On course

It's all about knowing where you are going.

If you don't know where you are going, how will you tell if you are on the right path?

Or even if you don't know which road you are travelling, how can you tell if it is the right one for you?

Letting things go

Sometimes you will let things go.

Not let things go as in "get over them", but as in fall out of your routine and stop doing the things that you really should, and that you want to, and that you know you could but... well...

It's easy to find reasons, excuses or general "life got in the way" type of justifications as to why you stopped - whether that being stopping blogging, stopping reading regularly, stopping meeting up with friends, whatever it is you promised yourself you were going to make a part of your daily/weekly ritual.

But it doesn't matter - what matters is getting back on top of it, and recognising that you can do better.

Keep going. If it means starting again, start again. It's the not starting that is the problem.

Procrastination with intent

It's easy to put things off. It's easy to avoid doing things.

But sometimes you just have to do it.

So do it.

But if you really, really want to put something off, why not just examine the reasons WHY?

If you can justify delay, then delay. If you can't, then don't.

Failure is not an option

Failure - what does that mean, anyway?

OK, so maybe, just maybe you "fell short" of your goal.

Or someone didn't like what you did - and maybe even told you so, in no uncertain terms.

But you should take something from this.

Did you try your best? Did you do what you thought was right? Yes? So what is the problem? Why are you valuing the opinions of others above your own?

It's not about perfection in someone else's eyes - it's about striving to achieve the best you can, to be the best you can be - and to seek to improve and learn and move forward.

Failure is not an option, because the only failure there is would be to fail to try your best and seek to be better each day.

Passing the test

Every day you will face tests.

Testing your physical fitness or endurance.

Testing you knowledge and understanding.

Testing your patience and character.

It's not about passing such tests. It's about approaching them with the humility to understand that you may fail. And it's about knowing that you did everything you could to prepare for these tests, and knowing that whatever the result no-one can take that away from you.

Mirrors

Sometimes it is important not to think of what you are going to do, but to reflect on what you have done.

Learn from it. Grow from it.

Listen carefully

Can you hear it?

It's the sound of your own voice, telling you to just try.

It's better to aim high and miss, and learn from the experience, than aim low and hit the target.

Have a little faith

Why do you think you will "fail"?

What is so wrong about "failing", anyway?

It's an opportunity to learn, to progress, to improve.

If you don't try, you will never know.

Others may mock, but you have achieved, while they have not. You have learned, you have progressed, you have improved.

What have they done?

Isn't it better to aim high and fall short than to aim low and hit the target?

Finding fault

Sometimes it's hard to bite your tongue when you see someone's shortcomings.

But try, because you have them, too.

In fact, you've got *loads* of them.

Thank goodness that when someone criticises you they don't know how many faults you really have!

Choose

You always have a choice.

You choose how to react to what happens, no-one tells you how to respond.

So don't be pushed around, choose your response to events. Welcome them, however bad they feel, because without them you wouldn't have the chance to choose at all, would you?

Achieving the impossible

"But that's impossible!"

"I can't do that!"

"I could never be as good as X!"

Really?

Or are you just confusing something being hard with something being impossible?

They can do it. What is stopping you from doing it, too?

Just the job

So, there you are... all ready for it.

Yes, it's a job interview. Your palms are getting sweaty, your throat dry, beads of sweat are starting to form on your forehead...

Stop.

No, just stop.

What is it you are worrying about?

It's not really about the job, is it?

It's about what they think of you.

You are worried that they won't think you are good enough.

So what? What do their opinions matter? Why are you setting so much store by them?

What is your opinion of yourself? Shouldn't that matter more?

Focus on becoming the best you that you can be, not pretending to be a you that you are not just to try to sway someone else's opinion.

You can't control that, but you can control your own actions and reactions.

Do that thing

Did you ask something of someone and get an unfavourable reaction?

Maybe they said no to you, when you really hoped they'd say yes.

So you lost out?

No.

Did you ask for the right reasons? Did you feel that it was the right thing to do?

So you've gained, not lost.

Not only have you stuck to the principle of doing the right thing, you have lived it and shown it.

You control your reaction, not the action of another.

Be thankful that what happened has happened, learn from it and act on it.

Amor fati.

Ticked off? Just do it

Want motivation?

What are you waiting for? Someone to tell you what to do next?

But you know what to do next. You could write a list of all the things you need to do!

So do it.

Yes, write down - physically, pen and paper - ten things you need to, want to, do this week.

Make it a bit easier for yourself, make one thing a gift: "Make a to-do list", and tick that item off.

Now, make sure you work through the list, and tomorrow review it, and update it, and even note what you did and jot down why you didn't do the other stuff.

Do this every day, until it becomes such a habit you miss it when you don't do it first thing in a morning and review it every night.

Just do it. Now.

Be thankful

For what you've got.

It's easy to keep wanting new things, more things, better things.

But look around you - you are alive, and that is such a precious thing.

It could all end tomorrow, so live life to the fullest with what you have.

Efficiency

It's easy to waste time.

So why waste it?

You know that you are wasting time.

You know that the thing you are doing isn't you doing your best, by yourself or others, and it isn't making you a better person.

So stop doing, and do something more productive instead.

Hurtful

People say hurtful things sometimes.

Do they really hurt? Or are they just words that filled the air for the blink of an eye.

Move on. You have more important work to do.

Library of thoughts

A lot of stoic (or Stoic) advocates advise keeping a journal, like Marcus Aurelius.

It doesn't have to be public (like a blog), or shared, or even - I suggest - written in a diary.

It can be a set of post-its, keep notes, evernote things...

One thing I do, and I find useful, is taking the emails from the Daily Stoic and filing them in a folder.

Then, in an idle five minutes over breakfast, I pick one at random on my phone and re-read it. Three times.

And this gives me something to focus on that day. And the next. And the next.

And I tick that "Read Daily Stoic email" task off my to-do list on Google Keep for the day, and get on with using the day to do more and be better.

Everyone's a critic

You will be criticised.

You will be blamed.

You will be lambasted.

So what?

They could have said things so much worse about you.

If they only knew, eh?!

Be thankful that you now know what they think of you.

So what?

Doesn't your opinion of you matter?

Do the work

Nothing is to be taken for granted except that things will happen.

Accept this. No, love this. Amor fati.

What has happened, has happened. Now you must work to make what you can control be the best it can be.

And what can you control?

Your reaction. Your actions. You.

Do the work to get the results you desire.