When a man can control his life, his physical needs, his lower self, he elevates himself.*
Muhammad Ali

These are the characteristics of the rational soul: self-awareness, self-examination, and self-determination. It reaps its own harvest … It succeeds in its own purpose.**
Marcus Aurelius

The fourth elemental truth states:
You are not in control,^ but
there is more detail to this we need to explore:
Whilst we can’t control things out there, we can
control things in here – the most
important place – meaning we can control
our response to everything out there –
This is Viktor Frankl‘s point;
Marcus Aurelius wrote wise words to himself, but
we get to benefit: we are each capable of developing
awareness and
examination and
determination^^
of the self, leading to some interesting results –
The more we control ourselves, beginning with the
basics, the more we can
affect our surroundings …
Though in a more profound, more helpful, even
more beautiful way.

When an artist says “Trust the Soup” she means let go of the need to control (which we can’t do anyway) and put your faith instead in the Source, the Mystery, the Quantum Soup.*^

*Ryan Holiday’s Discipline is Destiny;
**Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic;
^Richard Rohr’s Adam’s Return;
^^More than being self-aware, we descend deeper by self-examining, and build our power to self-determine so that we can travel further in the outer world;
*^Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work.