One of the risks of modern life is the belief that the path to our happiness and success are hidden in some future time frame. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking ‘one day’ things will work out and everything will come together for us.
When we live with too much of a future orientation we can end up overlooking the importance of bringing our best to the work that is right in front of us.
Thankfully, this is not a new problem. Many of the greatest men and women in history have helped us understand the crucial relationship between what we do today and how that shapes tomorrow.
In today’s episode I share another powerful insight from Emperor Marcus Aurelius who reminds us that it’s crucial to do whatever is in front of us to the best of our ability.
Grab a free copy of my book Bridging the Gap here:
https://go.jonathandoyle.co/btg-pdf
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https://go.jonathandoyle.co/jd-speak-opt-in
Find out about coaching with Jonathan here:
https://go.jonathandoyle.co/coaching
Transcript
Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you as always
Speaker:welcome to the daily podcast.
Speaker:Thanks for checking in.
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Speaker:If you could leave a rating, that would be a really helpful, and
Speaker:also check out the show notes here.
Speaker:That's where I put all the good stuff.
Speaker:You can get a free copy of my book, bridging the gap.
Speaker:Just a, there's a link there in the description notes.
Speaker:You'll also find out how you can book me to come and speak live.
Speaker:Uh, lots of speaking engagements coming up from me.
Speaker:Really looking forward just to, uh, to being back on stage meeting lots
Speaker:of great people and having a chance to just to share some encouragement on a
Speaker:regular basis with more and more people.
Speaker:So friends.
Speaker:Welcome a board.
Speaker:We've been talking about a lot of different topics lately.
Speaker:It's, uh, we have covered so many things and we're going to press on today in
Speaker:our journey with the Roman emperor and stoic philosopher, Marcus Aurelius.
Speaker:Um, we're going to intersperse this journey in stoic philosophy philosophy.
Speaker:Philosophy was that for locally with, uh, with lots of other things.
Speaker:So if there's other questions you have, uh, topics in the whole space
Speaker:of personal development and personal growth that you have, feel free to email
Speaker:me direct jonathan@jonathandoyle.co.
Speaker:Just reach out and say, Jonathan, this is a topic.
Speaker:This is a question I'd like you to cover and explore.
Speaker:And I'll be very happy to do that for you.
Speaker:But in between the other things that grab my attention and, uh, things
Speaker:that, um, you know, that are just on my heart to share with you, we're
Speaker:going to continue on this journey.
Speaker:Uh, through the meditations of Marcus or really as who has, you know, if you've
Speaker:been listening in for the last few days,
Speaker:Did not sit down to write a Magnum Opus, a life's work, a
Speaker:great Testament to his genius.
Speaker:Uh, he never planned to do this.
Speaker:He simply had a notebook and he wrote down.
Speaker:A little reflections as you traveled throughout the empire.
Speaker:And it's these reflections that have become known as the
Speaker:meditations of Marcus earlier.
Speaker:So today we're in book two.
Speaker:Paragraph five.
Speaker:And what we're going to focus on today is the importance of doing
Speaker:what's right in front of you.
Speaker:I have been guilty, I think, many times in life of trying to be several miles
Speaker:further down the path, you know, sort of.
Speaker:Uh, wanting to be somewhere.
Speaker:Or have something accomplished and forgetting what's right in front of me.
Speaker:And it's, you know, it's funny how I think God, the universe reinforces certain ideas
Speaker:that you need to hear at particular times.
Speaker:And definitely the last few weeks I've been reading different
Speaker:things that have kind of coalesced around this similar idea of.
Speaker:Whatever's in front of you to do.
Speaker:You need to execute that?
Speaker:Well, we often think that we need to get through something
Speaker:to get onto the next thing in.
Speaker:Sort of such a busy culture that we live in.
Speaker:It's very understandable.
Speaker:But today we're going to hear from Marcus Aurelius about how we
Speaker:literally need to drill down and focus on what's right in front of us.
Speaker:You're ready.
Speaker:He would go book two, paragraph five.
Speaker:He says this concentrate.
Speaker:Every minute.
Speaker:On doing what's right in front of you.
Speaker:With precise and genuine seriousness.
Speaker:Tenderly willingly with justice and on freeing yourself
Speaker:from all other distractions.
Speaker:Yes, you can.
Speaker:If you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life.
Speaker:And stop being aimless.
Speaker:Stop putting your emotions, override what your mind tells you.
Speaker:Stop being hypocritical.
Speaker:Self-centered.
Speaker:Irritable.
Speaker:You see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying and reverent life.
Speaker:If you can manage this.
Speaker:That's all even the gods can ask of you.
Speaker:As always the market's really is my friends so much in there, but
Speaker:I just love this simple reminder.
Speaker:To focus on exactly.
Speaker:What's in front of us, the work that we are doing today, the relationships that
Speaker:are in front of us today, the people, the circumstances that are in front of
Speaker:us today, I've spoken recently about the need to kind of do life in 24 hour blocks.
