Welcome to Stoic Snippets,
The track that is short in time,
But not in depth.
Now they see you as a beast,
A monkey,
But in a week they'll think of you as a god.
This was written by Roman emperor and philosopher,
Marx Aurelius,
As he lamented on where he was but hyped himself up to be better by the end of the week.
He knew what all Stoics know,
That we have the power and freedom over our choices and that these choices can dictate our position in life,
Even as quickly as a week.
You see,
Big changes rarely come through doing one extraordinary thing,
But rather doing ordinary things with extraordinary consistency,
Whether that be dieting,
Exercise,
Maintaining a relationship or even investing.
As James Clare,
The author of Atomic Habits points out,
We only need to get 1% better every day.
Marcus Aurelius was reminding himself of this truth.
So often,
When we fall or stumble,
We get disheartened,
But the message here is no matter where we are starting from,
We have the chance to turn it around,
Even as quickly as a week.
Then next week,
We get to do it again.
You are never down and out.
Now you may be down,
But you are not out as long as you remember that you have freedom over your choices and your actions.
And it's those simple choices and actions that stack up quickly,
Just like how saving small amounts of money every day can quickly become a big amount of money.
Now there's a further advantage to making these small positive steps,
And that's because you get the reps in.
You get the reps in of doing the right thing,
Which makes doing the right thing easier and easier.
So as you make better choices,
You get better.
And as you get better,
Making good choices gets easier.
I find this every time I start working out again.
At first,
It is a slog.
As soon as I've been going for a while though,
I feel good,
Which makes me want to go more,
Which makes me feel good,
Which makes me want to go more.
The hardest part,
As always,
Is the start.
So I want to implore you today to get excited about where you could be in a week.
See it as an adventure,
And embrace the day by making use of your choices and your actions.
All you have to do today is remind yourself that you are capable of so much.
So shake off that negativity of last week.
The rest of your life starts today with every decision that you make.
Good luck out there.
Now,
If you're hyped about what you can achieve in a week on your own,
Just imagine what you could achieve in a week with a supportive group.
And for that,
I'd love you to check out my new retreat that's available here on InsideTimer.
Go check out my profile for more information.
Hope to see you there.
