“I shall make whatever befalls me a good thing, but I prefer what befalls me should be comfortable and pleasant and unlikely to cause me annoyance.” – Seneca

Making the most of any situation is a skill that is learned and perfected over a lifetime. While it allows us to take the bad that life is going to throw at us and make the most of it, developing a skill for making the most of any situation is not a license to allow the things we do have control over to be neglected.

We should not, for example, stop making our car payments because we know that we could live comfortably without a car. Instead if we feel that we would do well without the car, we should return it to the dealership and allow someone who needs it more than we do to take advantage of it. We should effectively try to decrease the amount of chaos in the world, not add to it.

Furthermore, being able to handle anything that life throws at us is not a carte blanche for chaos. Simply because we know that we can handle a hectic workday is not enough of a reason to pack everyday as full as we can and leave ourselves trying to juggle more things than we can handle while also operating at our highest level.

Instead we should aim for a balance. Some days should be used to stretch our abilities in offering our absolute best in any situation and others should be used to handle as many things as we possibly can. And in both situations we should be taxing ourselves just up to the point where we can not take it.

We shouldn’t worry about trying to determine which days are for which ahead of time. That is not within our control. We just have to be ready to take things as they come.

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