“Be deaf to those who love you most of all; they pray for bad things with good intentions.” – Seneca

The people who love us the most are also the people in the best position to do us the most harm. These are the people who, while having the best of intentions, will encourage us to be lazy with our goals.

They are the ones who will tell us that we deserve some reward, that we can take it easy because we have worked so hard already, or that it is alright if we break our own rules.

These are the people who will tell us that it is alright if we have just one beer, or if we sleep in just one day, or if we lose our tempers just one time. Because nobody is perfect.

Better than depending on them for guidance, we should live as if we are constantly being judged by those who would see us fail. What would that one coworker say to us if they saw us open that beer? How about that family member who gave us a hard time about getting up so early, wouldn’t they love to see us hit snooze right now?

We aren’t competing with those people but it is perfectly acceptable to use their judgement as motivation to stay on the path when our discipline starts to flag a little. Especially when we are being encouraged to flag by those who are trying to be supportive.

virtus fortis vocat