The Daily Stoic - Notice The Reminders | Always Ask Yourself This Question

Episode Date: August 16, 2021

“Everytime you cut your hair. Every time you trim your nails. Every time you have to replace an old shirt or a worn out pair of running shoes, take note. Take note of what they symbolize.��Ryan explains why you should embrace the reality of your mortality, and reads this week’s meditation from The Daily Stoic Journal, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.Blinkist is the app that gets you fifteen-minute summaries of the best nonfiction books out there. Blinkist lets you get the topline information and the most important points from the most important nonfiction books out there, whether it’s Ryan’s own The Daily Stoic, Yuval Harari’s Sapiens, and more. Go to blinkist.com/stoic, try it free for 7 days, and save 25% off your new subscription, too.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee 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 Stoic podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast. Each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics illustrative 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 stoic intention for the week, something to meditate on, something to think on, something to leave you with, to journal about, whatever it is you're happy to be doing. So let's get into it. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wundery'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. Every time you cut your hair, every time you trim your nails, every time you have to replace an old shirt or a worn out pair of running shoes, take note. Take note of what this symbolizes. Because in those clippings, in that thinning hairline, in that worn out pair of jeans is a message. Time is passing. Life has gone by. Senaqa reminds us that every second that has passed belongs to death. We are dying every day. He says, we are dying one haircut, one t-shirt at a time.

There are larger reminders, two ones that sneak up on us. Is your car getting up there in miles? Do you have to replace your air conditioner? The one you purchased new with a 15-year warranty that just expired. Are the athletes you remember from Draft Day now up for the Hall of Fame? Sennaka tells the story of coming upon some old and dying trees at his country estate, only to suddenly realize he had planted them himself. Life sneaks up on us in this way, and in in that way so to does death. Which is why we

practice memento mori. It's not morbid, it's helpful. What's morbid is dying having wasted your brief time on this planet. We meditate on our mortality so we can use this incredible asset we have been given. So we take nothing for granted. So we are present. So we can fully enjoy the moment we walk in those shoes. So we can grow while our hair is growing. So we can appreciate even the mundane task of trimming our nails. Let this be a reminder.

Always ask yourself this question. Much of what we do and say during the course of a week Always ask yourself this question. Much of what we do and say during the course of a week is completely unnecessary. Meetings, material possessions, confrontations, pursuits, pointless distractions and problems. They take us away from tranquility and purpose. And a stowed cuts through these temptations and obligations by asking the simple question, a question that should lead you in your journal and in thinking this week. It is this, before speaking and acting or buying something, just ask, is this a necessary

thing? This is from today's entry in the Daily Stoic, journal 366 days of writing and reflection on the art of living by yours truly Ryan Holiday, you can get it anywhere, books or sold, I do it every single morning, including this morning, and you can also buy a signed copy in the Daily Stalk Store. But, today's quotes, we have one long quote from Mark's Reelies and one short one from Seneca. Mark's Reelies says, it is said that if you want to have peace of mind, busy yourself with little, wouldn't a better saying be do what you must and as required of a rational being created for public life?

For this brings not only the peace of mind of doing few things, but the greater peace of doing them well. Since the vast majority of our words and actions are unnecessary, corralling them will create an abundance of leisure and tranquility. As a result, we shouldn't forget, at each moment to ask, is this one of the unnecessary things? But we must corral not only unnecessary actions, but unnecessary thoughts too. So needless acts don't tag along after them.

That's our translation from the Daily Stoke, and the Daily Stoke Journal. Let me give you Gregory Hayes, which I also really like. He says, if you seek tranquility, do less, or more accurately, do what is essential, what the logos of a social being requires, and in the requisite way, which brings a double satisfaction to do less better. Because most of what we do and say, and it's not essential, if you can eliminate this, you'll have more time and more tranquility. Ask yourself at every moment, is this necessary? But we need to eliminate unnecessary assumptions as well to

eliminate the unnecessary actions that follow. And then our second quote from Seneca is, I was shipwrecked before I even boarded. The journey showed me this, but how much of what we have is unnecessary? And how easily we can decide to rid ourselves of these things whenever it's necessary and that's never suffering the loss. That's moral letters 87.1. So to me, the pandemic has been a masterful teacher

