Marcus Aurelius Quote on Remembering Our Natural Born Power To Choose Between Good and Evil

“Erase the false impressions from your mind by constantly saying to yourself, I have it in my soul to keep out any evil, desire or any kind of disturbance—instead, seeing the true nature of things, I will give them only their due. Always remember this power that nature gave you.”

Marcus Aurelius, The Daily Stoic (Page 34)

Beyond the Quote (Day 391)

Your current ability to utilize the power nature gave you to keep out evil, desire, and disturbance is largely dependent on your track record. Your track record contains within it all of the successes and failures you’ve accumulated throughout your lifetime. And confidence—the confidence you have in your ability to act—is a result of nothing more than your remembered successes (or lack thereof).

James Clear relates this idea to votes that we take towards a particular identity. Each time we successfully avoid doing evil, we essentially cast a vote towards that identity. And every time we don’t, the vote gets cast the other way. Whichever way we end up casting more votes will determine who we ultimately become. And who we choose to become (either consciously or unconsciously) has everything to do with how we will continue to act.

What you must realize is that since you have it within you to cast votes towards a particular identity, you also have it within you to navigate the landscape of evil, desire, and disturbance. You simply have to look at the process as being the result of one decision—one success/failure—at a time. And then you must deliberately cast those votes accordingly.

The only confirmation of this power that you need is that you’ve used it before. None of us have only cast votes of evil—even the worst of us have chosen to do some good. And that fact, in and of itself, should be enough to reaffirm you of your ability to do it again now and in the future. Those who feel weary and unsure of their power simply haven’t practiced using it enough. It is not a question of presence; it is a matter of practice.

Erase the false impressions from your mind that “you’re not disciplined enough” or “you don’t have enough willpower” or “you have a nature that can’t be controlled” or “you’re too ingrained in habit to change.” All of this made-up mental smoke is designed to keep you from doing what’s uncomfortable and oftentimes hard. Because doing what’s wrong is, more often than not (and unfortunately so), easier than doing what’s right.

Letting disturbances infiltrate is easier than learning how to effectively block them out. As a result of big media, advertising, and social media, allowing desire to run rampant feels more natural than living free of it. And succumbing to the evils of lust, greed, wrath, etc., is practically instinctive and requires deliberate effort to overcome and subvert.

But, what you must see is that effort means it’s an option. The power required to pull off such feats has already been given to you. You simply need to see disturbance, desire, and evil for what they are—evils to be avoided—and then channel and utilize your natural born power to avoid, confront, and redirect with full, unwavering confidence.

In a Tweet:

We can't let past bad decisions cripple us.

The fact that we've made great decisions before is proof enough of our ability to make great decisions again.

Forget about before.

Focus solely on the decision that's next.

Make that decision great.

Then do it again.

And again.

— Matthew Hogan (@MattHogan123) January 27, 2021

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Read Next: John Dewey Quote on Education and How The Process and The Goal Are One And The Same (Day 390)

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