It’s Not Enough Just to Be “good”
Welcome back to Mid-Week Meditations , Lifehacker’s weekly dive into the pool of stoic wisdom and how you can use its waters to meditate and improve your life.
This week’s selection is taken from the book of Marcus Aurelius and his Meditations. He believes that the right actions should come freely from within ourselves, and not be supplanted by external circumstances:
“You should not take any action reluctantly, selfishly, uncritically or with conflicting motives. Do not dress up your thoughts in fancy outfits: do not be a chatterbox and do not meddle in affairs. Next, let the god who is within you be the protector of the being that you are – a man, mature in years, a statesman, a Roman, a ruler: one who has taken office as a soldier, waiting for a retreat from life to sane and ready to sail, despite the need for a faithful oath or a human witness. And make sure to be fun, maintain independence from outside help and the peace that others can give. It is your duty to stand up straight, not keep straight. “
Meditation , 3.5
Aurelius reiterates this concept later in the seventh book:
“Stand straight – or keep straight.”
MEDITATIONS , 7
Here is another translation of this word: “A person should stand upright, not stand.”
What does it mean
As in most of his writings, here Aurelius is talking to himself (hence the passages on how to be a man, Roman, etc.). However, his general idea is useful to others: be good, don’t just do it because you have to, or because you think it will benefit you in some way.
It also explains in some detail its definition of “good”. Do not do anything “reluctantly, selfishly, uncritically, or with conflicting motives”; do not mask your thoughts and language with “smart clothes” in order to take advantage of others or interfere in business; and stay positive and independent. Sounds pretty manageable, right?
But the important thing is not to be good, but why you do it . You have to be good just because. It’s just what’s right. And, as a soldier serving the universal forces of good, Aurelius invites you to stick to this duty until the day you die.
What to take from there
Being “good”, however you define it, is not enough in Aurelius’s eyes. Being “good” should be the essence of your being, what you choose to be and whatever you do. You have to tell yourself, “I will be good, I will stand up straight, and not hold me upright and make him stand up.”
Think about it, how often do you “behave” just to get out of trouble or break the rules? Or how about appealing to your own vanity, or because you knew somewhere that it would benefit you? Do you choose to be good because you know it’s right? Or are you being good at just because you feel you should?
If you’ve watched any of The Good Place afterlife TV shows, this is one of the central themes. Let’s say, for example, that you’ve been doing charity work all your life and doing charity work for others. But what if you only did it for the fame and glory? Or purposefully outshine someone in your life? All this “good” work doesn’t seem so good anymore, does it?