I was listening to Ryan Holiday’s Daily Stoic podcast from May 25. It began with Ryan talking about everything in life is a phase.
Good, bad, or indifferent. Whatever you are going through will end eventually. Even if it means the end of you.
“Everything that happens is either endurable or not. If it’s endurable then endure it. Stop complaining. If it’s unendurable… then stop complaining. Your will mean it’s end as well. Just remember: you can endure anything your mind can make endurable, by treating it as in your best interest to do so.” – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book X.3
When you are going through something it may seem unbearable at the time. Then years later you look back, and you made it through and learned something from it.
What if you had that perspective when you were going through it?
Everything that happens to you is endurable. It may not seem like it in the moment. It may be painful but as I said in an earlier blog post: Pain = Growth.
Don’t get caught complaining even to yourself. What you are going through is hard enough. Don’t make it harder by feeling sorry for yourself.
There is always something to learn and something positive to take away from every situation. No matter how hard or painful.
The most painful experiences make us better.
“It’s not what happens to you but how you react that matters.” – Epictetus
Educational Stoic 