✋ Day 16: The importance of boundaries
👋 Hey Friends,
Welcome back to the 30-Day Productivity Challenge by the famous YouTuber, former doctor and now writer Ali Abdaal.
❌ The Problem: Chaos
The world is full of chaos. As Henry Adams reminds us:
“Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.”
Chaos cannot be prevented, it is all around us because order is not how things work in this complicated world. We tend to think the best thing to strive for is order. To have order in your life seems to be the solution to everything. But that is technically not true. A good system brings you far in life, but you must learn to encounter chaos because that is how things work in this complicated world.
Chaos arises in physical nature, e.g. when you have a look at how the weather works.
You don’t get to decide how the weather will be and instead of complaining about it, you could just accept it.
But there is another kind of chaos, far more complicated and far more dangerous to handle, human emotions. The emotions of us humans are incredibly complex, and we sometimes don’t seem to have control over our own. It gets even more difficult when you encounter another person. You can’t know what they feel, that’s just impossible.
The problem with this is that many people will try to drag you down in life. They try to trigger your emotions. And that’s where the important part comes into play. You need to set up your boundaries.
✅ The solution: Boundaries
When someone attempts to break into your emotions, it is incredibly essential to be disciplined enough to not let them. If you behave as they regard, your emotions will overcome you, and you will be controlled by them. We can’t let that happen because we have to show our ideals enough respect not to be broken by somebody else. Epictetus reminds us of the importance of controlling our emotions:
“Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.”
It is about showing respect for our ideals as we do with the ones of everyone else. To find peace in a world full of chaos, you have to learn to set up your boundaries to protect your self-respect. If you do so, you will have the power of your mind to focus on the things that matter to you.
Hence, by making your boundaries clear, you’ll be more productive in a chaotic world.
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Thanks again and I'll see you soon.
Victor (@observethecosmos)
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