From the January 11 entry of The Daily Stoic
Serenity and stability are results of your choices and judgment, not your environment. If you seek to avoid all disruptions to tranquility—other people, external events, stress—you will never be successful. Your problems will follow you wherever you run and hide. But if you seek to avoid the harmful and disruptive judgments that cause those problems, then you will be stable and steady wherever you happen to be.
From where I am in the book Areté
As Viktor Frankl says: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Related to that wisdom is this: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Know this… There’s a GAP between a stimulus and our response.
In THAT (!!!) space is our power to choose our optimal response. In that response lies our opportunity to grow and to step into the next-best version of ourselves.
Our lives are impacted largely by our choices rather than by the events occurring around us. Take ownership of your choices. Invest in yourself to develop good judgment and, in turn, make the best choices for your future.