Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor (AD 161–180), is known for his Meditations on Stoic philosophy. This review of Gregory Hays’ acclaimed and readable ‘in both content and texture’ 2003 interpretation of Meditations: A New Translation examines the application of Aurelius’ Meditations to the seven principles of mission command.[1]

Seven principles of mission command 

The seven principles of mission command are: 

1. Competence, for tactically and technically professional people and teams, is the foundation of effective mission command. Competence performing assigned tasks to an agreed standard is achieved via rehearsed, repetitive, realistic, and challenging training; combined with life-long learning through education, employment, and professional development.[2]
2. Mutual Trust is shared confidence between our people and our teams based on reliability and competence in performing their assigned tasks. There are no shortcuts to gaining people’s trust. Over time – hours, days, weeks, months, and years – trust is built, by all of us, on the foundations of demonstrated values, caring for people, consistent leadership, commitment, two-way communication, personal example, and common shared experiences.[3]
3. Shared Understanding of an operating environment, task, purpose, and approaches to solving problems forms the basis of unity of effort enabling peoples’ disciplined initiative. Effective decentralised task execution is not possible without first achieving mutual agreement through shared understanding.[4]
4. Commander’s intent is a clear and concise expression of the task, purpose, limitations, conditions, and objectives of an operation or activity. Commander’s intent, personally prepared and delivered, provides focus to our people and teams for achievement of the commander’s desired results without further orders; even when the operation does not unfold as planned.[5] 
5. Mission Orders emphasise achievable results, not how results are achieved. They are neither so detailed that they stifle initiative nor so general that they provide insufficient direction. Mission orders are succinct unifying guidelines enabling our people and teams to plan their assigned tasks through understanding the situation, commander’s mission, intent, and essential tasks while assessing risk.[6] 
6. Disciplined Initiative is when people and teams work to follow their orders and adhere to the plan until they realise their orders and the plan are no longer suitable for the situation in which they find themselves. When the situation changes, employing disciplined initiative, our people and our teams take action to adjust to the new situation and achieve their commander’s intent. Importantly, at the first opportunity, they report to their commander about the changed situation.[7] 
7. Risk Acceptance is where commanders analyse risk, in collaboration with people and teams, to determine what level of risk is acceptable and whether to tolerate, treat, or transfer risk or terminate the mission. Risk is the exposure of someone or something valued, to danger, harm, or loss. In accepting risk, we analyse who holds, or owns, the risk, and for how is risk held. Because risk is part of every operation, it cannot be avoided.[8]

Meditations – application to the seven principles of mission command

The composition of Meditations dates to the 170s CE – Marcus Aurelius’ last decade of rule as a Roman Emperor until his death.[9] This was a ‘dark and stressful’ period for Aurelius, including, between 169 – 179 CE, the Marcomannic Wars 165–180 CE north of the Danube River, the abortive revolt of Cassius 175 CE, and the deaths of his colleague Lucius Verus 169 CE and wife Faustina 175 CE.’[10] 

For Aurelius, his Meditations on Stoic philosophy represented a ‘practical discipline – not an abstract system of thought, but an attitude to life.’[11] To Aurelius, ‘it was ethics that was the basis of the [stoic] system,’ especially through ‘attaining freedom, achieving humility and serving others.’ [Book 7.67][12] 

In Meditations, ‘at the very heart of Aurelius’ thought’, Stoicism is a doctrine of ‘three disciplines’ [Book 7.54]:[13]

1. Perception: ‘maintaining absolute objectivity of thought’– ‘to approach this thought with care, so that nothing irrational occurs.’[14]
2. Action: ‘relationships with other people,’ including our approach to things that are within our control’ – ‘treat this person as they should be treated.’[15]
3. Will: ‘governs our attitude to things that are not within our control’ – ‘to accept this event with humility.’[16]

To achieve these three disciplines, Aurelius reminds us that we live, ‘not for ourselves but for others, and our nature is fundamentally unselfish.’ In our ‘relationships with others we must work for their collective good, while treating them justly and fairly as individuals.’[17] Our role as humans is ‘simply to live as best we can, making the most of talents and opportunities available to us, and insulating ourselves, as far as possible, from pain and anxiety.’[18] Aurelius ‘does not offer us a means of achieving happiness, but only a means of resisting pain.’[19]

The Meditations were written day-by-day, in every situation including war. They often appear as responses to the stress of supreme power: from the imminent fear of death in battle, to the trials of everyday life. Gregory Hays opines that Meditations ‘suggest, not a mind recording new perceptions or experimenting with new arguments, but one obsessively repeating, reframing and re-expressing ideas long familiar but imperfectly absorbed.’[20]

We now consider, in detail, the application of Aurelius’ Meditations to the seven principles of mission command:

Competence:

1. Book 1.16: ‘his willingness to yield the floor to experts – in oratory, law, psychology – and to support them energetically, so each of them could fulfill their potential.’ [on Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius’ father through adoption][21]
2. Book 4.35 & Book 11.35: ‘everything transitory – the knower and the known.’… ‘constant transitions; not the “not” but the “not yet”.’[22]
3. Book 5.18: ‘nothing happens to anyone that they can’t endure. The same thing happens to other people, and they weather it unharmed.’[23] 
4. Book 6.52: ‘you don’t have to turn this into something. It doesn’t have to upset you. Things can’t shape our decisions by themselves.’[24] 
5. Book 8.17: ‘blame no one. Set people straight, if you can. If not, just repair the damage. And suppose you can’t do that either. Then where does blaming people get you? No pointless actions.’[25]
6. Book 9.42: ‘humans were made to help others. And when we do help others – or help them to do something – we’re doing what we were designed for. We perform our function.’[26]

Mutual Trust:

