On Work, Part I
Give yourself a break from all other considerations.
“At every moment keep a sturdy mind on the task at hand, as a Roman and human being, doing it with strict and simple dignity, affection, freedom, and justice—giving yourself a break from all other considerations. You can do this if you approach each task as if it is your last, giving up every distraction, emotional subversion of reason, and all drama, vanity, and complaint over your fair share. You can see how mastery over a few things makes it possible to live an abundant and devout life—for, if you keep watch over these things, the gods won’t ask for more.”- Marcus Aurelius
You know the pattern well. The reflex to want to make some more coffee . The urge to rearrange tools instead of using them. The frustrating pull to reread the same paragraph because you were daydreaming. To answer an unimportant message, to open a familiar app, to clean the house, all while telling yourself you’re still working. Beneath these movements runs a thin current of unease, the sense that time is slipping and that staying in motion might save you from having to face the task itself. It feels more comfortable to keep looking busy than to stay put. Yet the cost is always the same. Hours pass, energy drains, and by the end of the day you’ve been occupied without having truly done anything useful or enjoyable. Life starts to feel skimmed rather than lived.
What’s being avoided is simple yet demanding- the single thing in front of you. Whether it’s strategic thinking or routine labor, the work asks for total presence. When you treat the task with entitlement- as if you’ll always get to do it again, your attention will dissipate. When you treat it as something worthy of your full regard, your attention gathers to help you accomplish it. This moment carries its own divine essence because it can’t be recovered or substituted. To handle it carelessly is to spend the one resource that never returns. But once you stop resenting the effort it takes to focus and stop…
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