A new year arrives with a long list of things you can't command: other people, the weather, how a plan unfolds. The Stoics drew one clear line through all of it. Some things answer to you, your choices, your effort, how you respond, and some things simply don't. Most of our worry comes from pouring energy across that line, trying to steer what was never ours to steer. You don't have to fix everything today. You only have to tend the small patch that's actually yours: your next decision, your next kind act. Start there. It's lighter than carrying the whole world.

Inspired by the old idea of dichotomy of control. Written by Ugo Charles.