Never underestimate the power of the need to appear better than their peers to motivate people, a tendency that I’m happy to indulge.
Doru and Noda are speaking the language of scammers from time immemorial—and status-anxiety continues to drive much of the economy today.
Concerning status-anxiety, Marcus Aurelius writes: “As to living in the best way, this power is in the soul, if it be indifferent to things which are indifferent.” (As rendered by George Long from the Greek original).
And Laozi, in the Dao De Jing, writes (translation from the Classical Chinese mine):
Heaven abides; earth endures.
Without struggling to preserve themselves, they last.
The Dao-aware put themselves last and so transcend competition, disregard the ego and so preserve their person.
By acting selflessly, do they not therefore realize the self?
It’s easy to know that we should transcend status-anxiety, but much harder to put the knowledge into practice. What are your tips for reaching that state of being indifferent to thing that make no difference? What are some techniques for disregarding self-harming competition that have worked for you?
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Cheryl Mcnabb
