There are reasons enough in the world to feel worried and concerned. Nonsense and injustice, ignorance and prejudice, just to name a few. Mistakes are made day after day, frequently out of kindness and in good faith, although those are poor consolations to those on the receiving end.
Should one choose to feel distressed? The answer to this question will depend on what you want to achieve. Let us not underestimate the appeal of rightful indignation. Complaining makes you feel important, gives free rein to your emotions, and gets you closer to like-minded plaintiffs or outraged defendants.
Anger increases your energy and keeps you alert, but it has substantial drawbacks. More often than not, obfuscation will blind you to reality and lead you to discard relevant facts. You will misjudge people and situations, attributing ill-intent where only negligence exists. In most cases, strong emotional reactions will result in waste:
Ongoing activities will be put on hold waiting for redress that might or might not come, but will sure not happen today. Life goes on and indignation keeps you focused on the past. Anger prevents you from using your hours in the best possible way.
Your expectations of obtaining reparation will often be unrealistic. Even if you possess all the good arguments in the world, your claim might have to face indifference and contempt, inefficiency and nepotism. Your resources will be exhausted and your patience eroded.
Most people do not care and few will even make the effort to listen, let alone understand what you are saying. Thinking in principles requires substantial mental concentration. Unless someone is already used to abstract reasoning, his perception of your story will not go beyond unconnected details.
The financial and personal cost of pursuing old claims can be extremely high. Stress, preoccupation, uncertainty, fees, and deposits will eat up your savings and weaken your health. Would you not rather use your energies for better purposes?
In terms of results, the evidence is overwhelming. Stress, anger, and indignation are not worth the cost you pay and the time you waste. You have much better options at your disposal. Serenity and persistent action will bring you more advantages than unbridled emotions. Understanding this will radically change your view of the world.
When cheated, learn the lesson and start something new. When mistreated, move on and find better people to share your life with. When unappreciated, cut off your losses and join those who admire what you have to offer. Liberate your ship from the entanglements of dead waters, make a clean slate, and head for a friendlier horizon.
[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]
[Image by Wolfgang Staudt under Creative Commons Attribution License. See the license terms under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us]
There is too much noise in the world and too many offers compete for our attention. Each new song provides us a pleasant melody for a day, each new fashion entertains our spirits for a week. Time seems to be always insufficient for those who are busy chasing the latest novelty. We all want to experience the fresh before it becomes stale an hour later.
We lie ourselves pretending that it has always been like this. We take pride in being the first to adopt the latest change. Faster, quicker, we push forward in unison. If only we could get ourselves to forget the essential questions that superficiality will never address. Acceleration is sugar-coated sedation that can never still our hunger for happiness, but what is the alternative?
In the year 24 B.C., Titus Livius turned 35 years old. He looked back at his life and saw that he had not accomplished much. Like many Romans of good family, he had enjoyed a solid education, read widely, done some travelling and also a little writing. In other words, he had tried his hand intermittently at everything and achieved pretty much nothing.
His life lacked purpose and ambition, but that was not something which bothered any of his friends. Stoicism and hedonism, the prevalent philosophies in Ancient Rome, led most men to live for the pleasures of the day and to regard strenuous effort as a burden to be carried only by servants and slaves.
We do not know what made Titus Livius change his ways, but we do know the results. Instead of continuing to pursue random interests, he conceived a project so difficult and wide-ranging that he knew that it would take him decades to accomplish.
A few months later, he had already formulated in detail how he was going to spend the rest of his life. He would write a History of Rome as it had never been told before. He would speak not only of facts, but also about individuals. He would recount not only past events, but also the values that had inspired them.
The plan designed by Titus Livius comprised researching hundreds of documents and the actual writing of 150 books, an enterprise that nowadays would occupy several university departments. Titus Livius did most of the work himself and it took him four decades.
Apparently, he was very happy devoting his time to such demanding undertaking, even if that entailed doing away with other distractions. Such devotion to a single long-term purpose is an essential element of happiness. When Titus Livius died, he was 77 years old. His only regret must have been that he had not started his project before, since he only managed to complete 142 books.
[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]
[Image by Chiara Marra under Creative Commons Attribution License. See the license terms under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us]
Posts
