There Is Always Something You Can Do to Improve Your Circumstances.
Welcome back to Mid-Week Meditations , Lifehacker’s weekly dip in the pool of stoic wisdom and a guide to using its waters to meditate and improve your life.
This week’s selection is from Seneca’s Peace of Mind . In Chapter 10, he suggests finding a way to improve any situation with intelligence and smart thinking:
“No condition can be so miserable that an impartial mind cannot find compensation in it. Small areas, if cleverly divided, can be used for a wide variety of purposes, and the layout will make even a very narrow room livable. Call on common sense to help you against difficulties: you can soften the harsh, expand that which is too narrow, and lighten the heavy burden of those who skillfully bear it. “
Here’s another version:
“There is nothing so bitter that a calm mind could not find comfort in it. Small plaques, thanks to the skill of the writer, often served many purposes, and the clever arrangement often made a very narrow plot of land habitable. Apply reason to difficulty; harsh circumstances can be mitigated, narrow boundaries can be expanded, and burdensome things can be made less harsh for those who can handle them wisely. “
What does it mean
There is no situation so bad that an intelligent, balanced person cannot find a way to get the most out of it. For example, even the smallest space can be efficiently organized. Use your mind to solve your problems and improve your situation.
What to take from there
It’s kind of a stoic version of “find the better side” or “always look to the bright side,” but a little more potent. It is about choosing to apply reason to your circumstances, rather than letting your emotions take over. Seneca says here that there is always something you can do to actively improve your situation, even if it is very small. He later says:
“Having given up what is either impossible to do or difficult to do, let’s follow the things that are nearby and that inspire support in our hopes …”
You do not need to turn off the mountains to improve their circumstances, you just need something to do. Start small. In the end, the little things you do to make things better will add up. Out of shape? Start walking every day. No savings? Invest a couple of dollars in your account every month. Feeling lonely? Talk to a new person once a week. Dissatisfied with your job? Find some tutorial to get you to the best.
Take time to think about his example of someone with a tiny piece of land. One could only mourn the size of their land for the rest of their days. But the Stoic rebuilt the same plot over and over again until he found a way to improve his life situation. As far as life is concerned, our destiny is the land we have been assigned. These are all things in the universe that are beyond our control. Some of us have larger plots, some smaller, but we all have the opportunity to arrange them as we see fit. Do you understand this is a riddle? Are you looking at it and moaning or trying to solve it? When you are in a difficult situation, you can give in to the nature of your circumstances or try to gradually improve them. Choose the latter.