“Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. Some things are up to us and some things are not up to us.” – Epictetus

Perhaps the key Stoic idea is to focus on what you can control. There are a limited things that we can actually control — our actions, words, thoughts, beliefs. And then there’s everything else: other people, the weather, world events, disasters. Basically everything outside of ourselves.

We can control our response to external events and situations. And that’s what we should focus on.

We can’t control everything else. Epictetus would say, “That’s none of my concern”:

“So make a practice at once of saying to every strong impression: ‘An impression is all you are, not the source of the impression.’ Then test and assess it with your criteria, but one primarily: ask, ‘Is this something that is, or is not, in my control?’ And if it’s not one of the things that you control, be ready with the reaction, ‘Then it’s none of my concern.’”