The Daily Stoic - January 4 - "The Big Three"

Control your perceptions.

Direct your actions properly.

Willingly accept what's outside your control.

The authors of The Daily Stoic used this as a summary of what Marcus Aurelius wrote in Meditations, 9.6 as well as the three principals of Stoicism: Perception, Action, Will. 

 

The Stoic logic is circular in nature (or overlapping for lack of better verbiage) when making decisions and for those in the recovering communities. For those of us who are control freaks, this is difficult to wrap our minds around. 

Control your perceptions - And wisdom to know the difference. ➜ God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change

 

What can I control? What is outside of my control? (This is a form of knowledge.)

 

Direct your actions properly - Courage to change the things I can;

 

How should I use my new found knowledge? (Knowledge is freedom after all.)

 

Willingly accept what's outside your control - And wisdom to know the difference. ➜ God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change

 

What can I control? What is outside of my control? Will my actions result in something beyond my control? If it does, accept this fact and move on. There are more important things to direct my attention to than something I cannot control.

 

The biggest challenge I will have this year is controlling perceptions and sorting out what is controllable and what is not on the spot while trying to make decisions (especially at work). 

As stated in previous post, I am new to Stoicism, so I could be way off base with the way I am interpreting these meditations. This is a learning experience for me.