Keep your ruling faculty pure, for nothing that happens outside it can ever affect it. – Marcus Aurelius
Reflection
It's easy to repeat something wrong. It's harder to notice you're doing it.
You can write clean code. Name with care. Handle the edges others ignore. But if you don't ask what held and what failed, you're not sharpening. You're rehearsing.
The Stoics didn't review to feel better. They examined to confront. To draw the line.
Between intention and outcome.
Between standard and excuse.
So should we.
You say naming matters. But did that name help when it counted?
You write tests. But which one caught the bug before it spread?
You defend clarity. But do you clean what confused the next dev, or just hope they guess right?
What you ignore becomes a habit.
What you tolerate becomes culture.
What you revisit becomes the principle.
Discipline isn't a checklist.
It's the refusal to drift.
The moment you notice what's slipping, stop it before it sets.
Today's Insight
What you revisit, you reclaim. What you walk past, you allow.
Action Steps
- Run a Discipline Audit - Pick one file. One function. One test. Read it like you didn't write it. Where would you flinch? Circle it. That's your true standard.
- Leave Weight Behind - Rename a lie. Remove a shortcut. Write one comment that carries weight not to explain but to remind.
- Revoke Permission - Find one thing you've let slide. A helper that no longer helps. Remove the flag you left behind.
- Name Your Line - What's the habit you'll return to even when time tempts you to skip? Write it down. Keep it close. Let it hold you steady when the pressure hits.
Consider This
What's one thing you no longer excuse?
Not in others. In yourself.
That might be the line.
Draw it.
Then hold it.
Quietly.
Deliberately.
Until it sets the standard.