The Daily Stoic - It's Time To Get Clean | Kentucky Wildcats Basketball

Episode Date: March 17, 2024

On this weekend episode of the Daily Stoic podcast, Ryan talks with Kentucky Wildcats Men's Basketball Team in which he focuses on the timeless wisdom of the four cardinal virtues—wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance—Holiday adeptly tailored his message to the elite world of collegiate basketball.-----------------------------Today is that day many dread—the day the clocks spring forward. Yes, in the middle of the night, you lost an hour that you’ll never get back. An hour of sleep, an hour of leisure, an hour to spend with your kids. You mourn that loss of time, wondering all the ways you could’ve spent it otherwise.Don’t fall into this trap and join us TODAY for the Spring Forward challenge. It starts March 19 and is set up to push you to examine your habits, your choices, and your relationships to move you closer to living your best life here and now.*A note on the audio for this episode: an issue with Ryan's live mic resulted in the discrepancy in audio quality that you hear. We apologize for the inconvenience.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Sundays, we take a deeper dive into these ancient topics with excerpts from the Stoic texts, audio books that we like here or recommend here at Daily Stoic, and other long form wisdom that you can chew on on this relaxing weekend. We hope this helps shape your understanding of this philosophy and most importantly, that you're able to apply it to your actual life.

Thank you for listening. actual life. Thank you for listening. It's time to get clean. Life is a dirty, dusty affair. It was that way in Rome and it's that way today. The puddle in the street splashes us. Someone else's nasty mood sullies our demeanor. The heat makes us sweat. The news of the world makes us worry. We spill some food. We spill out some frustration. We wake up in the morning fresh and ready to go. And by the end of the day, we are covered in dust, the dust of emotions of work, of stress of everything. Perhaps this year has been that way for you, beginning the new year with the best of intentions and then only to find the dust and dirt of life clinging to your thoughts, your moods and emotions weighing you down. Think about the ways this manifests in our physical lives.

We clean the house and then it gets dirty again. We take a load of stuff to charity, marvel at how much room there is in our closet or our garage, but soon enough it's full. We're accumulating, accumulating, accumulating. It's baggage, physical and emotion in our minds, in our houses, in our soul, and in our schedules. And that's what's lovely about the idea of spring cleaning. We're only a few months into the year and already we know we could use a reset

that we could wipe the slate clean of grime and detritus and start again. That's actually one of the themes in the Daily Stoic Spring Forward Challenge, by the way, this metaphor of cleaning. And it starts on Tuesday. I'd love for you to join us, dailystoic.com slash spring. It's around this question of how do we clean out

our literal closets, but also our figurative ones? We have a great day on getting rid of the secrets that make us sick. How do we get clean, not only from the dust of earthly life as the Romans did at the baths, but also get clean from bad habits and compulsions. The question, as always from the Stoics, is how much longer are you gonna wait to do this?

How much longer are you gonna let this stuff accumulate? How big are you gonna let the pile get? How many more excuses are you going to let this stuff accumulate? How big are you going to let the pile get? How many more excuses are you going to make? And the fact that it's not technically spring where you live is not an excuse either. That's the whole purpose behind what we're doing with the Daily Stoic Spring Forward Challenge. It's designed to prompt that ritual cleaning as the seasons turn. That's why it's starting on March 19th, the first day of spring, at least in the Western Hemisphere. It's to give you clear and immediate strategies to maintain that sense of clarity and purpose for the

whole year, all inspired by the Stoics. So you got to remember how long you've been putting this off, Mark Cirillis says. Remember how many extensions the gods have given you and the fact that you didn't use them. There's a limit to the time assigned to you he said. If you don't use it to free yourself to wash yourself clean it will be gone and never return. You could have the good life, the one you deserve right now he says. So what are you waiting for? I would love to have you join us in the Daily Stoke Spring Forward Challenge. I'm recording this just wrapping up a spring break trip with my kids where I tried to wipe the slate clean, tried to think about what I wanna do

going into this new season. It's gonna be crazy for me because I got the book launch and a bunch of other stuff. So I'm thinking about all the stuff that we built the challenge around and I would love to have you join us. Could sign up right now at dailystoic.com slash spring. I'll link to it in the show notes.

And then remember, if you're thinking about joining Daily Stoic Life, which has a bunch of awesome benefits, you'll get this challenge and all the other challenges for free. So I will see you there, dailystoic.com slash spring. Hey, it's Ryan. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic podcast. I had a cool experience a couple of weeks ago.

I told you the thing that happened on the way there, which is I hurt myself, but I white knuckled it, got on the plane, I flew to Kentucky. So after I talked to the football team, I went and talked to the basketball team. Since it's March Madness, I thought I'd bring you that episode.

