A key point to bear in mind...you're better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve (Marcus Aurelius)

Photo by Filip Szalbot on Unsplash

Marcus is like a postman, he always delivers.

We all get caught up in the day to day. Being a teacher means there is always something to mark, always some prep to do, always demands on our time, always new emails.

At the time, those things may seem really important.

I spent a lot of time during a lesson yesterday discussing some fundamentals, like knowing when something is right or wrong, with one of my senior classes. My point being - a teacher can assist in this by getting students to think about their responses to situations, weighing up the pros and cons, considering the consequences and the implications for themselves and others.

My example was me on Friday night - I'd had a few drinks at my daughter's wedding and was asked to drive a van home. My superego was egging me on - I felt fine and okay to drive but I thought about all the things that could go wrong.

• It was a rental van, and not in my name
• I was in America (more lawyers than you can shake a stick at)
• I'd had a few drinks 
• I was at a mile above sea level in Denver (that means an increased alcohol affect)

I took the keys, but we got an Uber home. I returned the next day to get the van.

That was the important stuff - and worth giving more time to. But all the marking, planning, demands and emails?

Small stuff in comparison.

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

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

Don't overthink it!

Some good advice from Marus Aurelius:

Don't tell yourself anything more than what the initial impressions report. It's been reported to you that someone is speaking badly about you. This is the report – the report wasn't that you've been harmed. I see that my son is sick – but not that his life is at risk. So always stay within your first impressions, and don't add to them in your head – this way nothing can happen to you.

It isn't manly to be enraged (Marcus Aurelius)

Staff absences have had me stretched this week - at times I've been doing three people's jobs and after two weeks away from routines it takes a while for students to adjust to school life again.

All very testing. 

Marcus Aurelius always seems to have the perfect advice:

Keep this thought handy when you feel a bit of rage coming on – it isn't manly to be enraged. Rather, gentleness and civility are more human, and therefore manlier. A real person doesn't give way to anger and discontent, and such a person has strength, courage, and endurance – unlike the angry and complaining. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.

Before making a decision...

Photo by Tim Johnson on Unsplash

[Before making a decision] The first thing to do – don't get worked up. For everything happens according to the nature of all things, and in a short time you'll be nobody and nowhere even as the great emperors Hadrian and Augustus are now. The next thing to do – consider carefully the task at hand for what it is, while remembering that your purpose is to be a good human being. Get straight to doing what nature requires of you, and speak as you see most just and fitting – with kindness, modesty, and sincerity.

Marcus Aurelius

In your actions, don't procrastinate (Marcus Aurelius)

Photo by Aman Shrestha on Unsplash

In your actions, don't procrastinate. In your conversations, don't confuse. In your thoughts, don't wander. In your soul, don't be passive or aggressive. In your life, don't be all about business.

Marcus Aurelius

Whatever happens to you has been waiting to happen since the beginning of time. The twining strands of fate wove both of them together: your own existence and the things that happen to you (Marcus Aurelius).

 

Photo by Hisu lee on Unsplash

More matter with less art (Queen Gertrude in Hamlet)

Marcus Aurelius is a source for great leadership lessons throughout Meditations.

Term 1 has ended at school (finally) and this passage acts as an excellent place to pause for thought:

Be like a rocky promontory against which the restless surf continually pounds; it stands fast while the churning sea is lulled to sleep at its feet. I hear you say, "How unlucky that this should happen to me!" Not at all! Say instead, "How lucky that I am not broken by what has happened and am not afraid of what is about to happen. The same blow might have struck anyone, but not many would have absorbed it without capitulation or complaint.

I'll be on a study break for two weeks but Marcus will be doling out wisdom until Term 2 starts.