Only What is in Our Power is Our Duty

Too often, we act as if we have control over external things we can’t control—and as if we can’t control our own attitudes, which are well within our control. Seeing the truth of what we control and what we don’t control is a big part of wisdom. Here is how Ryan Holiday puts it in The Obstacle is the Way:

… recovering addicts learn the Serenity Prayer.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

This is how they focus their efforts. It’s a lot easier to fight addiction when you aren’t also fighting the fact that you were born, that your parents were monsters, or that you lost everything. That stuff is done. Delivered. Zero in one hundred chances that you can change it.

So what if you focused on what you can change? That’s where you can make a difference.

Behind the Serenity Prayer is a two-thousand-year-old Stoic phrase: “ta eph’hemin, ta ouk eph’hemin.” What is up to us, what is not up to us.

And what is up to us?

  • Our emotions

  • Our judgments

  • Our creativity

  • Our attitude

  • Our perspective

  • Our desires

  • Our decisions

  • Our determination

This is our playing field, so to speak. Everything there is fair game. What is not up to us? Well, you know, everything else. The weather, the economy, circumstances, other people’s emotions or judgments, trends, disasters, et cetera.

…

In its own way, the most harmful dragon we chase is the one that makes us think we can change things that are simply not ours to change. That someone decided not to fund your company, this isn’t up to you. But the decision to refine and improve your pitch? That is. That someone stole your idea or got to it first? No. To pivot, improve it, or fight for what’s yours? Yes.

There are many things beyond your control. For example, for economists, opinions differ so widely on what is good and what is not so good that which referees an editor assigns to read your paper makes a huge difference to whether your paper gets accepted to an economics journal. And unfortunately for you, which particular referees an editor assigns to judge your paper is probably beyond your control. (I call this the “referee lottery.” Understanding the importance of the referee lottery is crucial to the mental health of economists who meet with bad luck when trying to publish. That understanding can also be a source of appropriate humility for those who meet with good luck in trying to publish.)

Many things are beyond your control. But I’m willing to bet that if you look closely enough, you’ll find that at least half of what makes your life pleasant or unpleasant has to do with what is going on within your own brain. This is your domain. It can be tricky to avoid overly self-critical or otherwise unproductive states of mind, but I’m willing to bet that the total amount of effort and consistent practice it takes to be able to intentionally get your mind into a better state is much, much less than the amount of effort and consistent practice that you and others reading my blog put into getting good at changing things in the world outside their heads. For many, then, there is likely to be a serious imbalance between the effort put into learning outward skills and the effort put into learning inward skills.

For the development of inward skills, in addition to using one of the many good meditation apps (in my case, “10% Happier”) I am a fan of the Shirzad Chamine’s pedagogy, which he has branded Positive Intelligence. He lays things out in a no-nonsense way, trying to use the latest neuroscience and findings in psychology. I have been impressed enough with the results from using these Positive Intelligence tools in my own life that I wanted to teach them to economists and their families. On that, see “How Economists Can Enhance Their Scientific Creativity, Engagement and Impact.”

At a more modest level, I have a set of blog posts about positive mental health and how to maintain your moral compass. I think you will find them useful.

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