✅ Checkpoint: Control, Character, Rehearsal

By Better Wise

Quiz

  1. Which statement best captures what Stoicism is, as described in the first lesson?
    • A training in judgment and character, where you work on which feelings you follow rather than suppressing all feeling.
    • A productivity system for getting more done with less stress.
    • A method for suppressing emotions so that nothing ever disturbs your calm.
    • A promise that a well-practised person will have a smooth life with no setbacks.
  2. A colleague sends a sharp email questioning your work. Which reply is closer to Stoic practice?
    • "Everything happens for a reason, so I will just smile and move on."
    • "I will feel nothing about this and reply as if nothing happened."
    • "That stung. Let me check what is actually mine here: my reply, my standards. I will read it again tonight and answer the fair part."
    • "Their tone is out of my control, so I will ignore the email entirely."
  3. In the three-bucket sort, a job interview is best treated as which kind of situation?
    • Partly up to you: your preparation is in bucket one, the interviewer's decision is in bucket three.
    • Not up to you: outcomes are never influenced by your effort.
    • Fully up to you: if you prepare hard enough, the result is yours to decide.
    • Not up to you: since the decision is theirs, there is nothing to do but wait.
  4. What does the archer image teach about judging an action?
    • The archer should not bother aiming, because the outcome is not up to him.
    • The archer should be judged only by whether the arrow hits, since that is the point of archery.
    • The archer is responsible for choosing the target, aiming and releasing well, while the hit depends on conditions outside his control.
    • The archer's skill is irrelevant; only luck determines the result.
  5. Which question belongs to the virtue of temperance?
    • What is enough, and which desire is running this?
    • What is actually true here, and what does this situation call for?
    • What is fair, and how does this affect other people?
    • What is right when fear argues for something smaller?
  6. Epictetus opens the Enchiridion by dividing everything into what is up to us and what is not. The faculty of choice, the part of the mind that decides what to assent to, is called ____.
  7. The Stoic exercise of deliberately and briefly imagining losing something good, in order to sharpen appreciation and prepare calmly for change, is called ____.
  8. For the Stoics, the only thing that is always good is ____, meaning excellent character expressed through wisdom, justice, courage and temperance.
  9. Run a short negative visualization on one ordinary good in your life (running water, a friend who answers, your eyesight). Describe the morning without it for 30 to 60 seconds, then write one sentence: "Because this is here today, I will ___." Paste your sentence and rate your own attempt.
  10. Take one real decision you face this week and run it through the four virtue questions: wisdom, justice, courage, temperance. Write one line per question, note which was hardest, and state the action you will take plus the result you would prefer but do not control.

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