1. Book 4.7: ‘choose not to be harmed – and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed – and you haven’t been.’[27]
2. Book 4.49a: ‘it’s fortunate that this has happened, and I’ve remained unharmed by it – not shattered by the present or frightened of the future. It could have happened to anyone. But not everyone could have remained unharmed by it.’[28]
3. Book 6.13: ‘pride is a master of deception: when you think you’re occupied in the weightiest business, that’s when you are under pride’s spell.’[29]
4. Book 7.14: ‘it doesn’t hurt me unless I interpret its happening as harmful to me. I can choose not to.’[30]
5. Book 8.16: ‘remember that to change your mind and to accept correction are free acts too. The action is yours, based on your own will, your own decision – and your own mind.’[31]
6. Book 9.4 & Book 9.5: ‘to do harm is to do yourself harm. To do injustice is to do yourself an injustice – it degrades you.’… ‘And you can also commit injustice by doing nothing.’[32]

Shared Understanding:

1. Book 3.6 & Book 11.21: ‘if, at some point in your life, you should come across anything better than justice, honesty, self-control, courage – embrace it without reservations – and enjoy it to the full.’… ‘if you don’t have a consistent goal in life, you can’t live [your life] in a consistent way.’[33]
2. Book 5.16: ‘the things you think about determine the quality of your mind.’[34]
3. Book 5.33: ‘treat human beings as they deserve, be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.’[35]
4. Book 8.5 & Book 12.17: ‘concentrate on what you have to do. Fix your eyes on it. Remind yourself that your task is to be a good human; remind yourself what nature demands of people. Then do it, without hesitation, and speak the truth as you see it. But with kindness. With humility. Without hypocrisy.’… ‘if it’s not right, don’t do it. If it’s not true, don’t say it.’[36] 
5. Book 8.30: ‘to speak…in the right tone, without being overbearing. To choose the right words.’[37]
6. Book 10.4: ‘if they’ve made a mistake, correct them gently and show them where they went wrong. If you can’t do that, then the blame lies with you. Or no one.’[38]

Commander’s intent: 

1. Book 4.24: ‘ask yourself at every moment, is this necessary.’[39]
2. Book 5.5: ‘practice the virtues you can show: honesty, gravity, endurance, austerity, resignation, abstinence, patience, sincerity, moderation and seriousness.’[40]
3. Book 5.32: ‘the one that knows the beginning and the end [of a campaign], and knows the logos [in Greek: word, reason, or plan] that runs through all things and that assigns to all a place, each in its allotted span, throughout the whole of time.’[41]
4. Book 7.74: ‘to be of use to others is natural.’[42]
5. Book 8.22: ‘stick to what’s in front of you – idea, action, utterance.’[43]
6. Book 8.47: ‘external things are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them.’[44]

Mission Orders:

1. Book 4.32: ‘you’re better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve.’[45]
2. Book 5.8: ‘when we describe things as “taking place,” we’re talking like builders, who say that blocks in a wall or a pyramid “take their place” in the structure and fit together in a harmonious pattern.’[46]
3. Book 5.20 & Book 8.32: ‘because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action.’ What ‘stands in the way becomes the way’ … ‘but if you accept the obstacle and work with what you’re given, an alternate will present itself – another piece of what you’re trying to assemble. Action by action.’[47]
4. Book 8.6: ‘nature’s job: to shift things elsewhere, to transform them, to pick them up and move them here and there. Constant alteration.’[48]
5. Book 8.13: ‘apply them constantly, to everything that happens: physics; ethics; and logic.’[49]
6. Book 10.6 & Book 11.16: ‘because of my relationship to other parts, I will do nothing selfish, but aim instead to join those parts, to direct my every action toward what benefits us all and to avoid what doesn’t. […] this is how we learn: by looking at each thing, both the parts and the whole.’[50]

Disciplined Initiative:

1. Book 1.16: ‘everything was to be approached logically and with due considerations, in a calm and orderly fashion but decisively, and with no loose ends.’ [on Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius’ father through adoption][51]
2. Book 4.31: ‘love the discipline you know, and let it support you.’[52]
3. Book 5.1: at dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I must go to work as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for – the things I was bought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?” [53]
4. Book 6.43: ‘does the sun try to do the rain’s work? And what about each of the stars – different, yet working in common?’[54]
5. Book 7.55 & Book 8.12: ‘now, the main thing we were made for is to work with others’… ‘remember that your defining characteristic – what defines a human – is to work with others.’[55]
6. Book 10.3: ‘everything that happens is either endurable or not. If it’s endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining. If it’s unendurable…then stop complaining. Your destruction will mean its end as well.’[56] 

Risk Acceptance:

1. Book 2.5: ‘concentrate every minute…on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions.’[57]
2. Book 5.9: ‘get back up when you fail, celebrate behaving like a human – however imperfectly – and fully embrace the pursuit that you’ve embarked upon.’ [58]
3. Book 5.37: ‘but true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions.’[59]
4. Book 6.21: ‘if anyone can refute me – show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective – I’ll gladly change.’[60]
5. Book 7.64: ‘for times when you feel pain…doesn’t keep [you] from acting rationally and unselfishly.’[61]
6. Book 11.13: ‘as long as you work for others’ good, by any and all means – what is there that can harm you?’[62]

Conclusion

This review of Gregory Hays’ 2003 interpretation of Meditations: A New Translation, examines the application of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations to the seven principles of mission command. 

Most importantly, for Marcus Aurelius, his Meditations on Stoic philosophy represented a ‘practical discipline – not an abstract system of thought, but an attitude to life.’[63] To Aurelius, ‘it was ethics that was the basis of the [stoic] system,’ especially through ‘attaining freedom, achieving humility and serving others.’[64]