“Great philosophers all declared how we ought to live, not how they did live. I speak of virtue, not of myself, and when I blame vices, I blame my own first of all: when I have the power, I shall live as I ought to.” – Seneca

A few times daily we should be able to reflect on how the day is going thus far and how we are doing at controlling the things within our power and not being affected by the things that are not within our power.

Every time we do this, we should notice that we are falling short of our goals in some way. We shouldn’t be discouraged by this, the goal of self mastery is a life long one and mastery of any subject involves ever moving goal posts.

We should however, be able to identify a few key places that we are able to make improvements on what we are doing right away. Most frequently this will involve the way we are choosing to see a particular problem or issue as this is something that we can choose to correct almost immediately.

Every day we should be taking a few minutes and reflecting on how that particular part of the day is going, how we are feeling, and we should learn to identify a few thing that will make it better right away. And then we should be doing those things.

virtus fortis vocat