I talked to the football team in this cool, in the athletic center there. And then I went over to Jeff Ruby's steakhouse where coach Cal had booked a room for the basketball team. And it's a hard slot talking to any sports team, but it's definitely harder when you are coming between them and their dinner, which I was. So I had to get in and get out and I sort of ripped up

my talk and very quickly gave a briefing on the four virtues. I was supposed to do these slides and this whole thing. And I just said, you know what? That's going to be too formal. I'm not going to keep their attention. They're not going to be interested. I'm just going to riff. I'm just going to riff on the four virtues. And I scribbled it down. And this is the talk that I gave. It's what I'm thinking about a lot these days because I'm obviously a little past halfway done on this virtue series. The Justice book is coming out soon. You can grab that at dailystoic.com. But the wisdom book is now underway. I'm writing that. So I wanted to riff really quickly on how the four virtues could apply to something like basketball at the elite level. These being some of the best basketball players in college

basketball, many of them on the verge of turning pro. I just wanted to give them some guidance that they could take with them as they played. And then also I wanted to get out of their way so they could eat dinner. Bringing you that episode now, enjoy. And I'll bring you the Q&A and a Thursday episode coming up here real shortly. And thanks to Coach Cal for bringing me out and the Kraft family who set it all up. Jane, my old podcast producer and assistant, made this happen. And I think you're really going to like the episode. If you want to focus more on your well-being this year, you should read more and you should give Audible a try.

Audible offers an incredible selection of audiobooks focused on wellness from physical, mental, spiritual, social, motivational, occupational, and financial. You can listen to Audible on your daily walks. You can listen to my audiobook books on your daily walks. And still, this is the key. I have a whole chapter on walking, on walking meditations, on getting outside. And it's one of the things I do when I'm walking.

Audible offers a wealth of wellbeing titles to help you get closer to your best life and the best you. Discover stories to inspire, sounds to soothe, and voices that can change your life. Wherever you are on your wellbeing journey, Audible is there for you. Explore bestsellers, new releases, and exclusive originals. Listen now on Audible. It's good to be here with all of you. I'll try not to step on your dinner too much. So I was going

to do some slides and stuff. I think it'd be better if we just talk for a couple of minutes and then you can answer questions or talk about whatever you want. But coach, you're right. The Stokes would say, the Stokes were on all ends of the spectrum. We have Epictetus who's a slave, and Marcus Aeolus was the emperor of Rome.

So you have powerlessness and you have extreme power. You have adversity and extreme success. And the Stoics would say that the greatest empire was command of oneself. No one is fit to rule who is not first master of themselves. So that's what Stoicism was, is philosophy of self-discipline, self-mastery, so that you can do whatever it is that you do better.

We tend to think of philosophy or philosophers is Abstract and theoretical right? It's maybe it's cool in a class. We've got a great professor about it But what how does this help me in what I do what? The idea is to be in charge of yourself in command of yourself To get the most out of yourself That's what stoicism is actually there for. And stoicism is built around four virtues. Those four virtues create what they would

call erite or excellence. And the virtues are pretty simple. And some of them might sound familiar to you because these cardinal virtues, as they're known in Western civilization, are also the cardinal virtues of Christianity. The virtues are courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom. And the idea for the Stokes is that everything we experience in life, big situations, little situations, moments of peak performance, and then also moments of difficulty or adversity, what they are

is an opportunity to practice excellence, to practice one or more likely all four of these virtues in some form or another. So that's what stoicism is. It's not this theoretical thing. It's an operating system. It's a guide to living that people have been using now for thousands of years, again, whether they're emperors or soldiers, statesmen, and even athletes. But what have been called the Olympic Games, 20 odd centuries ago. These people are practicing these ideas.

Gladiators are practicing them before they go literally into the arena. So I thought I would just maybe rip on these four virtues a little bit, and then you can ask me whatever questions you want. And I think you'll see how they connect to sports, but if you have questions, you can shout out or interrupt at any time.

But basically, that first virtue, it seems obvious, courage. We know what courage is. There is no society, no culture that worships the opposite of courage. Cowardice is a mortal sin. But courage isn't just physical. It's not just going out against someone who's

physically bigger than you. It's not just rushing into a burning building or into the line of fire. Courage is the decision to put yourself out there. Courage is the decision to take a risk, to say something that might be unpopular, to go for it, to try. The scariest thing in the world, especially when you're young, is to put it all out there.

Because if you don't succeed, you fail. You feel like it says something about you. My mentor is this guy named Robert Greene. He wrote this amazing book called The 48 Laws of Power. He talked about how when we were young, we had this kind of paradoxical attitude where we really want things, but we're also kind of maybe we half-assed it a little bit.

