I'm sure you'll start to notice a trend...
Marcus Aurelius reminds us:
Learn to ask of all actions, "Why are they doing that?"
Starting with your own
Meditations 10.37
There are many recurrent themes throughout the book, and a major one is self-reflection and responsibility.
I should question why others do what they do. Not in exasperation, but truly trying to understand. That kind of understanding could potentially bring some insight.
However, I should question why I do what I do first, and foremost. I need to be deliberate in my actions. I need to know why I do the things that I do.
A good basis for any actions should fit Jordan Peterson's fourth rule from 12 Rules for Life:
Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not who somebody else is today
I have been thinking recently about my old friend Steve Rose, and something he wrote which was included in the program at his funeral. I don't have the exact words in front of me, but he wrote something to the effect that his hope was to be a better husband to his wife and father to his children each day than he was the day before.
It's not about what anybody else is doing, though I can learn from those things. It's about what I am doing today to be a better husband, father, and man than I was yesterday.