The Cycle of Control

Marcus Aurelius’ Wisdom Nuggets.

The times in my life where I’ve felt peace, enjoyment, and all those fuzzy life states, had a commonality. During those periods of my life, I had better reactions (emotional control). And, those better reactions derived from temperance and my practice of stoicism.

The best times in my life thus far have been the weeks where I grew a shit ton. The weeks where I spent all hours trying to debug a program or trying an intense new meditation habit. It was the weeks of hard work and not the times of easy relaxation that brought me fulfilment & enjoyment.

During these periods stuff still happened to me: people died, I failed things, I was late to things, I made silly mistakes, there was traffic, things got dangerous, I got in trouble and all that stuff. But I just didn’t let these things impact my life state.

We have control over only one thing in life: our reactions. We can’t control when the sun rises, or what the weather will be like tomorrow, but how we react and behave in these situations IS up to us. 🙌

Life is just a game of reacting to things you can’t manage.

Once you stop letting external things control you, you become free. No test, person or financial market crash will ever make you feel negative again. This is called stoicism. And it will change your life.

Stoicism is about having control over your emotions and optimizing the things you CAN control. It’s a way of…