“Never shirk the proper dispatch of your duty, no matter if you are freezing or hot, groggy or well-rested, vilified or praised, not even if dying or pressed by other demands. Even dying is one of the important assignments of life and, in this as in all else, make the most of your resources to do well the duty at hand.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.
‘If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.’ Your determination, commitment and resolve to do the best you can with what you have available are made stronger when you know that the end goal – the higher purpose – is one worth working for.
Resisting temptation along the way to have a rest or ‘give up now’ is made easier when you have the end goal in mind. Psychologists call this ‘pre-commitment’ and it extends to thinking about what you can do if temptation or other emotional distress should threaten to knock you off course. Forewarned is forearmed. Focus on your task and do your duty. It is worth it in the end.
