Do you have a morning routine?
If you’re a member of The Society you know why they’re important and you know how to create a powerful routine for your English.
My morning routine has about five elements to it. I do these same five things, in the same order, every morning. The routine is designed to make me healthier, wealthier and wiser, all before I finish my first cup of coffee.
One thing I do is read a page or two of philosophy.
This morning I read these lines from Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations:
“…if they (the gods) have power, why do you not pray for them to give you the faculty (ability) of not fearing any of the things you fear, or of not desiring any of the things you desire…Is it not better to use what is in your power like a freeman than to desire in a slavish (like a slave) and abject (miserable) way what is not in your power? …. One man prays thus: ‘How shall I be able to lie with that woman?’ You should pray like this: ‘How shall I not desire to lie with her?’ Indeed, turn your prayers this way, and see what comes of it.”
There are two things I learned from this.
The first was that before Tinder, the Romans used Zeus to get a date.
The second was this: take action (“use your power”), but don’t fear or desire what is not in your control.
Make sense?
So here’s my prayer for you: “How shall I not desire to care what others think of my English?”
Try that, and see what comes of it.