There is Only One Place to Look for Approval
The Daily Stoic3 Joulu 2019

There is Only One Place to Look for Approval

We all want to be liked. We want the acceptance of our peers. We want to be chosen. We want the stamp of approval—from the critics, from the crowd, from the market.

This makes sense...except it doesn’t.

Is it not true that most people are not very bright, hold regressive or alarming opinions, and generally follow the herd? And yet somehow we think it’s vindication when they love us? It’s nonsense. It’s pretty strange how much we value the respect of people we don’t respect...and the lengths we’re willing to go to get it.

"If you are ever tempted to look for outside approval,” Epictetus said, “realize that you have compromised your integrity. If you need a witness, be your own." This was something Marcus Aurelius wrestled with more than Epictetus because he was a public person. He saw crowds cheering him in the street. People flocked to court to heap praise on him (before asking for favors). He also had to put up with their jeers and criticisms.

Eventually he realized that he couldn’t pay attention to any of it. He had to hold himself to his own standard—an inner scorecard—and ignore everything else. The clapping was meaningless. The boos were too. What mattered was his own integrity—he had to be his own witness.

And today, so do you. It doesn’t matter what other people say or think. Approval and disapproval are equally meaningless. What matters is what you know is right, and whether you do it.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jaksot(2910)

How To Be A Winner and a Loser

How To Be A Winner and a Loser

Michael Lombardi is a former NFL coach, GM and front office strategist who is largely responsible for introducing Stoic philosophy to professional sports. In 2014, he read The Obstacle is the Way and ...

19 Loka 20183min

Accepting The Little Facts of Life

Accepting The Little Facts of Life

In the late 1800s, Theodore Roosevelt was on a hunting trip in Big Hole Basin in Montana. The trip did not get off to a good start. Upon getting off the train, and searching for a wagon to transport t...

18 Loka 20183min

Don’t Make This Mistake

Don’t Make This Mistake

There is a repeated pattern of failure in Marcus Aurelius’s life, and no matter how much we might admire him, it’s hard to deny it. His step brother, Lucius Verus, who he elevated to co-emperor, was a...

17 Loka 20183min

Are You A Coward? Or Are You Brave?

Are You A Coward? Or Are You Brave?

Varlam Shalamov was a brilliant writer who was sentenced in 1937 to years of hard labor in a Soviet gulag. If that were not painful enough, though he was eventually freed, his writings were more or le...

16 Loka 20184min

Why Ego Is Your Enemy

Why Ego Is Your Enemy

One of the early members of Alcoholics Anonymous defined ego as “a conscious separation from.” From what? From everything and everyone, including our own nature. When we are in the sway of ego, we are...

15 Loka 20182min

Don’t Be All About Business

Don’t Be All About Business

Is there anything sadder than a person whose work is their life? They neglect their family, they put in crazy hours, they have no interests, no hobbies outside what they do at the office. It’s bad eno...

12 Loka 20182min

Why Do You Care What They Think?

Why Do You Care What They Think?

There’s a moment that almost everyone remembers from their childhood. They have just received something they really liked--a new shirt, a new toy, a haircut they thought was cool--and showed up for sc...

11 Loka 20182min

What You Think You’re Lacking Is The Problem

What You Think You’re Lacking Is The Problem

George Ball, the diplomat and advisor to President Kennedy (one of who David Halberstam would call ‘the best and the brightest’), once observed about Lyndon Johnson that LBJ was hardly disadvantaged b...

10 Loka 20183min

Suosittua kategoriassa Liike-elämä ja talous

sijotuskasti
mimmit-sijoittaa
rss-rahapodi
psykopodiaa-podcast
rss-rahamania
herrasmieshakkerit
rss-seuraava-potilas
ostan-asuntoja-podcast
rss-20-30-40-podcast
rahapuhetta
rss-lahtijat
rss-inderes-femme
rss-myynnilla-on-asiaa-kert-kenner
pomojen-suusta
rss-inderes
rss-draivi
rss-strategian-seurassa
rss-porssipuhetta
rss-startup-ministerio
rss-bisnesta-bebeja