I used to use this phrase a lot and I'm going to start using it more. It makes me realize that I was raised to be the master. No, not a slave master, but a master of myself. I was trusted to handle my problems and left alone to figure stuff out. Thanks, mom and dad! Because it is so natural to me to control myself, it took me this long to figure out that many people are raised to be slaves. Not only slaves to others (government, society), but even to their own emotions. This training has all kinds of horrible effects, but it can be easily defeated with this little suggestion.
When you're angry, be the master. Decide whether expressing the anger will do more harm or more good. Sometimes we're angry for silly reasons, and hiding this anger would be best, unless we want to display it as a humble admission that we're silly. Sometimes we're angry for very good reasons, and in that case, letting it out with righteousness is the way to go. The trick is to open that little space of time between feeling it and expressing it during which you can decide - more of a guess, I suppose - which way to go. Even if you guess wrong, and things go bad because of your poor guess, you've still taken back your self-control. If it happens again, you'll remember and try something else. What you won't do is remain a slave to the emotion.
When you feel lazy or tired or you just don't want to do something, you lack motivation, and if you remain a slave to that, and it persists, you'll be "clinically depressed". Who wants that? Get in the habit of being the master of it. Just decide whether or not you care about the things you feel like you should do. If you care, then to hell with the fatigue and the laziness and the pain (if there is any); just go do it. Stick a poker into the eye of those forces in the universe that are trying to stop you.
Ghandi suggests that we be the change we want to see in the world. I think this starts with being the change you want to see in yourself. All you need to do is recognize the enslavement that persists when you don't kick its ass. So go ahead and start kicking: you be the master.
When you're angry, be the master. Decide whether expressing the anger will do more harm or more good. Sometimes we're angry for silly reasons, and hiding this anger would be best, unless we want to display it as a humble admission that we're silly. Sometimes we're angry for very good reasons, and in that case, letting it out with righteousness is the way to go. The trick is to open that little space of time between feeling it and expressing it during which you can decide - more of a guess, I suppose - which way to go. Even if you guess wrong, and things go bad because of your poor guess, you've still taken back your self-control. If it happens again, you'll remember and try something else. What you won't do is remain a slave to the emotion.
When you feel lazy or tired or you just don't want to do something, you lack motivation, and if you remain a slave to that, and it persists, you'll be "clinically depressed". Who wants that? Get in the habit of being the master of it. Just decide whether or not you care about the things you feel like you should do. If you care, then to hell with the fatigue and the laziness and the pain (if there is any); just go do it. Stick a poker into the eye of those forces in the universe that are trying to stop you.
Ghandi suggests that we be the change we want to see in the world. I think this starts with being the change you want to see in yourself. All you need to do is recognize the enslavement that persists when you don't kick its ass. So go ahead and start kicking: you be the master.
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