Divide and Conquer

Every event that occurs can, from your perspective, be categorised in one of two ways:

1. In your control.

2. Not in your control.

Great. So what?

I believe that much of our negative emotion is produced by attending too much to things we can't change, and not enough to things we can.

Dividing the world into these two categories focusses our attention only on things that we have the power to affect.

This has the result of making us impervious to the things we can't change.

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. -Epictetus

Think about how much of your anxiety is driven by mistakes you made in the past, or challenges you face in the future.

The past is a paradigmatic example of something we can't control. Yet regret of actions taken (or not taken) in the past is a source of so much suffering.

Ask yourself also what worry for the future achieves?

The only productive consequence of worry is that it might motivate you to take action in the present.

So learn from past mistakes, and prepare for future. But always recognise that those two things are ultimately out of your control.

As the great stoic sage Seneca said:

"True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not."

Until next time - As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts. 👊