Examining Yourself
This week you turn the examining eye inward. Each day's passage gives you a slightly different instrument for that work: a nightly review, a courtroom you run yourself, a musical ear trained on small signals, and finally the mirror that other people hold up without knowing it. By Saturday you will have built not just a habit of self-scrutiny but a reason to keep practicing it that is genuinely your own.
Passage
'Where went I wrong? Did what? And what to be done was left undone?' Starting from this point review, then, your acts, and thereafter remember: Censure yourself for the acts that are base, but rejoice in the goodly."
— Epictetus, Discourses 3.10.3
Reflection
Epictetus opens the week with three blunt questions: Where did I go wrong? What did I do? What did I leave undone? Notice the structure: the review is not a punishment, it ends in rejoicing over what was good. You are not being asked to flagellate yourself; you are being asked to look clearly and then respond appropriately, censure for the base, genuine satisfaction for the goodly. This is the foundation the rest of the week builds on.
Go deeper
When you last reviewed a day honestly, what made you stop before you were finished, and what does that stopping-point reveal about what you are still unwilling to see?
Practice
The Three Questions Review
Tonight, before sleep, sit quietly for five minutes. Ask yourself Epictetus's three questions about today, in writing if possible. For each fault you name, write one word of honest censure. For each thing you did well, write one sentence of genuine acknowledgment, not modesty, not boasting: just recognition. Put the pen down only after you have found at least one item in each column.