Marcus Aurelius’s memoranda to himself – words to return to again and again.
3.5
Labour not unwillingly, nor without regard to the common interest, nor without due consideration, nor with distraction; nor let studied ornament set off your thoughts, and be not either a man of many words, or busy about too many things.
And further, let the deity which is in you be the guardian of a living being, manly and of ripe age, and engaged in matter political, and a Roman, and a ruler, who has taken his post like a man waiting for the signal which summons him from life, and ready to go, having need neither of oath nor of any man’s testimony.
Be cheerful also, and seek not external help nor the tranquility which others give.
A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.
Read the rest of the meditations here.
Notes
Can you list what you should:
Keep your mind on
Not be distracted by
Let rule your life
Bring to mind to always persist
In this short passage, Marcus Aurelius shows that he can.
It may serve you well to remember the same in your own case: what’s important, what’s not, what should govern your decisions, all while motivating yourself to do your best.
Let’s add some more detail to each.
What’s important is what you keep your attention and awareness on. You can think of attention as the immediate object and awareness as knowledge of everything surrounding (this is my construction, not the Roman emperor’s).
The Roman emperor reminds himself to keep the general welfare front of mind. Every action should be done with regard to the whole. It should not be shortsighted or selfish. He must not let himself be distracted by others, spend time showing off, or tarry in trifles.
So your attention may be on a specific person or role that you occupy – while your awareness is knowledge of the whole social network that you occupy. In this way, you can master both microcosm and macrocosm.
Keep what is important front of mind. Forget what is not.
What doesn’t matter is not worthy of your time and therefore not worthy of your life. As an emperor with so many demands on one’s time, he must have felt the urgency of hundreds of tasks while staying resolute with the knowledge that not all of them were essential. The petitions from others – citizens and politicians with their own agendas – clamoring for his attention would have been commonplace.
And so he had to cut through this and let his daemon rule his life. Make decisions in accordance with his reason, conscience, and principles. For him, that means to live as a man and a Roman.
Ignore the social pressure. The pointless novel entertainments. Make decisions in accord with Stoic philosophy.
In this passage, Marcus Aurelius soundly hits on what matters for the philosophers. We must think well and pursue knowledge. To act with shortsightedness betrays ignorance. We let down ourselves and our guiding genius when we do that. Instead, we must fulfill our roles both ordinary and cosmic. Cosmic in the sense that every human must act as a rational being. Ordinary in the sense that we must be excellent men and women, employees and employers, artists and athletes, housemates and neighbors. Marcus Aurelius was called to be Roman emperor. We each have our own calling. It is this that must guide your decisions.
How can you motivate yourself to live up to your purposes? Create a self-image to live up to. Throughout the Meditations we see Marcus Aurelius engaging in this practice. His model is virtuous, manly, and an excellent ruler. Importantly, it’s contingent on who he is and the situation he finds himself in. For that reason, your self-image cannot be the same, even if it is ultimately derived from the same principles.
And in the end we must be prepared to go. Take that as motivation, energy. We will not live forever. Live now.
Let your life be full of what matters, clean of what doesn’t, and guided by philosophy.