I was reading Plutarch’s “Essays” recently. A tremendous work nearly 2,000 years old (+/- 100 AD) and more relevant than ever. In a section titled, “On Being Aware of Moral Progress”, he made a statement so powerful, so applicable to current events, it stopped me in my tracks.
The statement that spoke to my heart came during a discussion on pursuing virtue and resisting vice. Not cheap signals of virtue or temporary breaks from vice. The serious efforts to choose what has a place in our lives and what doesn’t.
Plutarch said the effort doesn’t need to be perfect or unbroken. It only needs to be constant and unrelenting. If you can do that, he said then, “you have every reason to proceed towards the future undaunted and in good heart.” This message is as beautiful and needed now as it was when it was originally written.
Discipline is the shortcut. Do the work.
Do me a favor and an act of goodness. Forward this email to 3 people because they could use a note of heartfelt encouragement.
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