☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: Is It The Thought That Counts?

The importance of intention.

1. Morning Contemplation

🎧 You can find the audio version of this morning’s contemplation below.

Good morning.

It’s a phrase people often use to console themselves when they’ve received what they perceive to be an underwhelming gift:

It’s the thought that counts.

Generally, it’s a sound assertion. Someone has gone to the trouble of giving a gift. It may not be an impressive, or even useful, item, but the intention was there.

(Maybe the present is so pitiful that we have to discern for ourselves if the intention was indeed a good one, but that’s another matter.)

To a Stoic, intentions are important. Our own intentions are within our control. Virtuous intent is a prerequisite to a virtuous action. And because we can’t be sure the outcome of that action—whatever it may be, there are sure to be many factors outside our control that could impact our intended result—the intention is the element that determines whether or not we had virtue in mind when undertaking it.

The Stoic philosopher Seneca gave an insight into the Stoics thinking on this matter in one of his Moral Letters (14.16):

The wise person regards the reason for all their actions, but not the results. The beginning is in our own power; fortune decides the issue, but I do not allow fortune to pass sentence upon myself.

Turning the gift-giving scenario around as an example, we can make, donate, or buy something with the best of intentions, but we can’t control how it’ll be received.

In Journal Like a Stoic, Brittany Polat offers a further explanation of Seneca’s commentary: