Every morning at 7, a reminder would pop up on my phone screen. It simply says, “It may not be your fault, but it’s your responsibility.”
To put this in other words, what happens to you may not be in your control. But you are always in control of how you act.
This idea of focusing on what is in our control is so simple, yet so important and life-changing, that the entire philosophy of Stoicism is founded on it.
But I have this idea as a daily reminder because I forget it all the time. And I think all of us do.
By default, we like to whine, complain and point fingers at other people, at the system, or at the world for how we feel. But nothing ever gets resolved. Instead of actually doing something to change the situation, we just sit on our asses and let the same problems play out. And we wonder why we are so miserable.
Personally, as someone from a marketing background, it’s kind of ironic that I couldn’t stand ads. Maybe it’s just that most ads out there are bad, and I hate bad ads. I don’t know.
Take YouTube ads for example. If you live in Malaysia, you likely already know how annoyingly fucky the ads from the Omi dating app are. And if you’re sensitive to sounds like myself, going through McDonald’s “ASMR” fried chicken ads with all the open-mouth chewing noises probably makes you want to rip your hair out. And in numerous times in your life, you’ve also likely wished that you could watch a simple video in peace, without some dodgy-ass investment ad that you couldn’t skip.
Well, a few months ago I decided that I had had enough. Instead of whining like I always did, I took the initiative to spend a few bucks for a YouTube Premium subscription. And man, was it a life-changer. It has made such a difference in my peace of mind, that I literally couldn’t imagine going back to an ad-infested YouTube.
Anyway, my point is, I guess we all need a constant reminder that we can actually do something about our problems.
I just remembered a line from Marcus Aurelius Meditations, in which he wrote to himself, “The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around them. That’s all you need to know. Nothing more. Don’t demand to know ‘why such things exist.’”
Your problems exist. And solutions exist, too. You can decide to focus on why your problems are what they are to no end. Or you can decide to do something about them.
So, stop complaining.
This isn’t a sponsored post, by the way. YouTube Premium is an angel. You might want to give it a try.
Izzat Zailan 