In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, the last of the five good emperors of Rome, offers
us several insights on how to keep calm and carry on with our lives.
By following the next 5 principles, you can learn to stop worrying and stay calm in difficult
times.
Focus on the present moment.
In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius wrote,
“Forget everything else.
Keep hold of this alone and remember it: Each of us lives only now, this brief instant.
The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see.”
The past is unchangeable, and the future is uncertain.
But what is certain is the present moment.
What you do today will determine the results you get tomorrow.
So don’t worry too much about the past or the future.
If you made a mistake in the past, the only place you can learn from it and correct it
is now—in the present.
If your worried about how your future will turn out, the only place you can make sure
it turns out for the better is now—in the present.
So focus on doing what’s in front of you to the best of your ability, and by doing
so, you can worry less and remain calm.
Expect and prepare for the worst.
In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius wrote,
“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling,
ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly.”
When you wake up each morning, imagine, visualize, and expect that the worst is already going
to happen.
Play it out in your head.
Feel it deeply and prepare your body for it.
Then determine how you can deal with that scenario usi ng tact, grace, and intelligence.
If you are mentally and physically prepared for the worst of all possible scenarios that
you can face, it’s much easier to stay calm and act effectively.
Your honor is the only thing that truly matters.
In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius wrote,
“It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character.
Otherwise it cannot harm you—inside or out.”
According to Marcus, the only thing that truly matters in life is your honor.
If you believe that and recognize that living honorably is always within your control, you
will be able to remain calm under any circumstances.
But if you don’t believe that honor is the only thing that truly matters, if you place
value on external circumstances and things that you can’t control, you will always
be worried.
You will always be worried about things not going your way, and you will worry about what
people think of you.
A truly stoic mind believes that honor is the only thing that really matters, and they
understand that living honorably is always under their control.
And so, no matter what their external circumstances are, they are able to remain calm and carry
on.
Don’t overvalue the opinion of others.
In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius wrote,
“Don’t waste the rest of your time here worrying about other people—unless it affects
the common good.
It will keep you from doing anything useful.”
The more value you place on the opinions of others, the more you will be worried about
what they think of you.
And you will never be calm unless they think good things about you.
But here’s the problem: you can never please everyone.
Pleasing one group of people usually means displeasing another group of people.
So the more you try to please everyone, the more you will displease everyone by being
perceived as inconsistent.
And the more you value what people think of you, the more worry and pain their bad perception
of you is going to cause.
But if you remain consistent in your personality and only value the opinion of those who you
view as honorable, you will be better able to remain calm when some people don’t like
you.
Realize that everything is impermanent.
In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius wrote,
“Keep in mind how fast things pass by and are gone—those that are now, and those to
come…it would take an idiot to feel self-importance or distress.
Or any indignation, either.
As if the things that irritate us lasted.”
Everything is impermanent.
The world is in constant flux, change, and flow.
What you feel today will be gone tomorrow.
Think about all of the good times that you had in the past.
Those are gone now.
Now think about all of the bad times that you had in the past too.
Those are gone as well.
You survived every single one of them.
Realize that everything is impermanent, even the negative aspects of life.
They will pass.
And when you realize that, you will find is easier to endure, overcome, and stay calmer
in difficult times.
So these are the five principles we went over today based on Meditations by Marcus Aurelius:
1.
Focus on the present moment.
2.
Expect and prepare for the worst.
3.
Your honor is the only thing that truly matters.
4.
Don’t overvalue the opinion of others.
5.
Realize that everything is impermanent.
And by following these five principles, you can worry less and stay calm in difficult
times.
This was just my interpretation of Marcus Aurelius’ work, and if you’re interested
in hearing more of my interpretations on his work, check out my last video called “Marcus
Aurelius - How to Build Self-Discipline”.