Daily Reflection 4.14.21
Apr. 14th, 2021 07:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
readoldthingsSun Tzu tells us that
This is along the same lines as what we said yesterday: Don't set yourself up for failure. Or, to put it another way: Pick your battles.
One of the later commentators gives the example of a general who bypassed a major city that stood in his army's way, and doing so took much of the enemy's country. A later French general put it, "Don't take a city when you could have a province." And of course, that advice was put into practice by the Wehrmacht in 1939, with results that don't need to be repeated here.
If you take the province, the city will fall into your hands later, but the reverse is not necessarily true. Much of life is that way. If you have a habit or addiction you can't break, focus on building up your healthy habits and working on your goals in the time that's not dedicated to your addiction. You may find that as the rest of your life becomes better and better, the addictive behavior stops because it's simply no longer that interesting.
There are roads which must not be followed, armies which must not be attacked, cities which must not be besieged, positions which must not be contested, commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed.
This is along the same lines as what we said yesterday: Don't set yourself up for failure. Or, to put it another way: Pick your battles.
One of the later commentators gives the example of a general who bypassed a major city that stood in his army's way, and doing so took much of the enemy's country. A later French general put it, "Don't take a city when you could have a province." And of course, that advice was put into practice by the Wehrmacht in 1939, with results that don't need to be repeated here.
If you take the province, the city will fall into your hands later, but the reverse is not necessarily true. Much of life is that way. If you have a habit or addiction you can't break, focus on building up your healthy habits and working on your goals in the time that's not dedicated to your addiction. You may find that as the rest of your life becomes better and better, the addictive behavior stops because it's simply no longer that interesting.
