“If you are ever tempted to look for outside approval, realize that you have compromised your integrity… If you need a witness, be your own.”
–Epictetus
Ran across this golden nugget a few weeks ago on the Daily Stoic IG page and gosh damn I LOVE IT…
Of course we all like praise and there is a tremendous amount of value that comes with others approval of our actions… Yet when we act solely for the approval of outsiders we lose touch with the most rewarding part of whatever it is that we are doing… The PROCESS.
My parents were always incredibly complementary and I always appreciated their positive feedback… Yet no matter what I did in my life, karate, baseball, tennis, basketball, football or any scholastic endeavor, I did not to please my parents but rather I did because I simply enjoyed doing them!
The ironic thing is that when we do things for “the love of the game,” that’s when we will optimize our performance and most likely receive overwhelming outside approval, whether we want it or not…
I get it, we live in the midst of the ultimate “look at me” time period predicated on over indulgent social media platform habits and I am often as guilty as the next person…
Ultimately though, the work we put into the process define our experiences and if we think we need witnesses to validate our efforts, we need not look no further than ourselves. 👊
-EB
P.S. Have you hopped on a Team GoHard Foot Reflexology Board yet?
