Everything Is Change

The Daily Stoic for November 15th, “Everything Is Change”.

“Meditate often on the swiftness with which all that exists and is coming into being is swept by us and carried away. For substance is like a river’s unending flow, its activities continually changing and causes infinitely shifting so that almost nothing at all stands still.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.23

“Everything is change, embrace that, flow with it” says today’s stoic. Those are the typical words you read on Instagram over a pretty image. The words we all agree with because they sound so profound and all of that.

Everything Is Change

But is that really true? I am not so sure. We are generally afraid of change, because it’s scary. I hate the sentence “I’m only comfortable when I’m outside of my comfort zone”… apart from being overused, I doubt most people repackaging and selling it on their profiles one way or another really feel that.

Today I was at the Center of European Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Cartagena, my home town. I talked about the e-Residency program and opening a company in Estonia to an amazing audience of young entrepreneurs there. It was refreshing, and I enjoyed the experience a lot.

But it also made me remember the times when I lived there. Lots of emotions floating around. I talked about my journey from cubicle rat to digital nomad, and my mind was an incessant flow of thoughts.

Yes, life is change, everything is change. Visiting Cartagena, I was well aware of how much I have changed during these years, while at the same time feeling that Cartagena was still essentially the same, suspended in a standstill in time.

Change is scary, but it’s necessary, and part of life.

Conclusion

Today’s Daily Stoic, “Everything Is Change”, read while visiting my home town Cartagena, made me thing about how fast our lives can change in a matter of years.