Do the work and Find your prize!
I am going to start with a Marcus Aurelius quote “. . . It’s what the exertion of education and teaching are all about – here is the thing to be prized! . . . But by having some self-respect for your own mind and rising it, you will please yourself and be in better harmony with your fellow human beings and more in tune with the gods – praising everything they have set in order and allotted you.” – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.16.2b – 4 a. A great book I recommend is Medications Marcus Aurelius translated by Charles H Bennett.
This is a long quote, with more in the middle, and I encourage you to reflect on the whole quote. The gist of it is educate yourself, learn who you are, know your strengths, and work to improve your weaknesses. You will gain clarity about yourself and your life. Enabling you to align yourself with the things that are important to you and remove those that are harmful or polluting.
Why is this important? We are taught to stay at the toxic job, deal with the poisonous managers and coworkers, stay in contact with abusive and toxic family, and so on and so on. Stay, tolerate, that has been the norm. In an era where bullying and mobbing are the norm, recognize the situation and seek help. To all of these, I say leave for your mental health.
Find your mountain top full of spring flowers & blossoms and gently dance on the breeze from one beautiful bloom to the next like a honeybee. Drink the sweetness in as you bathe in the languid sunrises and sunsets. Let the mob of flies swarm the pile of pooh; it is just stinky crap surrounded by a buzzing horde anyway. Once you see it with clarity, there is no looking back.
The short and sweet of it, Do the work and Find your prize!