in this regard. How much of the things we thought were unchangeable parts of the job, fixed obligations due to this profession or school or whatever it was, that the pandemic said, nope, all of it's flexible. Most of it doesn't need to be done at all, and most of the way that it is done can be done differently. I feel like it's been this massive shared lifestyle experiment, and I found that so much of what I was doing was one of the unnecessary things,

so much of what I was doing and saying and thinking and being a part of, was not one of the essential things. So you really need to stop and ask yourself this question, is what I'm doing necessary? Why am I doing? Is it just the way people have always done it? I mean, even now, as I'm getting ready to gear up for the book launch of Courage is calling. Having just been through a virtual book launch last year for Liza the Stoics, I know I don't have to travel to a bunch of cities. I know I don't have to do most of these podcasts. I don't have to do most of the stuff. It doesn't actually move the needle. I was just doing it because that's what you thought you have to do most of these podcasts. I don't have to do most of the stuff. It doesn't actually move the needle. I was just doing it because that's what you thought

you had to do and to not do it seems scary. And because everyone else was doing it, it seemed reckless not to do it. All the reasons we do things. But again, most of what we do and say and think is not necessary. It's not even particularly effective or well thought out. And so to question, this is really important.

And it's not just like, oh, you're privileged. You don't, you have a choice. That's why you're not doing it. It's actually not about privilege at all. In fact, it's the privileged people who can afford to do more unnecessary things, more pointless things, right? It's actually, at this point in my career, I had the luxury of taking a lot of time off to let's say do press for a book.

It was actually earlier in my career that the costs of agreeing to this point and stuff were much higher, but I wasn't aware of it. I wasn't fully understanding of the opportunity costs. How much this was taking me away from writing, how much this was taking me away from relationships, how much this was just taking me away from recovering and refreshing. So I could go back to my work from a fresher point of view. And this is what I wanted to leave you with today. Take a minute, stop, ask yourself,

is what I'm doing necessary? How much of what I'm doing is unnecessary? And how can I eliminate some of that stuff? So I can do the essential things better, right? I'm doing less, but I'm doing all my stuff better now. And that's part of the new normal that I'm trying to protect coming out of the pandemic and I hope that's true for you as well. I don't know if you can hear that, but I'm spinning. I'm a Memento Mori coin on my desk here, which I carry in my pocket everywhere.

This is a Memento Mori on the front and it's got a picture of a skull, an hourglass and a flower. Life, death, time, the relationship between these three things. Then on the back, it has a quote from Marcus Aureli that says, you could leave life right now. And the other side of that quote is,

let it determine what you do and say and think. The exercise of MementoMori is supposed to center you. It's supposed to make you focus. It's supposed to make you focus on what's important. And that's what MementoMori is about. We support Daily Stoic a little bit here by by some of the MementoMori products we sell in the store. The ideas to have a physical tangible reminder. I realize it's not for everyone, but I carry this with me. I touch it. I just go, I'm not going to go to bed angry about reminder. I realize it's not for everyone, but I carry this with me. I touch it. I just go, I'm not going to go to bed angry about this. I'm not going to brood on that. I'm not going to waste time with this. I'm going to say no to that. The practice has been super important to me.

I think it'll be important to you. You can check it out. Go to store.dailystoic.com. And then you can hear it spinning there. And as it's spinning, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, so it's time. Be well. Hey Prime Members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke early and ad free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts. Ah, the Bahamas.

What if you could live in a penthouse above the crystal clear ocean working during the day and partying at night with your best friends and have it be 100% paid for? FTX Founder Sam Bankman Freed lived that dream life, but it was all funded with other people's money, but he allegedly stole. Many thought Sam Bankman Fried was changing the game as he graced the pages of Forbes and Vanity Fair. Some involved in crypto saw him as a breath of fresh air, from the usual Wall Street buffs with his casual dress and ability to play League of Legends during boardroom meetings. But in less than a year, his exchange would collapse, and SPF would find himself in a jail cell,

with tens of thousands of investors blaming him for their crypto losses. From Bloomberg and Wondering comes Spellcaster, a new six-part docu-series about the meteoric rise and spectacular fall of FTX, and its founder, Sam Beckman-Freed. Follow Spellcaster wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to episodes Add Free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. spellcaster wherever you get your podcast.

Hey, Prime members, you can listen to episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.