February 17, 2018: Obstacles

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.41: "Indeed, no one can thwart the purposes of your mind for they can't be touched by fire, steel, tyranny, slander, or anything."

Murphy's Law states "if anything can go wrong, it will." These are common sayings in our current culture and also point towards an aspect of stoicism that we should be using daily. The concept is called "a reverse clause". This means that you have backup options for things that can happen, and never let obstacles affect your mood or affect your mind significantly.

In Hinduism, Ganesha is the remover of obstacles and thats what today's post is about!

An example of where I used this most recently for me: I bought an airline ticket for a trip and a few days later got a legal summons related to a medical case for approximately the same dates (but they will not confirm until two weeks before the court dates, ugh!!). I obviously was upset of the timing, but I did not let it affect me I had backup options for making this trip a few weeks later if the courts do decide to operate on the same date that I planned my original trip. And for the ticket cost, right after I learned of this (about 1 day after I bought the ticket, I still had the option to buy trip insurance which covers legal related summons), so that if the dates do end up affecting my trip, I will not lose all the money of the ticket. My preference is to go on the trip on the original dates, but I understand that this court dates or not fully in my control, and that I should not let it affect my mood or my other days leading up to my trip. Instead, I realize that if I do not go on my original trip, I will have to be happy to at least even be able to make that trip just a few weeks later, and that still is a possibility is a positive.

Well, hope you can start making "reverse clause" plans for things you do in which obstacles come in the way