W

June    19th

STAY    FOCUSED ON  THE PRESENT

“Don’t  let your    reflection  on  the whole   sweep   of  life    crush   you.    Don’t   fill    your    mind    with    all the

bad things  that    might   still   happen. Stay    focused on  the present situation   and ask yourself    why it’s

so  unbearable  and can’t   be  survived.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS,   MEDITATIONS,    8.36

hen you look back at some of the most impressive, even scary, things that you’ve done or endured,
how were they possible? How were you able to see past the danger or the poor odds? As Marcus
described, you were too busy with the details to let the whole sweep of the situation crush you. In fact,
you probably didn’t even think about it at the time.
A character in Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Lullaby says, “The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look
at everything close up.” Sometimes grasping the big picture is important, and the Stoics have helped us
with that before. A lot of times, though, it’s counterproductive and overwhelming to be thinking of
everything that lies ahead. So by focusing exclusively on the present, we’re able to avoid or remove those
intimidating or negative thoughts from our frame of view.
A man walking a tightrope tries not to think about how high up he is. An undefeated team tries not to
think about their perfect winning streak. Like us, they’re better off putting one foot in front of the other and
considering everything else to be extraneous.