Post #91. First, Say to Yourself What You Would Be.

“First say to yourself what you would (will) be; then do what you have to do.”
– Epíktētos, Greek Stoic Philosopher, AD 50 -135.

Imagine you have a challenging conversation infront of you. What do you normally do? How do you feel? Perhaps you feel a bit anxious, worried, tense… I don’t know…
We feel whatever we feel… Then we go into this conversation, and we act out of these feelings…
The conversation is likely not to turn out that beautifully…

Now, imagine you have the same challenging conversation infront of you. But instead of just going into it with all your insecurities & worries, you take a minute and say to yourself:

Do you think there’s a bigger chance this will turn of different? Why? 

It’s more likely that you reach your destination if you have set a destination in the first place… 

Otherwise you might end up anywhere…

If we don’t choose to stand for something, we’ll fall for anything… This might take form in reacting out of fear, worry, momentary challenges.

Before you enter a situation, simply set an intention…

Ask yourself: Who will I be?

Then follow through. 

You have the power to choose who you will be in this moment. And the next…
If you choose. 

And the beautiful thing is that, every time you do this, you practice the act of choosing who you will be.

You get stronger for every time you say to yourself who you will be and follow through on it. 

I use this idea before I come home from work, and it’s fascinating to see how it grounds me after a challenging day at work. It’s far more likely that I follow though on the intentions that I set, than those I didn’t set… 🙂

Set your intentions.