“The first rule of holes, goes the adage, is that ‘if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.'”

In a week with some personal challenges and anxieties, I needed to read those words this morning from Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living.

Today’s offering was entitled “Just don’t make things worse.” After a rather stiff and formal quote from the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Holiday begins with that opening line above, and then continues.

“This might be the most violated piece of commonsense wisdom in the world. Because what most of us do when something happens, goes wrong, or is inflicted on us is make it worse — first, by getting angry or feeling aggrieved, and next, by flailing around before we have much in the way of a plan.

Today, give yourself the most simple and doable of tasks: just don’t make stuff worse. Whatever happens, don’t add angry or negative emotions to the equation. Don’t react for the sake of reacting. Leave it as it is. Stop digging. Then plan your way out.”

Reminders worth repeating. Don’t add negative emotions to the equation. Stop digging. Plan your way out.

It is no coincidence that these were words I needed to hear. Perhaps they will resonate with you.

Have a good day.

More to come…

DJB

Image by Alexei Chizhov from Pixabay