Marcus Aurelius was a Roman Emperor in the early AD years, and uniquely we are able to learn so much about him because of his journals. In one excerpt he writes about habits that were not helping him. To himself he wrote, “I don’t have to do this anymore. I’m stopping right now.”
I think there is a lot to be learned from this. Just because there is a habit, tradition, or precedence, it does not mean we are stuck. We have a choice to either continue or to change. When these actions are not working, we have to have the courage to say, “We’re stopping right now.” To paraphrase Malcolm X and JFK, who is better than us, and when is better than now?