“Some things are up to us, and some things are not.” These are the very first words of the Enchiridion, Epictetus’ Stoic handbook. This distinction is commonly known as the dichotomy of control. It is one of the central ideas of Epictetus’ philosophy and the foundation for much of what follows in the book. Epictetus then tells us what belongs on each side of this distinction. Our judgments, impulses, desires, and aversions are up to us. Our body, possessions, reputation, and authority are not.
But what exactly does “up to us” mean?
To understand what Epictetus meant, let’s take a closer look at the original Greek. The sentence reads: τῶν ὄντων τὰ μέν ἐστιν ἐφ’ ἡμῖν, τὰ δὲ οὐκ ἐφ’ ἡμῖν. The crucial expression is ἐφ’ ἡμῖν (eph’ hēmin). It is an idiomatic Greek phrase used for something that depends on us or is up to us. This is why English translations vary, using expressions such as “up to us,” “within our power,” and “in our control.”
But these English expressions do not necessarily mean exactly the same thing. To understand the difference, let’s first look at what “up to us” means in everyday English.
“Up to someone” is an English idiom. It usually means that a decision, action, or responsibility belongs to that person. If we say, “It’s up to you to choose the restaurant,” we mean that the choice is yours to make. If we say, “It’s up to us to finish the project on time,” we mean that the responsibility belongs to us.
This is slightly different from saying that something is “under our control.” Control usually means having the power to determine what happens. “Up to us” places more emphasis on our own decisions, actions, and responsibilities.
What Is Actually Up to Us?
As I mentioned earlier, Epictetus gives us a clear list of the things that are up to us: our judgments, impulses, desires, and aversions. In simple terms, these are how we think about the world around us, what we choose to do, what we want, and what we want to avoid.
Our judgments are how we interpret and evaluate what happens to us and around us. Something happens, and we form opinions about what it means, whether it is good or bad, fair or unfair, important or unimportant. For example, you receive an email from your supervisor criticizing how you handled one of your projects. You may immediately think: This person doesn’t like me. This person is rude. This person is mean. But there is no way to know exactly what someone thinks about you or why they are acting the way they are. Maybe your supervisor’s manager told them to push you harder. Or maybe the email simply sounds harsher than your supervisor intended. Or maybe your supervisor is just this way, unfortunately. But for our purpose, the reason doesn’t really matter. What matters is how you judge the situation. That is up to you. The email is what it is, but the judgment is your own.
Our impulses are what move us toward action. In simple terms, an impulse is our inclination to do something. It does not have to be negative. We may have an impulse to argue with someone who makes us angry, but we may also have an impulse to help someone who needs help, finish a task, or simply get up and make dinner.
Our impulses are closely connected to our judgments. How we judge a situation can influence what we feel we should do about it. Going back to the email example, if we judge our supervisor’s message as rude or unfair, we may immediately want to write an angry reply or confront them. But having an impulse toward an action does not mean that we have to act on it immediately. We can examine the situation, reconsider our judgment, and decide what we are going to do. That is up to us.
Epictetus also includes our desires and aversions: simply speaking, what we want and what we want to avoid. These can involve almost anything, from money and possessions to success, reputation, relationships, or everyday experiences.
This does not mean that we consciously choose every desire that appears in our minds. We may suddenly want something without ever deciding to want it. This is especially easy to see today, when we are constantly surrounded by advertising whose only job is to make us desire some products or experiences. We are encouraged to buy a particular car, eat at a certain restaurant, or spend our vacation in a particular place. Some of these things can be hard to resist. But it is still up to us what we buy, where we go on vacation, or which restaurants we eat at, regardless of any advertising tricks. Advertising is just one example. The same principle applies to the many other things we want in life.
On the other side is aversion: the things we want to avoid. We naturally want to avoid things such as illness, poverty, failure, or criticism. But Epictetus points out a problem with directing our aversion toward these things: they are not up to us. We can take care of our health and still become sick. We can work hard and still lose money. If our aversion is directed toward something we cannot determine, there is always a possibility that the very thing we desperately want to avoid will happen anyway.
This is why Epictetus tells us to direct our aversion toward the things that are up to us instead. We cannot decide that we will never become sick, but we can try to avoid making poor choices about our health. We cannot guarantee that we will never lose money, but we can try to avoid making irresponsible financial decisions. The external result is not always up to us, but what we choose to avoid in our own behavior is.
What Is Not Up to Us?
Epictetus places our body, possessions, reputation, and authority among the things that are not up to us. But at first, some of these may seem as though they should be. We can exercise and take care of our body. We can work to earn money and protect our possessions. We can behave in ways that help us build a good reputation. So why does Epictetus say these things are not up to us?
Let’s start with the body. We may live a very healthy life. We can exercise regularly, eat healthy food, avoid drugs, and have regular medical checkups. All of these things have a positive impact on our health. But none of them can guarantee that we will never become seriously ill. We can also get injured, develop a health condition, or simply experience the effects of aging. We can do many things to influence our health, but we cannot determine everything that happens to our body. That is why Epictetus places the body among the things that are not up to us.
Something similar applies to our possessions. We can get a good education, find a good job, and educate ourselves about managing our money. All of these things can improve our financial situation. But none of them can guarantee that we will never face financial difficulties. There may be another financial crisis, we may lose our job, or our home may be damaged by a fire or flood. There is always a possibility that circumstances beyond our control could cause us to lose some or even all of what we have.
Reputation is another example of something we can influence but cannot fully determine. We can be honest, treat people well, keep our promises, and try to build a good reputation among our family, friends, and coworkers. But ultimately, our reputation exists in the minds of other people, and we cannot decide what someone else thinks about us.
Most of us have probably experienced this from the other side as well. We may have a negative opinion about someone, only to learn later that we were wrong. Maybe we misunderstood something they said or did, or perhaps we simply did not know the whole story. If we can be wrong in our judgments about other people, other people can certainly be wrong in their judgments about us.
We can influence our reputation through the way we act and behave, but this does not guarantee that other people will see us the way we want them to. Our judgment of other people is up to us. Their judgment of us is up to them.
Finally, Epictetus mentions authority. The original Greek here refers more specifically to political or public office. In the Roman world, holding such a position depended on other people and circumstances. A person could work toward political office, build connections, and try to gain support, but the final decision was not theirs alone.
A modern example would be running for public office. A candidate can campaign, prepare, speak to voters, and do everything possible to win an election. But they cannot decide how people will vote. Their own actions are up to them; whether they are elected is not.
In Sum.
Epictetus is not telling us to ignore the things that are not up to us. We should still take care of our health, manage our possessions, care about our reputation, and work toward the things we want in life. But at the same time, we should understand that none of these things depends entirely on us.
Instead, Epictetus asks us to pay more attention to the things that are up to us: our judgments, impulses, desires, and aversions. These are the parts of our lives where our responsibility lies and where we should focus more of our attention and effort.
I truly believe that when we accept and, more importantly, implement these ideas in our everyday lives, we may begin to see a difference almost immediately. We may spend less time on unnecessary worries, grudges, and resentment over things we simply cannot change. We will not eliminate every negative emotion from our lives, nor should we expect to. But we can learn to focus more of our attention on the things that are actually up to us.
Whether you put this idea into practice is, of course, up to you, my dear reader.