Marcus Aurelius and Jesus both focused on what they could control, not external pressures. Ask yourself what you can actually do right now, take small immediate actions, and stop worrying about the rest. This distinction cuts stress.
Chapters
So just finished doing my live Bible study on YouTube, and something that came up both in my reading— I'm constantly going through Aurelius's Meditations, at the same time going through John 11 tonight— and there is this realization that keeps coming up, this idea of the things that are inside of your control are very much you, yourself. This is what you can control. Everything else out there, outside of your control. This is a constant in Aurelius's Meditations of the things that are within your control, control. That's yourself, your thoughts, your ideas, your actions. What you can control, do. Jesus today, as we're going through John 11, is constantly being urged by others, Mary and Martha, and by his apostles, disciples, to do things, things that are outside of his control. Oh, well, what about those people? What about this? What about that? What about— and he's just going, all I can do is me. This is me. This is what I can do. And this is what I'm gonna do. And I think that it's really important to have that, that understanding, because it really, I found over the last couple of months, if all you focus on is what can I do? What am I able to do? Take it as small and as immediately as you want, as what am I able to do right now? Or go a little bit bigger of like, what can I accomplish today or this week? But what are the things that you can literally control? What can you actually do? And do them. And if you can't do anything with it, try not to sweat it. You can only do what you can.
