I suppose it is a quite well-known quote, and I am repeating it, just like many people have. But that is not a problem, if everyone brings something of their own to it. Everyone perceives it differently. For example, I heard it from Timothรฉe Chalamet, in this version, but I suppose the original phrase is: โI am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul,โ which comes from the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley (1875). It stuck with me lately, to be honest.
Most people feel like it's happening to them-chaos, pressure, bad luck. Which is true, obviously. It's unavoidable. But staying in this victim kind of mindset won't make you move forward. From personal experience, I have noticed lately that I complain a lot. About small things. It happens almost without me noticing. It can be something like: I have so much to do, I have so many assignments, my head hurts, I am cold, I am warm, I am this, I am that. It is so negative. I am so negative.
This leads me to another quote I like: I do not speak negatively because I fully believe in the power of words. I try to follow this, to remain mindful of it, really. I feel like everyone around me, including myself, is often set up for a bad day. We continously go on about things but it does not necessarily make the situation easier. In the moment it might help, I supposeโfor the mindโbut it does not solve the problem.
This may seem like a small aspect, but it applies to life as a whole: you are not a passenger, you are the driver. You are the center of your own life. The events are external, but the meaning you give to them is internal. Life is not easy; things come at you from all directions, from left and right, but you can choose how to meet them.
Of course, I do not mean that everything can be solved through mindset alone, or that this idea is without limits. Many of us, myself included, can become stuck on small problemsโproblems that may seem insignificant to someone whose circumstances are worse. But there will always be someone who has it worse. If that were the standard, then no one except the single most miserable person on Earth would be allowed to feel badโwhich obviously makes no sense. Our experiences still affect us, regardless of comparison. If one person is 20 feet underwater and another is 100 feet underwater, aren't they both drowning?
At the same time, reflecting on this also creates a sense of urgency within me. A desire to act. To take responsibility. To get my life together, to do the things I want to do because I have only this one life. To take the chances I am given, or make those chances for myself. Carpe diem, because memento mori. Life is shortโฆ so I should truly live it.
I admit, it may sound like I am simply repeating basic, well-known quotes. But these ideas are โbasicโ in the same way a sandwich is basicโyou do not stop eating it just because everyone recognizes it. You might make it differently, or the same, but in the end, you still enjoy it. The reason these thoughts persist for centuries is because they return to people precisely when they need them most.
I feel like they compress different philosophies into one. In my interpretation: Stoicism teaches control over your response. Existentialism suggests that you create meaning. Modern psychology emphasizes that mindset shapes experience.
So, if I conclude itโeven if life is hard, unfair, and chaoticโyou still own your response, your direction, your inner world, and your experience. You do not control everything that happens, but you are not powerless against it. I do not choose everything that happens, but I always choose what I do with itโand who I become because of it. My soul is me. It is myself. At the end of the day, my thoughts are me.
