Think Like a Roman Empire, Become a stoic in the Public Relations Work Place

Stoicism revolves around one simple concept: We cannot control what happens to us in life, but we can control our thoughts surrounding the event. Marcus Aurelius, one of the greatest emperors in the history of the world, wrote a book called Meditations in which he layed the foundation for his philosophical approach to ruling: stoicism. From Abraham Lincoln to John D. Rockefeller, this philosophy has guided many of history's great leaders.

Given that the Public Relations field deals in daily uncertainties, with forces beyond our control challenging us at every corner, Stoic philosophy might be perfect antidote for work place chaos.

Surrender to the things you cannot control and remain steadfast in your emotions.

Stoics summarized their philosophy this way: Living in agreement with nature. This doesn't mean sit back and watch the storm steer your ship into the abyss of the ocean. It's the simple idea that somethings are up to us, and some things are not up to us. When you incorporate that into you work life, it becomes a motto where you can objectively reflect on what's happening.

A constant in Stoic writing is that you can only control your own mind; everything else — negative press surrounding you company, an executive acting vile, a campaign that didn't go well, your colleagues who don't see your point of view, a journalist who doesn't want to work with you — is outside of your control. So find things in your control that you can work with: your thoughts, perceptions and attitude.

Don't just accept failure, plan for it.

Having less than stellar campaigns or having a disastrous Public Relation's debacle is something that you can guarantee in this profession. But how will you react? Will you calm your emotions and deal in objectivity, or let failure influence your emotions and impact future work down the road. Because a you will fail.

This is where you have the option to either let it pull you down or learn from what went wrong and where you can improve.

Stoics also practiced something called "failure meditation." Where they envisioned everything that went wrong. They prepared for the worst, were never blindsided and we're able to respond immediately in worst case scenarios because they'd already planned for failure. As a PR practitioner, I can't think of a more salient technique to use in a field where adversity is a certainty.