It’s still dark in Rome, and the most powerful man in the world is awake before he wants to be. He lies in his warm bed, made even more snug contrasted with the room’s cold, and wills himself to get up and put his feet on the floor. Then he does something strange for an Emperor: he reaches for his notebook and argues with himself there, writing down the intellectual reasoning against bed-rotting. We’ve been reading it for almost 1,900 years. We call it Meditations, and the groggy man losing the fight with his blanket is Marcus Aurelius.

@ryan_holiday “At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?” — Marcus Aurelius ♬ original sound – Ryan Holiday

“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?” — Marcus Aurelius ♬ original sound – Ryan Holiday

His little private notebook

Some context, since the name “Marcus Aurelius,” usually conjures images of an old, weathered statue with no backstory, or some misremembered scene from Gladiator. Marcus Aurelius ruled the Roman Empire from 161 to 180 CE and practiced Stoic philosophy. The reason we still talk about him isn’t a statue or battle. It’s a small book called Meditations, and he almost certainly never meant for you to read it.

He wrote it as a private notebook, a set of reminders to himself about how to think and act under pressure. Meditations offers a rare view of a ruler trying to discipline his own mind amid war, administration, illness, and loss. And sleepiness, apparently. Sometimes, it reads like one man’s mission to lock in, told across 12 short books, and it’s shocking how much it sounds like us at 6 a.m.

It’s not a........

© Upworthy