Be A Man - Be LIke Fire

"No star wears a veil."

In his private journal, Marcus Aurelius writes again and again about his desire to be judged – not just by his trustees, but by himself: 

From Rusticus {a Stoic Politician}: to grasp the idea of wanting correction and treatment for my character...

Aurelius was secure enough in himself to face his insecurities. He’d rather brave today's flaws than brave tomorrow blind to them.

If anyone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one’s own self-deception and ignorance.

Ignorance is not bliss. It's a veil. 

Uncomfortable as some truths may feel, by uncovering falseness in our work, our thoughts, and our actions, we illuminate - we provide for ourselves a way forward.  

Contrast Aurelius' advice with today's 'Don't-Judge-Me' fetish, where everyone is hyper-sensitive to anyone evaluating something as right or wrong.

It's easy to relax into and coast on that slogan, but too often it's a blank-check to do whatever we feel like with our time and escape responsibility. By refraining from evaluating ourselves, we sabotage ourselves.

David Ogilvy, the man who wrote the book on advertising by turning five thousand dollars into over fifty million, said it this way: 

When an antique dealer draws my attention to flaws in a piece of furniture, he wins my confidence.

Without honest self-assessment of our limitations, we’re presenting an unclear reflection of ourselves — to ourselves. Self-deception is not a solution. It stunts our ability to illuminate the paths we should take. It’s an obstacle to improvement.

Here's what Aurelius had to say on life's obstacles: emulate fire. 

The ruling power within us…is like a fire mastering whatever falls into it. A small flame would be extinguished, but a bright fire rapidly claims as its own all that is heaped onto it, devours it all, and leaps up yet higher…

If we want to shine, we must be like a flame, turning our obstacles into our fuel. We must find those barriers and attack them. We must feed off our mistakes and convert them into productive momentum. 

Near the end of his Meditations, Aurelius writes:

No star wears a veil.

No man should either. We must shed our veils to see our obstacles and then lean into them in order to live brightly.