The Older I Get, The More I Understand This

Chase Arbeiter
4 min readMay 28, 2024
Photo by Daniel Olah on Unsplash

Results are often out of our control.

To worry about it, is fruitless, at the least.

The Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius believed:

“Ambition is tying your well-being to what other people do and say. Sanity is tying it to your own actions.”

Our own actions are the only thing we actually control. The rest is out of our hands.

In a vision I get when I think about this, I’m on the basketball court. Driving past my defender, toward the basket, as defenders are closing in, cutting me off from getting any further. Then, I see a shooter in the corner — wide open. No matter how much I want to take this play into my own hands, I know, passing to the open shooter is the right move.

Whether or not he makes the shot, isn’t the point.

If you’ve ever put your words out on the internet. Done work for clients. Or put yourself in any arena that places your work — or actions — at the mercy of other’s opinions, you’ve probably learned this lesson before.

Worrying about your results doesn’t actually help produce better results.

Not only that it steals energy from doing the things that produce success.

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Chase Arbeiter

I write about building a better life, chasing excellence in your craft, and using your work as a catalyst for your best life.