Epictetus said that wishing things and people were other than they are is the surest road to misery. People will be late, careless, unlike you, and beyond your control, all of it. You can ask, you can set boundaries, but you cannot make another person be different. Spending your peace trying to is like arguing with the weather. This isn't cold; you can still care deeply. It's just releasing the impossible job of running other people's choices. When you let them be who they are, you stop being so disturbed by them, and you get your energy back for the one life you can actually steer: your own.

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