# 104: Seeing the Things of the World Again
Story behind the Passage
Ever since I read that Helmut Schmidt, one of the former chancellors of Germany, used to read Marc Aurel during his time as a soldier in World War II, I started reading Marc Aurel’s Meditations. I read a verse every morning. Just like others read the Bible every day. Well, I did actually to that at some point in my life as well. But now I am quite happy to have Marc Aurel instead.
The Stoics offer much hands-on advice to make it through life in a way that calms you down, allows you to focus, and also take pragmatic action. Every morning when I open the book on my iPhone (it is one of the rare cases of digital book reading), I do not know which passage or verse awaits me. But usually, as life has it, the passage speaks to me in a way that makes me ponder. It is usually only one sentence out of many that really strikes me. And today, it was one that especially moves people who are trying to find their way — in business and/or in life.
My Learnings
“See the things of the world again, as thou hast already seen them.” A few months ago, someone who I would consider to be a mentor told me: “I wish you could settle down and gain peace somehow.” That really touched me. I knew, she was right, even though I would not admit it at the time. But the unrest indeed has continued — is continuing. But whenever it is really bad, I mean, in a way that I have no idea where the next step might be, I also know that things will fall into place.
Whenever you struggle with the next step, you always try to find the “anchor,” the point at which you feel grounded in some safe place. This place can be an opinion, a conviction, some fundamental principle that allows you to feel safe and calm. When you are searching, such a place does not exist. By searching I mean being lost. So, what you do — at least I often do that — is you think back of times when you felt grounded. You try to relate to a situation or period in time when this problem that you are now having did not exist.
This is a nice try.
But it does not work.
At least, not exactly the way I described it.
Yes, you can go back to the past and you will probably find these situations when everything felt alright. You can also identify specific circumstances that might have contributed to this feeling. But it will hardly be the case that you can simply regain the perspective you had back then. And “perspective” is the word that I would use for the sentence above by Aurel. Yes, you did see the world in a particular way back then but you cannot simply take on the same perspective in the present.
Or can you?
I do not think it is possible. But I do think that Aurel is completely right with respect to the larger meaning of the statement. Sometimes things just get in the way. They change your perspective by nebulizing your original vision. This vision stays, however, it is there all the time. But as more and more dark shadows cross your mind, this original perspective gets blurred, you lose hold of it. This is also necessary because you would not be able to learn new perspectives if you were not willing to let go of your prior stance. Still, there is a moment when too many different perspectives mean no perspective at all.
In my case, this quote by Aurel this morning cheered me up. But there was no solution in sight yet. Now, at the end of this day, there is a solution. And indeed, the way I see the world now looks familiar. It does not look exactly the way I saw it back in the days when this perspective was very prominent in my life. But it feels right. It feels comfortable. It feels as if I could build on it — finally. As someone who knows entrepreneurship encouraged me yesterday:
“After founding a company, it is completely normal that you have no idea what you are doing for several years. You start something, you try it, and then you iterate again. It is no drama.”
Yes, no drama. But I still hope that these years are finally over now that I am seeing “the things of the world as I have seen them before” — just more clearly.
Reflection Questions
1) Do you know anything about the Stoics?
2) Is there a book that you read again and again?
3) Do you think that you can go back to a particular way of seeing the world — a view from the past?