Same person before and after the win

This is the heart of the week. A win that lands hard can rearrange a person. The driver who gets the route everyone wants starts looking down at the dispatch board. The nurse who's praised in front of the ward begins correcting colleagues she used to ask. The small-shop owner whose stall blows up for a season starts treating regulars like they're lucky to be served. The lot improved — and somewhere in there, so did their opinion of themselves, and not for the better.

Seneca's answer is the steadiest line in the week. "We ought to cultivate an easy temper, and not become over fond of the lot which fate has assigned to us" (Of Peace of Mind XIV, Stewart). Don't grip the good lot too hard, he means. It came partly by fortune and can leave the same way, and the person who clutches it gets distorted by it. The aim is to be the same size whether fate hands you the great month or the lean one.

Here is the whole move, at full strength: stay level. The win is allowed to change your circumstances. It is not allowed to change how you treat the people who were beside you before it came.

Let the lot get better. Don't let yourself get worse.