ASSEMBLE YOUR LIFE
“You have to assemble your life yourself—action by action. And be satisfied if each one achieves its goal, as far as it can”.
This is from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations.
And here is an AI generated image of Marcus, the Roman Emperor:
Marcus Aurelius image generated on “Midjourney”, the image generation AI platform. This is so crazy, I just had to put it here.
WHAT
To recap - Marcus Aurelius was a legendary Roman emperor, and a distinguished philosopher.
His famous “journal” of self-directed pearls of wisdom, is now known as “Meditations”.
In Meditations 8.32, Marcus Aurelius write a short dialogue with himself.
He opens with the quote in the top of this post, calling himself to gradually build his [desired] life, step-by-step.
Marcus continues to discuss with himself, on how eventually obstacles will stand in his way.
But, Marcus Aurelius is famous for popularizing the concept of “the obstacle IS the way”.
Bruce lee also said something similar: “to hell with circumstances, I create opportunities”.
So naturally he responds to himself, that these obstacles can’t stop him from behaving with justice, self-control, and good sense.
Well, Marcus replies to himself [that’s the concept of philosophical dialogues… sounds confusing I know] that this may be the case, but obstacles will stand in the way of concrete actions [as in… your good vibes mojo is fine, but the other girl’s army is not going to let us through peacefully].
Finally Marcus concludes - that you have to accept these obstacles, work with what you have, and an alternative will eventually present itself.
WHY
So why bother thinking about such high level concepts, that a Roman Emperor wrote to himself?
Exactly because of that.
If a Roman Emperor, the most powerful man of that world, needs to remind himself to take it step-by-step, how can we afford not to.
Our world is filled with stressors, obstacles, fears, temptations, and polarization.
This stuff is exactly what we need.
We need to read, practice, and assimilate this skill.
A skill to accept circumstances, find alternatives, and make progress, step-by-step.
No one is coming to save you.
No one will show you your way.
No one will walk it for you either.
You have to take the step, and the next step, and the next…
HOW
Connecting this to some real world experiences:
Planning your team’s roadmap for the coming year?
Start gaining momentum, with small steps.
Reach out to people, as many as you can.
Ask for help.
Start writing spreadsheets with whatever you can.
If you keep at it, eventually something will catch, momentum will start to build, and the fog will start to clear.
See more about planning here.
Don’t know what to do in today’s workout?
Stop staring at the ceiling!
Start moving.
Do anything.
Do push-ups.
Once you pass that first “block”, you will start to flow, and possibly have the best workout of your life.
Don’t know WHAT TO WRITE IN YOUR POST?
Oh sorry… that doesn’t belong here…
Move along…
TAKEAWAYS
Assemble your life, step-by-step
Obstacles will come. Accept them. Move on. Alternatives will show up.
Get up know and do push-ups.