We're rebellious, but we're also lackadaisical, he says, because we're worried that if we put everything into what we're doing, it doesn't work out. What does that say? We don't want to feel the pain of being earnest in trying. So I want to expand the definition of courage, not just the ability to stare down danger, but to also put yourself in situations that are scary,

that are challenging, that make you vulnerable. There's a story about young Jimmy Carter before he became president. He was a young student at the US Naval Academy. And his dream, he wants to be an officer on nuclear submarines. So he's being interviewed by this guy named Admiral Rickovers, the head of the nuclear submarine program in the US Navy.

So he's going back and forth interviewing him, like for a job or maybe like an recruiting mission is going about how'd you do in your class, right? Jimmy Carter proudly tells him where he stands in his class at the Naval Academy. He's asking about his grades, he's asking about all this stuff. Then finally Rick Ober looks at him and he says, but did you always do your best? And Carter asked the thing about he wants to say, Yeah, of course, I did my best. I did got good grades. I, you know, I did well in my class. But he thinks about it, he decides to be honest, he goes, No, you know what, I didn't

always do my best. He's thinking about times they could have done more study, could have tried a little bit harder. And, you know, in PT, he could have could have asked more questions, right? Could have could have put himself up to things. Says, no, I didn't always do my best. And Rick overlooked him, like the big table like this. And he goes, why not? And he gets up and he leaves the room.

Courage, that decision to do your best, to try to put yourself out there and take those risks. That's one of the things that the stoics mean by courage. They don't just mean, you know, distinguishing yourself on the field of battle on the floor of the Coliseum, which of course the Stokes Coliseum did. So no, this is the next discipline or the next virtue, which would be this idea of discipline. Now, of course, I don't need to talk to you guys about physical discipline. You guys are in incredible shape. You've worked harder than

basically anyone in the world to get where you are. So maybe we need to, again, like courage, because there's a physical component. There's also the emotional, the mental component of discipline, right? Discipline is not just trying hard, working hard. Stokes do this, they say we treat the body rigorously so that it's not disobedient to the mind. You know, you're getting in that cold plunge, you don't want to, but you force yourself to anyway. You know, it's up early, you don't want to get up,

nicer under the covers, as Mark Shroer says in meditations, but you go, I wasn't put here to feel nice and sleep under the covers, I was put here to do something. We get up and we do it, right? You think you got nothing in the tank and you draw on something where you push yourself. That's of course discipline.

Listos would also talk about emotional discipline, mental discipline, like we said, being a master of oneself, controlling one's emotion. You wouldn't be here if you weren't deeply passionate about the game of basketball. Hello, I'm Hannah. And I'm Saruti. And we are the hosts of Red Handed, a weekly true crime podcast. Every week on Red Handed, we get stuck into the most talked about cases. From Idaho student killings, the Delphi murders and our recent rundown of the Murdoch Saga.

Last year, we also started a second weekly show, Shorthand, which is just an excuse for us to talk about anything we find interesting because it's our show and we can do what we like. We've covered the death of Princess Diana, an unholy Quran written in Saddam Hussein's blood, the gruesome history of European witch hunting, and the very uncomfortable phenomenon of genetic sexual attraction. Whatever the case, we want to know what pushes people to the extremes of human behavior. Like can someone give consent to be cannibalized?

What drives a child to kill? And what's the psychology of a terrorist? Listen to Red Handed wherever you get your podcasts and access our bonus short hand episodes exclusively on Amazon Music or by subscribing to Wondry Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondry app. Can you control that passion in heated moments, in moments where so much is on the line? Where you've just been treated unfairly, you've just gotten screwed over, you just got a bad call. Discipline isn't just, I push myself harder than anyone. Discipline is I am in command and control of myself.

The expressions from the Syllix is to look at everything in the calm, light, mild philosophy. The idea of being calm and cool under pressure, that's discipline too. It's not just the strongest guy, but it's the guy who can't be rattled, who shit talking doesn't get in his head, who doesn't respond to insults or provocations, who doesn't get rattled by the fans or booing or the critics on Twitter or whatever it is, right? The person who is in command of themselves, that's the kind of discipline that we're talking about that we have to cultivate.

You can imagine, Mark Shrevely is the emperor of Rome. There would have been millions of people who didn't like him, who booed him, who jeered him, and he had to figure out a way to tune out what he needed to tune out in and focus on what he needed to focus. And so we cultivate this discipline, right? We're in command of ourselves. It's not that the stoics were emotionless, but they did try to be less emotional, right?

