Friends, Meditation is the only book of its kind in the world, its name was earlier "Two Himself" Which Marcus Aurelius wrote in the last 10 years of his life.
This book is special because at that time Rome was the most powerful kingdom in the world and Marcus Aurelius was the most powerful person in the world.
If he wanted, he could have fun every night. He could fulfill all his legitimate and rightful wishes. There was no one to stop him, but on the contrary, in meditations, you will find the thoughts of the most powerful man in the world,
in which he cautions himself on the one hand of greed, anger, laziness and enjoyment and on the other side to work hard, kindness, justice and prudent behavior also Marcus Aurelius was not a philosopher who would sit and write everyday.
He suppressed many major wars and rebellions. Saved the country from plague and epidemic and maintained justice and peace among the subjects.
Historians say that it was such a difficult task to rule on kingdoms at that time.
Marcus Aurelius cleverly did all this. Perhaps no other king could do all this and you will find the same practical approach and tact in his writing.
As Marcus Aurelius says
“These are characteristics of the rational soul. Self Awareness, self examination and Self determination. It succeeds in its own purpose.”
You are following any kind of discipline whether it is no-fap or you want to improve yourself with the exam.
You need a mechanism or method by which you can evaluate yourself every night.
This is very practical because if you do not see your own goodness every day, then you will leave a chance to take inspiration from your small victory.
You can say that self-evaluation arises from self-awareness and self-awareness meets self-motivation.
Being motivated by good work and improvement itself leads you to Mastery.
It Succeeds in its own purpose.
Therefore Marcus Aurelius says that it is a matter of intelligence.
1. Characteristic of rational souls.
You want at least 10-15 minutes every night where you can think what I did well. And where do I need improvement?
No matter how many bad days you are having, every person can be happy by thinking about one thing which he has done well the whole day.
Whenever you will think of a small thing that “yes today started the day very well and I was able to do the same as I had planned.” Then you won't be distracted by the rest.
With this you also have to see your mistake and write that how can you improve it the next day?
Neither you have to be sad nor you have to criticize, and you are not avoiding your shortcomings, instead of being unhappy, you are thinking that how can tomorrow be improved? How can today's mistake be stopped before tomorrow?
Before going to bed every night in a diary, keep writing the answers of these two. You only have to write answers to two questions and it merely takes more than 10 minutes, but its benefits are great that you remain alert the next day.
I talk to many people. People do other things but they don't do self-evaluation at night. If you do, then please let me know in the comments.
2. Mastery on ideas
The second thing for self-discipline is mastery over ideas.
Self-discipline begins with mastery of thoughts. If you cannot control your thoughts, then you cannot control your reaction and action.
Marcus Aurelius says that
“ Choose not be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.”
Suppose there is a lot of disturbance around you that drags you back and forth. In the midst of all the distortion and confusion, you can choose to speak to yourself from the inside that if you do not lose your focus, then you will not feel distracted and when you do not feel you are not.
Marcus Aurelius is giving you a chance to get into your thought process. When we are confused we need a handle, we need a grip on our thought process from where we can start and control the keys.
Even if you change your place due to distraction, there is only a delay to choose it.
By choosing your mental reaction, you can control your thought process.
“Choose not to be distracted and you won’t feel distracted don’t feel distracted and you haven’t been.”
Like I know that IPL will run for about 45 days, if it is followed, it will be spent 60-50 hours if nothing. So you will not see any news, highlights, scoreboard related to IPL.
If you control so much in the beginning, then you will also be saved from the temptation to see the match every day.
3. Delay Gratification
The next big thing is that A king lives a very comfortable life, and those around him also want a king to live in a frenzy.
Marcus Aurelius says to avoid pleasure and laziness, so were you born to feel good? Or will you try something new, get some new experience.
Friends, whenever you pick up your phone, ask yourself, am I born to taste a little dopamine just to feel good all day long?
Marcus says, don’t you see how much effort, how diligently every creature is performing its duty?
Will you not do the duty of being a human or you will stop here just to feel a little bit better?
Everyone has the ability to walk on the path of Discipline, you just have to ask the right question at the right time.
4.Never be the victim in your mind
The next thing Marcus Aurelius says is that do not ever make yourself Victim or weak in your mind, otherwise you will start complaining.
When something bad happens suddenly, we ask ourselves the question, why did something bad happen to me?
There can be no positive answer to this question.
Why did something bad happen to me?
Why did something bad happen to me because I'm unlucky. So, whatever happens, never make yourself weak or Victim in your mind.
Rather, think that if I can make this problem my strength in this accident, my inspiration and my learning, then what can I do to change my life right now?
Let's take a small thought experiment to understand the next point.
5. Why Self Discipline?
Suppose you are driving a car on the highway and it is going to be evening in a while. Suddenly the tire gets punctured but you have never changed a tire before. So what will you do?
You will take out jacks and tires then start with your logic, otherwise you will look on the internet or else you will ask for help, or you will call your friend.
How will he/she be, intelligent or lazy, he/she will juggle and change the tire because he/she knows that the highway is not safe after evening.
His purpose is clear that I have to leave before evening and hence I have to complete the task of changing tires.
Marcus Aurelius says
that when you have trouble getting up in the morning and you stop to apply extra effort then ask yourself what is my complaint? Should I not fulfill my purpose? Have I got the life of this person only to lie in a blanket?
If we start to feel that we have to change some punctured tires every day, otherwise this life will pass on the highway, then you will not wait for inspiration.
Inspiration gets you going, But discipline keeps you growing.
You can start walking on the basis of inspiration, but you start to grow on the basis of discipline.
Friends, let's summarize this article quickly.
- You just have to write the answer to 2 questions every night.
- What did you do better today?
- What else can be done better?
6. Mastery on thoughts
You can choose your reaction.
Choose not to be distracted and you won’t feel distracted Don’t feel distracted and you haven't been.
The Third point is delay gratification.
You can ask yourself questions.
Were you born to feel good? Or you will try, and get some new experience.
The Fourth thing is that we will never make ourselves suffer, weak or Victim in our mind.