Dear Fellow Travelers,
Welcome back to the Perennial Leadership series. It’s been a little while since my last post (I caught a nasty case of the flu—glad to be feeling better). I appreciate your patience between volumes.
Here are the first four volumes (in case you missed any): How to Lead Yourself Like Socrates, How to Lead with Simplicity Like Epicurus, How to Lead by Letting Go, and How to Lead with Character Like Confucius.
As a reminder, if you’d like to become a member (and gain access to this series), there are a few ways to do so: (1) subscribe for $5 a month or $39 a year; (2) use this 50% discount link if you need assistance; and (3) if you can’t afford it, please accept a complimentary membership.
Perennial Leadership
Perennial Leadership is an eight-part series that argues effective leadership emerges from within—not from tactics or titles, but through continuous effort to develop your character, attention, and inner life. Each meditation offers a philosophical insight, illustrated with historical examples and practical exercises designed to introduce ancient lessons for modern lives.
How to Lead with Presence (Marcus Aurelius)
During the day, he commanded armies, negotiated with senators, faced plagues, invasions, and political intrigue. At night, he wrote to himself in a small notebook—reminders, corrections, quiet urges to be better, calmer, more just, and more present.
Those notes, never meant for publication, are what we now call the Meditations.
What stands out isn’t his power, but his posture. In the midst of constant crisis, Marcus keeps returning to the same discipline: be here, now.
Not lost in the past.
Not consumed by the future.
Not ruled by the jittery noise of other people’s opinions.
Presence, for Marcus, isn’t a vague spiritual ideal. It’s a practical daily discipline. He repeatedly reminds himself: Stay with what’s in front of you. Control your inner response. View your life from a higher perspective.
1. Attention to the Present
Marcus repeatedly urges himself to come back to the task at hand. His world is noisy, but he insists on simplicity of focus.
He writes:
“Do not let your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already. Think how much you would long for these things if they were not already in your possession.”
And again, more directly:
“Confine yourself to the present.”
The emperor reminds himself: life happens one action at a time. Leadership happens one decision at a time. You can't live three hours from now. You can't relive yesterday. You only ever have this moment, this choice, this conversation.
Modern life spreads your attention thin. Notifications, meetings, messages, competing priorities—your mind is always pulled outward. Marcus advocates the opposite: turning inward and focusing on the present.
He writes:
“You must build your life action by action, and be content if each one achieves its goal as far as possible.”
Not perfection.
Not total control.
Just one good action, then another.
Presence, in this sense, is not a feeling—it’s a discipline of narrowing your field of concern to what you can actually influence right now.
A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind
Modern psychology backs Marcus up with striking clarity. In a famous study using smartphone tracking, researchers Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert found that people were less happy when their minds were wandering—even if they were contemplating pleasant things.
What mattered most for well-being was being where you are.
Leadership is especially vulnerable to mental time travel: replaying past decisions, catastrophizing future scenarios, mentally rehearsing conversations that may never happen. The result is exhaustion and diminished clarity.
