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Happy New Year.

I wish you peace, love, and prosperity in the year ahead.

Today, I want to share something I have been learning. I have been trying to understand Stoicism. One idea stood out to me more than anything else.

Control your mind, not the world.

This idea is really amazing. You cannot control everything around you. You cannot control people, timing, or outcomes. Trying to control them only makes life harder.

But you can control yourself. When you work on your thoughts and actions, everything else becomes easier to handle.

Life is divided into two parts. Some things are within our control, such as our thoughts, actions, and responses. Other things are outside our control, such as outcomes, timing, other people’s behaviour, and external events.

We exhaust ourselves trying to manage what was never ours to manage, while neglecting what is within our capabilities.

Marcus Aurelius wrote that the quality of our life depends on the quality of our thoughts. This idea challenges the instinct to blame circumstances for inner turmoil. You can experience a different emotional outcome than I, because our interpretations are different.

When something bad happens, the event is only one part of the problem. The other part comes from what your mind says about the event. The mind often creates extra thoughts that make the situation heavier.

For example, the mind may say this is unfair, or this should not have happened to me. It may say this will always be like this, or this means I am bad at everything. They are only thoughts.

When the mind keeps repeating these ideas, the problem feels larger than it actually is. If the thoughts change, the feeling changes too. The situation will stay the same, but it feels easier to handle.

Reacting means acting without thinking. It happens very fast and often leads to regret. People shout, quit, or say things they shouldn’t say.

Responding means slowing down and choosing an action. You think about what will help instead of what feels good in the moment. This is a form of mind control.

Each time you respond instead of react, you strengthen your mind.

This idea does not mean you stop caring. It does not mean you stop trying. It does not mean you accept bad behaviour from others.

It means you stop hurting yourself by fighting things you cannot change. You choose to protect your peace by guiding your thoughts and actions.

May this year help you become less attached to outcomes and more focused on your actions. I am sharing this today to remind you that self-improvement is not something to delay, it begins the moment you decide to take responsibility for your thoughts and actions.

— Anirban