They tried to be the even keel. The metaphor Mark Sears uses in meditation says to be like the rock, wave, crash over and eventually the sea falls still around. That's what you want to be like the rock, wave crash over and eventually the sea falls still around. That's what you wanna be, right? That you want everything to settle. That's what you do on the free throw line. You take a breath, you let everything settle down. That's what you do on a timeout.

And there's 20 seconds left and you're calming down and getting to a place of what's called ataraxia or freedom of disturbances. This is what great athletes, great coaches do. Even though they are rah rah, they're excited, they're into it, they have to command themselves. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was once asked to describe John Woodman in one word.

What word do you think he used? Right? It's not passion. You think it'd be passionate, but he said dispassionate. Meaning he wasn't ruled by his passion. Of course he cares about winning. Of course he cares about the game. course, he cares about the game. Of course, he cares about so many things in life.

But when it came to standing on the sideline and doing the thing that he needed to do, he understood that that even keel being in command of himself was the important thing. That's what we're talking about when we talk about the discipline. And the next one would be justice. Justice isn't just what happens in the law courts.

It's not just what happens when you're arrested or when you have to hire a lawyer. It's something I think about our society, that when we hear that word justice, unfortunately, that's what we think about. We think about whether something is legal or not, whether something's allowed or not. Of course, actually, justice is not a noun. It's a verb. Justice is something we

do. It's how we live. It's the standards we hold ourselves to. It's the actions we take day to day. So I don't know, decision like whether show up on time or be late, right? That doesn't seem like a matter of justice, but it is because when you're late, you're making other people wait for you and you're saying my time is more important than your time and I don't really care about you. I don't care about the consequences that my decision has on other people or the decision to make a commitment. You tell someone you're going to do something. Can they take that to the bank or not, literally

or figuratively, right? Are you a man or woman of your word? These are the kinds of things the Stokes are talking about when they talk about justice. Of course, they're also politicians. They are also our lawyers. They are involved in the bigger picture stuff. But justice is who we are.

The standards we hold ourselves to, the sort of North Star that we have, the integrity that we live with or don't. And of course, there are plenty of people who don't have good moral compasses, who don't do what they're supposed to, or only limit themselves to whether something is legal or not allowed or not, whether they can get away with it

or not. But the Stokes would say this person isn't really getting away with anything, because in the end, they suffer. That's the kind of person they are. And so the Stokes was about cultivating the decision to be a person of rectitude, a man or woman of honor, of integrity.

And then when you have that, when you have a sense of right and wrong, fairness matters to you, decency matters to you, kindness matters to you, that encourages you to look out at the world around you and see, where can I make a difference? Where can I make positive contributions? How can I use the platform that I have? And all of you now have platforms. How can I use that platform responsibly to? And all of you now have platforms. How can I use that platform responsibly

to help other people, to lift other people up? How can I pay forward all the things that were done to me, all the people that gave me breaks, that opened doors for me? How can I pay that forward? That's what the virtue of justice is about. So the final virtue is the one I think is the one we have to commit

to the most over the course of our lives, which is the virtue of wisdom, right? The pursuit of knowledge, truth, study, and understanding. All of you are student athletes, right? But the emphasis should be on the first part in the sense that you're students, not just literally in a university for however long you're here, but you're also students of athletics, you're students, not just literally in a university for however long you're here, but you're also students of athletics. You're students of the game. You're studying what you do. However long you do this for, the decision

to commit to being a student is the most important decision you can make. Socrates in the ancient world is considered the wisest man on earth. Why is he considered wise? It's because he knows what he doesn't know. He's aware of his own ignorance.

That's the idea. And this, starting from a place of humility rather than from a place of ego, is what we're talking about. The idea to focus on where you can get better, not on how great you already are. Epictetus says this great quote. He says, remember, it's impossible to learn that which you think you already know.

So if you think you're the greatest basketball player on Earth, you are the greatest basketball player that you are capable of being on this Earth. But if you know you can get better, and you focus on all the things you know you can do better, that is also self-executing. That is also self-fulfilling. This is why scientists, why philosophers,

they focus on all the questions they have, all the things that they don't know about, that they want to get better at. And this is why we read. We read because reading opens us up to worlds and experiences that we can benefit from, right? It's a great line about how any fool can learn by experience. I prefer to learn by the experiences of others, right?

I prefer to learn what I don't know from other people. but I don't know from other people. Get into the private community. There's gonna be a live Q and A with me and get all those challenges delivered every single day. Dailystoic.com slash spring. Or if you join Daily Stoic Life, you'll get this challenge and all our challenges for free. I'll see you there. Hey Prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic early and ad free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Or you can listen early and ad free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today.

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