“Everything has to submit to what happens, but only rational beings are given the power to follow what happens voluntarily.” – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 10.28
What is going to happen is going to happen. We have less control over the future than we think.
We can complain about it. We can get angry about it.
Your reaction will not change the outcome.
“The Fates guide the person who accepts them and hinders the person who resists them.” – Cleanthes
We only control our response, so we must accept what has happened and move on.
Use it as a learning experience. Use it as fuel to find something better, to be better.
“Oh, wretched I, to whom this mischance is happened! Nay, happy I, to whom this thing happened, I can continue without grief; neither wounded by that which is present, nor in fear of that which is to come.” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 4.44
Often the worst-case scenarios that we invent in our head never come true. We rob the joy from today by worrying about things that may never happen tomorrow.
“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” – Seneca.
In the moment, it may feel like the end of the world. Unless it has killed you, then it’s not the end of the world. If it has killed you, then your pain is over.
If it hasn’t killed you, then use it to make you better and stronger.
Don’t quit. One foot in front of the other. One day at a time.
Educational Stoic 