If you want to keep the things you love then you better learn to kneel (Liam Gallagher)

Photo by Dare Artworks on Unsplash

It's always good to pause and have some honest feedback. Who would want to be surrounded by sycophants who won't say what needs to be said?

“If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.”

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

The more one serves others, the more one possesses. The more one gives to others, the more one has (Lao Zi)

Ronaldo and Fernandes after the latter scored from
an assist by Ronaldo.

Daily viewing of the three games from the UEFA Euro 2024 competition is a new routine for me and a reminder once again of how the team is far more important than a bunch of individual superstars.

It was interesting watching Cristiano Ronaldo playing for Portugal this week. At one point, he unselfishly set up a team mate to score a goal, rather than attempt to score himself.

That hasn't always been the case with Ronaldo, maybe he's growing up!

As the master says in Maktub (by Paulo Coelho):

Being together with the same goal in mind and yet allowing each individual to grow in his own way, that is the path of those who wish to commune with God.

This has always been my philosophy as a school leader. I am so proud of the staff at Hastings' campus. They got this.

You can go your own way (Fleetwood Mac)

 

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash

“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Forward

“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Better if you don't look down at the pages of your paper crown (Liam Gallagher)

Photo by Kristin Snippe on Unsplash

Another of my bookmarked pages in Paulo Coelho's Maktub says: 

Whenever there is a decision to be made, it's best just to let go and accept the consequences. you can't possibly know in advance what those consequences might be.

In the prayer that Jesus taught us, He says: "Thy will be done". Whenever that will presents us with a problem, it always brings with it a solution.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth (Marcus Aurelius)

The stoic idea of control is an important one to bear in mind in education, and in life.

Put simply it means we have no control over the opinions/ perspectives of others. We only have control over our own thoughts and actions. And even that is a perspective.

Epictetus in Discourses says:

The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own...

Here's the challenge - if I can focus on making clear what parts of my day are within my control and what parts are not, I will not only be happier, I will also have a distinct advantage over other people who fail to realise they are fighting an unwinnable battle.