The best revenge

You got passed over. The promotion went to the person who talks the most in meetings. Or a coworker took your idea into the boss's office and let it land as theirs. Or a customer lied to your manager and you ate the blame. The wrong is real, and the first thing it does is hand you a script: get even. Make them look bad. Become, for a moment, the kind of person who did this to you.

Marcus Aurelius, who held the most power in the known world and was wronged constantly, wrote himself a single line about it: "The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong-doer" (Meditations 6.6, Long). That's the whole move. Not pretending it didn't happen. Not letting it slide for the sake of peace. Refusing to let their wrong reach into you and make you act like them.

This is where the week starts, and it runs all week: when you're wronged, the one thing fully in your hands is whether you stay yourself. Revenge feels like winning. Mostly it just recruits you onto the other side.