The Daily Stoic - Can You Stop? | Practice Love

Episode Date: October 10, 2022

You tell yourself you’ll go to bed after one more episode. You’ll put the phone down after one more scroll. You’ll pay your tab and leave after one more drink. That was the last time you’ll ever do that again, you say.📕 Ryan Holiday's new book "Discipline Is Destiny" is out now! We’ve extended the pre-order bonuses for the next week—among them is a signed and numbered page from the original manuscript of the book. You can learn more about those and how to receive them over at Dailystoic.com/preorder. ✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke Podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. Welcome to the Daily Stoke Podcast. Each day, we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stokes illustrated with stories from history, current events, and literature to help you be better at what you do. And at the beginning of the week, we try to do a deeper dive, setting a kind of stoke, intention for the week, something to meditate on, something to think on, something to leave you with, to journal about whatever it is you happen to be doing. So let's get into it.

Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wunderree's podcast business wars. And in our new season, Walmart must fight off target, the new discounter that's both savvy and fashion forward. Listen to business wars on Amazon music or wherever you get your podcasts. Can you stop? You tell yourself you'll go to bed after one more episode. You'll put the phone down after one more scroll. You'll pay your tab and leave after one more drink.

That was the last time you'll ever do that again, you say. And then here you are again. Because you are not in control. The device is. The stimulant is. The anger is the habit is. Seneca writing about the rich and privileged of his time pointed out that whether they believed it or not they were all slaves.

Some were slaves to money, others to a mistress, to attention or to applause. It's not dissimilar to today's world when you might be a slave to swiping on some dating app or the buzz of your vape or the busyness of a full schedule. Some of these addictions or forms of servitude might be more socially acceptable than others, but they remain a violation of that key stoic virtue, temperance, self-discipline, self-control. Taste me and you will see the voice sings more is all you need, and more is all you want, even though it's already caused you so much trouble, even though it's harmed you and others, including the people you care about. No, more is not what you need.

What you need is to stop. What you need is to re-assert control, to make it clear who is in charge, and that that person better be you. Not the puppet master, not the urges, not the device, not the intemperance. And look, if you want to take back control of yourself, you want to put yourself back into control, if you want to tap into that virtue that the Stokes are talking about, it do hope that the new book can help you do that. That's what it's all about. Discipline is destiny. The power of self control is now out in the world. I appreciate everyone so much

who supported the book. It's been the biggest launch I've ever had. All of your support means so much to me. I signed over 10,000 copies of the book. I'm still signing more because we're honoring the pre-order bonuses. If you missed it, you can grab a copy of discipline, it's destiny, the power of self control anywhere books are sold. Or if you want to grab a sign copy, you want to redeem your bonuses, you can do that at dailystilic.com slash preorder. And if you're a podcast person, which clearly are, you're listening to this, the audiobook is out, which I also recorded and grab it on audible, iBooks anywhere you get your audiobooks, eBook is out too. I can't wait to hear what all of you think and thanks to everyone for supporting Discipline is destiny, the power of self-control, which is out now everywhere.

Practice, Love The stoic notion of sympathy that we are all part of an organic whole connected by mutual interest and affinities is greater than the Golden Rule. Don't treat others how you would like to be treated. Treat them like you would treat yourself because we are all one. Seneca said that whenever he encountered another human being, he saw an opportunity for kindness. And he learned from Haccato of Rhodes that if you want to be loved, there's only one thing you can do.

Love others. Who can you give love to this week? What kindness can you expend? How can you show how you feel, the strangers to friends and family? And how can you show them that you actually believe we are all part of the same whole? And this is from this week's entry in the Daily Steuert Journal, 366 days of writing and reflection on the art of living by yours truly and my co-writer and translator, Steve Enhancelman. I actually do this journal every single day.

There's a question in the morning, a question in the afternoon, and then there's these sort of weekly meditations. As Epictetus says, every day and night, we keep thoughts like this at hand, write them, read them aloud, and talk to yourself and others about them. You can check out the Daily Stoke Journal anywhere, books are sold. You can also get a signed personalized copy from me in the Daily Stoke store. It's store.dailystoke.com. You know, I talk about this a little bit in the all is one chapter of stillness is the key. There's a quote I like from Sena Kisz. All that you behold that which comprises both God and man is one. We are

all part of one great body. And there's this quote I love from Edgar Mitchell, the astronaut who was up in space looking down at the earth. And he says, that he felt an instant global consciousness of people orientation and intense dissatisfaction to state of the world and a compulsion to do something about it. So this idea that we are all one, this sympathy idea to me, is the essence of stosism. Stosism isn't to make you an island to disconnect you from other people. Quite the contrary, Asenica says it's to make you kinder and more connected to other people. And Asenica, the three quotes we have today, one is Asenica quoting Hicato. He says, I can teach you a love potion made without any drugs, herbs,

or special spell if you would be loved, love. And then in the happy life, Senika says, a benefit should be kept like a buried treasure only to be dug up in necessity. Nature bids us to do well by all. Wherever there is a human being, we have an opportunity for kindness. And then in moral letters, 95, he says, nature produced us as a family since we all sprang from the same source and towards the same end. Nature bestowed upon us mutual love and joined us together as friends. I think going out into nature looking at something majestic, or as I Grimichal did looking at the earth from a distance, it does give you this sense of our interconnectedness. It makes a lot of the things that we get angry about feel very petty and small and insignificant.

Being around your kids does this as well. You see just how sweet and innocent and pure they are. And it feels weird to carry anger or resentment about anything or anyone. But one of the things I wanted to do in today's episode, I wanted to riff, give you a little tick-tock that we did that was popular. You might think that the Stokes are kind of these unfeeling people, and I get that, but it's actually not true at all. Seneca says, if you want love in your life, he says, then love.

Marcus really says that he learns from one of his mentors to be free of passions, yes, but full of love. Do you have affection for other people? If you want to feel good, if you want to be loved by other people, it's about what you put out in the world. As the Beatles say, it's about the energy you put out in the world, because ultimately that's what you control. If you want to feel better, don't go expecting other people to validate you, other people to give you what you want, give what you want. Marcus Rius says, if you want to feel good, do good. If you want to feel loved, put love out in the world, put affection out in the world.

See everyone you meet, as Seneca says, as an opportunity to practice kindness, and the rest will take care of itself, I promise. As the Beatles say, and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. What are you putting out in the world? What are you contributing to the whole? How are you remembering that we are all, you know, one finger on a large hand or that we're all part of the same body? The more you feel this, the more connected you are to it, not only will your anger and fear

and resentment and anxiety dissipate, but you will do better. You will be better. You will make the world a better place. That's my message for today. Go out and do a kindness. Go out and do something good. If you want to feel good, do good as the Stoic say, and I'll leave it there.

Sympathia, everyone, we are all part of the same whole. Thanks for listening to The Daily Stoke Podcast. Just a reminder, we've got signed copies of all my books in the Daily Stoke Store. You can get them personalized, you can get them sent to a friend. The app goes away. You go as the enemy, still in this is the key, the leather bound edition of the Daily Stoke. We have them all in the Daily Stoke Store, which you can check out at store.dailystoke.com. Hey, prime members, you can listen to the daily Stoic early and ad-free on Amazon Music,

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