Daily Stoic: The Day in Review

 Today's meditation is interesting. It is kind of obvious, but not something I usually do proactively.

I will keep constant watch over myself and - most usefully - will put each day up for review. For this is what makes use evil - that none of us looks back upon our own lives. We reflect upon only that which we are about to do. And your our plants for the further descend from the past.

Seneca

This is almost exactly the opposite of our philosophy today. Modern philosophy is about not looking back as much as possible. Our politicians focus not on what they haven't done, but what they will do - even though they didn't complete the last promises.

Most of us in casual sports are taught to overcome a loss, but watch professional teams and coaches they actual go back and check how they met their goals previously - in order to improve going forward. Even our inspirational ideas exalt us to move forward and ignore what happened previously.