Last week you changed the way you think about what’s good and what’s bad. This week, the focus will be on behaviors.

To start, brainstorm a list of your desires and aversions to which you can safely act the opposite. This isn’t the time to tackle fear of death (we’ll get to that in a few weeks). Instead, stick to mild-to-moderate pleasures or aversions.

Desires (things you enjoy and pursue)	Aversions (things you dislike or avoid)

Now let’s plan for the week ahead by listing an exercise each day where you’ll intentionally act the opposite of your desire or aversion.

To print a blank version of this exercise, please go to our web page for the book: theexperimentpublishing.com/?isbn=9781615195336.

Desire or aversion	When? Write a time of day or the beginning of an implementation intention	Instead of . . . Write what you’d normally do in this situation	I will . . . Describe the opposite action you’ll do	Is this action: a) safe, and b) challenging, but not too hard?
Example: Window shopping	I leave work at 6	Walking down Madison Avenue	Say to myself “I’m acting the opposite today,” and walk down a residential street instead	Yes and yes
Example: Saying “yes” to please people	Someone asks me to take on more work	Agreeing	Say “No, there’s too much on my plate right now”	Yes as long as it’s a side project and not my main job, and yes

As you pay more attention to your desires and aversions this week, you may discover more about them and want to switch up your plan above. Feel free to do so. Alternatively, you can come back to this chart at the end of each day and plan just for the next one.

You may want to take a few moments to congratulate yourself every time you act the opposite. You can use whatever words or imagery works and gives you a warm glow afterward. This step is an important part in turning the “honorable” into the “pleasurable.” You may also say, Good job! since acting the opposite is directly related to your character, and is, indeed, a good, according to the Stoics. In fact, the joy that the Stoic sages feel comes directly from their own goodness of character. Consistently acting the opposite puts you, too, on that path.

Acting the opposite is a key way the ancient Stoics trained their brains to understand that their desires and aversions don’t necessarily have to be obeyed unquestioningly. Modern research in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) suggests that changing our behavior can impact our emotions. This theory is used to treat both anxiety² and depression.³ While useful for clinical conditions, the basic premise is also helpful to train ourselves about the nature of what’s good or bad. By acting the opposite, as the Stoics did, we grow to realize over time that it isn’t necessary to pursue many of our desires and that we can face many of our aversions.

How did your week of acting the opposite go? Were the desires or aversions you chose too easy? Too hard? Did it help weaken your attachment to the external world? Write about this week.

The past two weeks have focused on both desires and aversions. For the rest of our time with Epictetus’s first discipline, we will turn our attention exclusively to desire.