Make each deed your last. Marcus Aurelius 2.5

In a world crowded with many other people and things, it is easy to get carried away by the process of events, losing sight of our ability to make meaningful choices. Marcus had a personal mantra for that: something he would think to himself regularly as a reminder, a filter allowing him to separate what he could and should do from what was outside his control. You can hear the Greek <here>.

Πάσης ὥρας φρόντιζε στιβαρῶς ὡς Ῥωμαῖος καὶ ἄρρην τὸ ἐν χερσὶ μετὰ τῆς ἀκριβοῦς (†) καὶ ἀπλάστου σεμνότητος καὶ φιλοστοργίας καὶ ἐλευθερίας καὶ δικαιότητος πράσσειν καὶ σχολὴν σαυτῷ ἀπὸ πασῶν τῶν ἄλλων φαντασιῶν πορίζειν. ποριεῖς δέ, ἂν ὡς ἐσχάτην τοῦ βίου ἑκάστην πρᾶξιν ἐνεργῇς, ἀπηλλαγμένος πάσης εἰκαιότητος καὶ ἐμπαθοῦς ἀποστροφῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ αἱροῦντος λόγου καὶ ὑποκρίσεως καὶ φιλαυτίας καὶ δυσαρεστήσεως πρὸς τὰ συμμεμοιραμένα. ὁρᾷς πῶς ὀλίγα ἐστίν, ὧν κρατήσας τις δύναται εὔρουν καὶ θεουδῆ βιῶσαι βίον· καὶ γὰρ οἱ θεοὶ πλέον οὐδὲν ἀπαιτήσουσι παρὰ τοῦ ταῦτα φυλάσσοντος.

Take a moment every hour to consider how it is in your hands, as a Roman and a man, to act with careful and authentic reverence, with affection, with freedom, and with justice, giving yourself a rest from all other distractions. As you do this, you will find that you carry out each task as though it were the last of your life, and you will be released from many burdens: all your aimlessness, your emotional resistance to rational decision, your hypocrisy and self-love, and your dissatisfaction with the allotment fate has given you. Already you see how few things we must master to live a fair and blessed life, for the gods demand nothing more from us than this: that we keep these precepts.

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(†) Farquharsson thinks the text is missing something here, perhaps four letters.