Responsibilities

Stoic prompts

You have taken on a difficult responsibility; you have chosen a weighty task. It is unpleasant, uncomfortable. You find it difficult to carry on; you are dull and laggard in fulfilling the duty.

This is because you are determined to only enjoy the absence of the duty - by looking forward to its end. But this is like trying to enjoy the summer in the middle of winter.

If you practice despising your current lot and looking forward to what is not present, you will train yourself always to be unhappy with the present, and long for the future.

Instead, attend to what is good about the winter. Enjoy the crystalline beauty of the snow; appreciate the patient resilience of the bare trees.

Rejoice every day that you realize you can bear this duty, that you can carry it out well.

Your job as a Stoic is not to suffer under the misfortune of burdensome duties; it is to shape yourself into a person who can clearly recognize your duties; who can cheerfully embrace your duties; who can carry out your duties without complaint; and who, as time passes, can adapt to your changing duties gracefully.

Instead of trying to borrow enjoyment from an uncertain future, learn to enjoy the present. Do the task because it ought to be done; find ways to rejoice in the fact that you are doing what is needed.

Train yourself to enjoy the present, and you will enjoy every moment of your life. That is the promise of truly embracing your responsibilities.

This podcast is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Music is from the track "Which That is This" by Doctor Turtle, also distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. It can be found at http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/Jonahs_Message_for_New_York/Which_That_Is_This

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