Is your house dirty or just well-played in? Are you struggling or growing stronger through resistance training? Are you poor or unburdened? Are you rich or temporarily blessed? 

The way we choose to describe ourselves and our situations determines so much of it. The language we use gives us agency or deprives us of it, hurls judgment or provides hope. Which will it be? 

In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius repeatedly toys with language and logic this way. Multiple times, for instance, he tackles the concept of change—something that scares all of us. He tries to rephrase it, reimagine it as a new beginning, as a form of growth, as the natural transition from the old to new. Then, once redefined, he later reminds himself that death itself is just change. And why be afraid of change? It’s natural.

This power of perspective is critical…yet most of the time we hand it over to other people or outside sources. We let others determine our identity. We commiserate about labels. We accept the most pessimistic interpretation of things. Of course we’re miserable! Of course we think we’re stuck.

We have to remember what Shakespeare said: Nothing neither good nor bad but thinking makes it so. Our life, as Marcus wrote, is dyed by the color of our thoughts. Perspective is everything. So choose it wisely.

P.S. This was originally sent on June 17, 2021. Sign up today for the Daily Stoic’s email and get our popular free 7-day course on Stoicism.