Wisdom From Marcus Aurelius: The Great Roman Emperor
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Wisdom From Marcus Aurelius: The Great Roman Emperor

1.Practice The Virtues You Can Show

It’s easy to succumb to self-pity when we start telling ourselves that we lack certain talents, that we miss stuff that seems to come so easily to other people. We need to catch ourselves when we do so. We need instead to focus on the things that are always within us: our capacity and potential for virtuous action.?As Marcus wrote to himself,

“No one could ever accuse you of being quick-witted.
All right, but there are plenty of other things you can’t claim you “haven’t got in you.” Practice the virtues you can show: honesty, gravity, endurance, austerity, resignation, abstinence, patience, sincerity, moderation, seriousness, high-mindedness. Don’t you see how much you have to offer—beyond excuses like “can’t”? And yet you still settle for less.”

2. Draw Strength from Others

As discussed earlier, Marcus most likely wrote the notes to himself which are now?Meditations?on the battlefield, during the last decade of his life. In those times of difficulty and adversity, he’d write to himself notes of encouragement, to pick himself back again, to do his duty. One exercise that we can borrow from him is to draw strength from people in our lives or simply role models that inspire us. As he wrote,

“When you need encouragement, think of the qualities the people around you have: this one’s energy, that one’s modesty, another’s generosity, and so on. Nothing is as encouraging as when virtues are visibly embodied in the people around us, when we’re praactically showered with them. It’s good to keep this in mind.”

3.Focus on The Present

Marcus knew the temptations that exist for all of us to let our imagination run wild envisioning all the ways things can go wrong. Of course, such an exercise can be useful in preparing us for the future and making us ready for adversity, but Marcus well understood that it can become a crippling fear that will paralyze us from any useful action. As he put it,

“Don’t let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole. Don’t try to picture everything bad that could possibly happen. Stick with the situation at hand, and ask, “Why is this so unbearable? Why can’t I endure it?” You’ll be embarrassed to answer.

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Then remind yourself that past and future have no power over you. Only the present—and even that can be minimized. Just mark off its limits. And if your mind tries to claim that it can’t hold out against that…well, then, heap shame upon it.”

You can read more about here:

https://medium.com/swlh/marcus-aurelius-and-the-art-of-choosing-your-perspective-d2eadbfb53c1

https://dailystoic.com/

Content Credits: https://dailystoic.com/Marcus-Aurelius/

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