The Daily Stoic - It’s Not Extraordinary | No Pain, No Gain

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a stoic-inspired meditation designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life. Each one of these episodes is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women help you learn from them. to follow in their example, and to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom. For more, visitdailystoic.com. happen? How does someone become great? Is it genetics? Is it luck? Is it superhuman dedication and brilliance? Too often we see impressive results. Books on bestseller lists, people in peak

Starting point is 00:01:13 physical condition, companies selling for millions and millions of dollars. And we assume that the process that led to these results must have been equally extraordinary. And in fact, it often isn't. Success usually happens the same way. Action, by action, as Marks really has said, on an episode of the Daily Stoic podcast, Bob Bowman, the coach of the 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps, along with many other elite athletes, talked about the simple three-word mantra that captures the essence of those who succeed at the highest levels. Here's what he said. Just do your work. Right. Just get in and do your work. And then it became this thing with the team because I kept putting on the workouts. I was like,

Starting point is 00:01:58 what do you do when you've never felt better in your life when you come to price do your work right what do you do you do you're not motivated and you just don't know what to do do your work right if you're uncertain do your work just come in every day do a little something whatever that is and that's the meaning of it is that these incremental just consistently mind numbingly boring consistent everyday you know deposits in your bank account yes are what makes the big changes later I think this is what the Stoics believed, too, that the little things add up to make the big things. This is what Zeno meant when he said that well-being is realized by small steps, but it is truly no small thing. It's what Epictetus meant when he said each day acquire something

Starting point is 00:02:45 that will fortify you against poverty, against death, against all other misfortunes. He said, select one thing to thoroughly digest each day. One gain per day. One step forward. per day. It's not romantic. It's not exciting or extraordinary. But over time, it is transformative. And that's what the new book from me, the final in the four Virtue series. I have it right here. I've been working on it now for six plus years. I'm super proud of it. And it's now available for pre-order. If you like Courage is Calling, Discipline is Destiny or Right Thing Right Now. This is the fourth and final book. not just signed and numbered first editions of Wisdom Takes Work, but we also have a special limited edition run of all four books, signed and numbered just 1,500 of them. I'm just finishing

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Starting point is 00:04:07 A bunch of awesome stuff. I hope to see you at the Philosopher's Dinner that we're going to do. And I'm really excited for you to grab this book when it comes out in October, but it supports authors in a big way if you pre-order them. So if you could do that, I would really appreciate it. DailyStoeck.com slash pre-order and grab Wisdom Takes Work and round out the Four Virtue series. Thanks, everyone. When you're busy, when you work hard, when you push yourself, one of the things that's

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Starting point is 00:05:58 We've been hiring for some positions at Daily Stoic lately, and when you have roles you're trying to fill, it can be difficult, right? You want to fill the roles quickly, but you also want to find the right people. So that's really a question. How do you find amazing candidates fast? Well, the answer is just use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other job sites. With Indeed's sponsored jobs, you stand out and hire fast. And with sponsored jobs, your jobs, jump to the top of the page to help you find relevant candidates quickly. How fast is Indeed? In the minute we've been talking here, 23 hires were made on Indeed, according to Indeed data worldwide. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed.

Starting point is 00:06:44 And listeners will get a $75-sponsored job credit to get your job more visibility at Indeed.com slash Daily Stoic. Just go to Indeed.com slash Daily Stoic right now to support the show and say you heard about Indeed on this podcast. deed.com slash daily stoic terms and conditions apply hiring deed is all you need no pain no gain this is today's entry in the daily stoic difficulties show a person's character epictetus tells us in discourses one 24 so when a challenge confronts you remember that god is matching you with a younger sparring partner as

Starting point is 00:07:25 would a physical trainer. Coming an Olympian, it takes sweat. I think no one has a better challenge than yours, if only you would use it like an athlete, would a younger sparring partner. The Stoics loved metaphors from the Olympics, especially wrestling. Like us, they saw sports as both a fun pastime

Starting point is 00:07:43 as well as a training ground to practice for the challenges one will inevitably face in the course of living. As General Douglas MacArthur once said, in words engraved at the gymnasium at West point upon the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that upon other fields on other days will bear the fruits of victory everyone has found themselves outmatched by an opponent frustrated by some skill or attribute that they have that we don't height speed vision whatever how we choose to respond to that struggle tells us about who we are as athletes and who will be as people do we

Starting point is 00:08:20 see it as a chance to learn and get stronger do we get frustrated and complain or worse do we call it off and find an easier game to play, one that makes us feel good instead of challenged. The greats don't avoid these tests of their abilities. They seek them out because they are not just a measure of greatness. They are the pathways to it. You know, Marcus Realist love to box and to wrestle, hunt. These physical activities, his love of competition and the outdoors, it was cultivating, as MacArthur said, the seeds,

Starting point is 00:08:55 that upon other fields and on other days will bear the fruits of victory or bear stoicism or bear the fruits of virtue, Marx really, as might have said. Sports are a way to practice, to cultivate, to get after it in a safe space that hopefully you build some virtues that are transferable, right? Even the metaphor here of Epictetus is that, you know, you're matched with a strong sparring partner. If you've ever wrestled, if you've ever played against someone better than you, you realize, hey, this is making me better. I'm getting my ass kick, but it's making me better. You seek that out. But how rarely we do that in life.

Starting point is 00:09:36 We want things to be easy. We want them to be comfortable. We hate that challenging boss. We hate that rival or that peer, right? We hate the adversity that life is dealing us. We want it to go away. We complain that it happened to us. Now, it's good. It was chosen for you. chosen for you by a trainer or a coach that wants to get the best out of you. And if you can come to think about it that way, if you can come to relish it almost for that reason, you'll be able to use it. You'll be able to grow. Becoming an Olympian takes sweat, Epitia says. No one has a better challenge than yours, he says, but only if you choose to treat it the way an athlete would treat their sparring partner, someone to learn from, someone

Starting point is 00:10:21 to get stronger from, someone to work out their issues on and with, right, teammate, collaborator, even though they're also an opponent, even though they're also punching you in the head or dunking on you, literally or figuratively, right? That's why we do this work. Competition makes you better. Resistance makes you stronger. You have to understand this metaphor. And there's no better way to understand that metaphor, then by literally doing those things on the field. It's cultivating strong body and a strong mind. And that's the message. No pain, no gain. It's good that it's hard. It's good that they're challenging you. It's good that you're getting your ass kicked because you're going to use it and be better so that when the real fight happens,

Starting point is 00:11:06 when you're on the other field, as MacArthur said, you can bring your best, you can do your best, you can win. Hey, it's Ryan. Thank you for listening to The Daily Stoag podcast. I just wanted to say we so appreciate it. We love serving you. It's amazing to us that over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in the couple of years we've been doing it. It's an honor. Please spread the word, tell people about it. And this isn't to sell anything. I just wanted to say thank you. Look, ads are annoying. They are to be avoided, if at all possible. I understand as a content creator why they need to exist. That's why I don't begrudge them when they appear on the shows that I listen to. But again, as a person who has to pay a podcast producer and has to pay for equipment and for the studio and the building that the studio is in, it's a lot to keep something like The Daily Stoic going. So if you want to support

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The Daily Stoic - It’s Not Extraordinary | No Pain, No Gain

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