Treasure everything that comes your way
We find it easy to complain about almost anything — traffic, slow Wi-Fi, lousy customer service, the weather, or even life itself. Whenever we find ourselves facing life’s challenges, we resort to complaining.
One truth most of us find difficult to embrace is that complaining never changes the situation. Sure, it feels good and momentarily liberating to blow off steam and vent our anger, but we only end up wasting our time and making everything worse. That’s why complaining seems so comforting — it lets us describe situations as negatively as we can without any solid plan to take responsibility and try to solve the problem.
Similarly, there is nothing to gain from worrying. When facing a challenge, ask yourself. “Can I do anything about this?” If yes, great! So why complain? Get to work and start doing everything you can to turn things around. If not, why waste your time complaining and stressing when you know it won’t make any difference? As Marcus Aurelius reminds us, we can either deal with the challenges that come our way, or we don’t. If possible, we should start doing something and stop making things worse by complaining.
One part of Marcus Aurelius’ duty as an emperor he didn’t exactly fancy was holding court. However, regardless of his disdain for it, he didn’t shy away from his duties. He trusted in the grand scheme of things and, knowing he was the emperor for a purpose, believed that part of the universe’s plan for him was to deal with the sly courtiers and their flimsy arguments and small talk.
As a devoted stoic, Marcus Aurelius strongly believed in “Amor Fati,” which translates to “love of fate.” The Stoics think that the secret to happiness and tranquility lies in accepting everything that happens to us, including suffering and losses, as something positive or seeing every life experience, either positive or negative, as something that can teach valuable life lessons and help people grow.
⚡️Life is too short to waste the quality part of your time complaining. Start acting instead of brooding and assigning blame.
Did you know? Marcus Aurelius never intended to publish Meditations. He simply wanted to write down his reflections for clarity, self-improvement, and to have a private philosophical guide.