Speaker:It's very easy to.
Speaker:I guess get hijacked and sucked into the future in our minds, hearts and
Speaker:spirits due to all the different pressures and complexities of life.
Speaker:But one of the best ways to remove anxiety and stress from your life
Speaker:is to develop a sort of disposition where you go, this is what I've got.
Speaker:I've got today.
Speaker:I have to execute today.
Speaker:I've got to bring the best I can today.
Speaker:And then from here, there'll be other opportunities going forward.
Speaker:It's this constant need.
Speaker:To be present to what's here and now think about where most of your anxiety is.
Speaker:Most of your anxiety.
Speaker:Is predicated on the sense that something is going to happen in the future, that
Speaker:you will not be able to deal with.
Speaker:That sort of disappeared as well, you know, do you think
Speaker:you can get through today?
Speaker:Maybe some of you listening have got a lot of stressful things
Speaker:happening today, but most of us can get through a 24 hour block.
Speaker:And then we just got to string another one together and then another one together.
Speaker:And we keep doing that for long enough.
Speaker:We start to build.
Speaker:A different life.
Speaker:So I just love this insight from Marcus Aurelius to keep drilling down.
Speaker:And what's right in front of us and to do it with seriousness.
Speaker:And he sort of uses words like to do a tenderly with justice to, to
Speaker:really focus on it, to stop being irritable, to stop being distracted.
Speaker:It's a, the more that I read this stoic philosophy, the more I see this kind of.
Speaker:They kind of focused on removing everything that wasn't important.
Speaker:You know, and I think they were obviously living in a time where
Speaker:life expectancy was very short.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You probably had.
Speaker:You know, usually I think.
Speaker:Life expectancy was around about sort of 60 years, maybe.
Speaker:But a lot of people died very young.
Speaker:If you kind of made it through to your twenties, you kind of
Speaker:had a shot at your sixties.
Speaker:But most people inhabited a world where death was very real.
Speaker:And so being frivolous, I mean, people still, you know, wasted their
Speaker:time and wasted their lives, but many people realized, especially the
Speaker:Stoics that there was a way to live.
Speaker:That would guarantee you the most.
Speaker:Balanced.
Speaker:Calm productive.
Speaker:Life of contribution and meaning, and they did it by stripping
Speaker:away all the other stuff.
Speaker:And I've been saying for days now I world at the moment is so full of other stuff.
Speaker:Isn't it?
Speaker:It's so full of distractions.
Speaker:So here's what I want you to do.
Speaker:I want you to take these ideas.
Speaker:I want you to start to fall them away.
Speaker:I don't want you to start putting into practice what you can.
Speaker:So what are the basics?
Speaker:We've got to remove the distractions.
Speaker:We've got to keep stripping away.
Speaker:All those things that waste our time waste our focus, waste our energy.
Speaker:And we've got to start getting really good at identifying and executing
Speaker:on the things that actually matter.
Speaker:It's um, it's easy to say.
Speaker:It's harder to do.
Speaker:Isn't it.
Speaker:I just find myself now.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Constantly aware of this, just so constantly aware of trying to stay
Speaker:focused on the stuff that really matters.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I make time for fun and all sorts of other craziness, but in general,
Speaker:I, uh, I really do try and strip away and be really effective with my time.
Speaker:So that's our message from Marcus earliest today.
Speaker:It's a simple message for me.
Speaker:And finally, a shorter episode.
Speaker:But my friends.
Speaker:We need to focus on what's right in front of us.
Speaker:What's in front of you today.
Speaker:What do you have to do just today?
Speaker:That requires your attention, your focus, your kindness, your
Speaker:energy, just do that thing.
Speaker:Whether you are leading a nation or leading a family, whether you have you.
Speaker:You know, 300 people working for you or no one working for you.
Speaker:All of us as we go through this day, again, to have tasks and
Speaker:responsibilities that are in front of us and all we need to do.
Speaker:Is do our very best on those particular things and everything
Speaker:else is going to take care of itself.
Speaker:All right, everybody.
Speaker:That's it for me today.
Speaker:Finally, we've got our short episodes tomorrow.
Speaker:We'll be back with more, but please make sure you've subscribed.
Speaker:Go check out those show notes.
Speaker:Find out how you can book me to speak.
Speaker:It's all there for you to check out, but God bless you.
Speaker:Everybody be encouraged, be encouraged, be encouraged the matter what you're
Speaker:going through, whether your life for you at the moment is easy with a life for
Speaker:you at the moment is incredibly hard.
Speaker:We are magnificent, resilient people.
Speaker:We have an incredible strong, spiritual core.
Speaker:We can do so much with our lives.
Speaker:To be a blessing and a source of encouragement for others.
Speaker:So press on.
Speaker:Enjoy your day, remove the distractions.
Speaker:Focus hard on what's in front of you.
Speaker:My name's Jonathan Doyle.
Speaker:This has been the daily podcast.
Speaker:And you and I are going to talk again tomorrow.
