy.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty sure he had decent food and houses and his sons never lacked anything in their lives, it is just that he never spent money in any dumb way. He never had a bodyguard, he never spent money on sumptuous dresses, chandeliers, statues, or other similar and luxurious things. He was a firm believer that it is possible to stick to a life regime very close to that of a simple individual, and not for that reason be more unfortunate or unhappy. He was a firm believer in having a simple life.

All of this ties back to purpose. For him, all you needed to be happy was a purpose and time to work on it. Materialistic things didn’t matter as long as you were fulfilling your duty. And I couldn’t agree more with him. 

As a society, we have put so much importance on material stuff, stuff that can be taken away from us at any moment. You can find people who work themselves to death just to acquire those things society tells us we need to own to be happy. People sacrifice their lives just to get things, then when you go and ask them if it was worth it lots of them tell you the same thing, it wasn’t.

And it doesn’t only apply to things, it also applies to “experiences.” People sacrifice their lives to travel or to go out drinking every weekend, just so they can upload some pics to IG so people can see how much they’re “enjoying life.”

This takes me to the other point Marcus made a lot of emphasis on, legacy.

He had a very curious point of view on legacy, and it was that no matter what you do, no one is going to remember you, and if someone does remember you, they are going to die anyway, so why care about posthumous glory so much?

To me, this is super funny because he didn’t give a shit about people remembering him, yet two thousand years later we are still talking about him. It’s like the people who don’t care about money, then end up making more money than those who lose their brains thinking about it.

One day you won’t be alive and you along with your name, will cease to exist. Nobody is going to remember you except for a couple of people (family, close friends.) So do yourself a favor and stop thinking about living a lot of time, and start thinking about making your short time on this planet as good as possible.

3. Rationality Is Your Greatest Asset

The only thing that separates us from the rest of animals is our rationality, it is our greatest asset as humans. Because of this, it is imperative you learn how to control your mind. Marcus knew this. Because of this, his exercises put a lot of emphasis on reminding himself to control his thoughts and emotions. 

When you create desires or when you tie your emotions to an outcome, that is when you actually suffer. But if you learn how to control your mind, you can stop this from happening.

There’s a gap between stimulus and response. Normally you can’t control the stimulus, but you can control the response, that is how you respond to that thing that happened to you. It doesn’t matter what happens to you, it depends on you if it is a good or a bad thing. Things are not bad, you make them bad.

Think about this for a second. Marcus was the most powerful person on earth. He had more control over his environment than most. Yet he always lived by the following words: 

Obstacles and outside events are a part of life. When something happens to you, it was supposed to happen and nothing can be done about it. Everything that happens to you, you are designed to stand it.

So whenever something unfortunate happens, stop saying: “Sorry me because that happened to me!”, and say “I am fortunate that it happened to me because that helps me be stronger and better.”

Take everything that happens to you not as a bad thing but as something to learn from.

4. Delay Gratification

If you have been in the self-improvement space for long enough you’ve probably heard about delaying gratification. 

All the time we hear the advice that we need to delay stuff for our future self. What’s crazy to me is that Marcus already knew about this TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO. Two thousand years ago he already knew that discomfort is the only thing that takes us to our destination and we have to embrace it to get what we want from life.

If you read his journals you’ll find in a lot of passages that one of the things he holds himself accountable to is to be better tomorrow than today. To do what hurts today so we can be stronger tomorrow.

He also knew a balance was needed. He was aware of the power of resting, but he was also aware of the fact that too much of anything is bad as well. A little bit of something is not terrible, overindulging in pleasure and seeking comfort is the bad thing. 

Every single day do something your future self would be grateful for.

5. Always Be Present

Marcus placed great importance on being present. For the Stoics, the key to having a happy, calm, and successful life is to be present. To actually be there in whatever you’re doing.

For them, all there was to life was the present moment. The past is already past, you can’t change it or do anything about it. So it makes no sense to dwell over it. The future? It doesn’t even exist. You can’t truly know what’s going to happen. The world could end tomorrow. The present on the other hand can be molded and shaped into whatever you want. It is the only thing under your control. 

The Stoics knew this 2,000 years ago, yet people still don’t realize this. The reason there is so much depression nowadays is that lots of people still think so much about the past. They think about what happened to them, about a choice they made 5 years ago, and without knowing it they’re making themselves miserable. Same thing with anxiety. People just place so much importance on the future that they can’t help but feel anxious because they’re putting all of their mental energy into something that doesn’t even exist yet. 

This is not me telling you to go and do nothing with your life because “the future doesn’t exist bro!” Obviously, set yourself up for life, delay gratification, and be disciplined, but don’t place so much importance on it, is just gonna make you miserable because you’re tying your satisfaction and happiness to an outcome that you’re not even sure is gonna happen. The true power lies in knowing that you can’t truly do anything about the future, but you can mold your present, which will change your future.

You know who you were, you know who you are, but you don’t know who you will be. You could be dead by tomorrow morning. So make the most of each day.

6. Be A Good Person

Marcus placed a huge importance on living a virtuous life and being an exemplary person.

Our duty is to be a good person. To do good for everybody, not only for those who treat us well. We have to refrain not only from doing wrong but even from incurring such a thought. Act and think in a good way, always do good and your life will flow. If it is not convenient, don’t do it. If it isn’t true don’t say it. Seek truth, not being right. Leave your ego on the side and always recognize when you are wrong.

A life without the help of other people was not a life worth living. Being individual can only get you so far. Being mutual and gregarious is how you achieve stuff.

There is a lot of evil in the world. People can attack us and hurt us when we expect it the least. Marcus knew this, but the way he responded to that evil was very interesting. His response to attacks from others? Do the exact opposite.

Don’t react to people in the same way they acted on you. If you react to stuff just like other people, you will be like other people. The best way to defend yourself is not to assimilate to them. Whenever people talk in a bad way about you just remember something: it concerns the king to do good and receive slander.

Conclusion

This book is a gem. I’ve read it thrice and applied all of its teachings step by step. It has dramatically improved my perception of life, personal relationships, and business.

I’ve gone through six principles you can apply to your everyday life. So make sure you read this guide, go read the book (or the opposite, however you prefer it), start applying everything to your life, and reread as needed.

If you liked the guide, make sure you let me know. 

If you didn’t please let me know why so I can improve it, for you.

PS - If you liked this, you’ll probably like the rest of my stuff, go check it out here.

That is all from me. Go get it Stoic brah.

Tu amigo, 
- Manuel.