At Least Choose Bad And Good

There are things you can control and things you cannot.

What you can control are the decisions you make, the actions you take and what you choose to do with your time.

What you cannot control are outcomes, money, results and external circumstances.

With this in mind, the only mental model you ought to operate under is what you can do, not what you can get.

There are four possible equations in life.

1. Good external and good internal.

2. Good external and bad internal.

3. Bad external and good internal.

4. And bad external and bad internal.

Good external and good internal is of course the goal.

Good external and bad internal is a waste of what you have been given.

Bad external and good internal gives you a sense of control.

And bad external and bad internal is the one form of unnecessary suffering that is entirely self inflicted.

Ask yourself this:

What is worse, being poor and lazy or being poor and productive?

Being born with disadvantages and a negative internal state, or being born with disadvantages and a positive one?

External circumstances will not always go your way.

That is life.

But adding internal dysfunction on top of external misfortune is always a choice.

And it is always the wrong one. 

Of course you can act in ways that maximize your chances of getting what you want externally.

But if you cannot, you can always decide to control what you think, how you feel and who you choose to become internally.

Please, if you have something negative happening externally that you can't control, don't let if affect your internal state.