The Daily Stoic - Preparation Makes You Brave | Courage is Calling

Episode Date: February 18, 2024

On today’s weekend episode of the Daily Stoic podcast, Ryan reads a chapter from his book Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors The Brave. This excerpt comes from one of Ryan's favorite chapters Preparation Makes You Brave. This chapter is about practice, training, and doing the thing over and over again.Grab a signed copy of Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors The Brave ✉️ 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. Each weekday we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics, something to help you live up to those four Stoic virtues of courage, justice, temperance, and wisdom. And then here on the weekend we take a deeper dive into those same topics. We interview Stoic philosophers. We explore at length how these Stoic ideas can be applied to our actual lives and the challenging issues of our time. Here on the weekend, when you have a little bit more space, when things have slowed down, be sure to take some time to think, to go for a walk, to sit with your journal,

and most importantly, to prepare for what the week ahead may bring. Hey, it's Ryan. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic podcast. Here we are on a Sunday. I just landed. The whole family and I were in Lexington, Kentucky on Friday and Saturday.

We flew back this morning just in time for, I guess, it'll be a week delayed when you're listening to it. Just in time for Super Bowl. But I was there. I spoke to the Kentucky Wildcats football team and then had a dinner for the basketball team, so that was really cool. The coolest part is we were getting a tour of the Joe Craft Center, which is where the basketball teams, both men's and women's, train and practice the weight rooms, all that

sort of stuff. I'm walking through the hallway and one of the assistant coaches pulls me aside and says, hey, I want to show you something in my office. He's like, Coach Cowell makes me do this. He opens this big file cabinet. He pulls open the file cabinet. What's in there? Ego is the enemy. Then, Stacks of another awesome book that I was looking up to work on, Letters to a Young Athlete by Chris Bosch. He was like, Coach sends all the recruits in here or players who are having trouble. And he'll specifically say, give him this book from Ryan or this book from Chris. They had some of John Gordon's books in there.

A bunch of great books, actually. But anyways, it was really, really cool. Obviously, it was cool to talk to them, but then it was cool to be like, even when I'm not here, the books are having an impact. And I'll probably bring you that talk, actually, as a Sunday episode at some point in the future, maybe both of them. It was a really cool experience.

Thanks to the hospitality. We went to the game on Saturday, which was really cool. I'd never seen a game inside Rupp Arena either. So that was a real treat. My kids had a great time. And it was awesome, which leads me to today's episode. We're running one of my favorite chapters from one of my favorite books that I've written, Courage is Calling, which is about being brave.

It's about dealing with adversity, which is about this core stoic virtue, right? That's actually what I talked to the basketball team about. I did a little riff for about 20, 25 minutes on the four virtues. And I started with courage. And I was saying, courage isn't just running into battle. It's not just running into a burning building. It's not putting yourself in physical danger

in most cases, right? It's putting yourself out there. It's doing your best. It's dealing with the blows of fate rather than running away from them. And that's what we're going to talk about in this chapter. This chapter is called Preparation Makes You Brave. It's in part one of Courage Is Calling. And I think you're really going to like it. If you want a signed copy of Courage Is Calling, you can grab that at store.dailystoke.com or swing by The Payton Porch. You can grab it on

audiobook. Grab it as an e-book. You can grab it anywhere books are grab it as an e-book, you grab it anywhere books are sold. It's always lovely to sport independent bookstores, even if it's not mine. And I hope you like this chapter. It's about training, it's about practice, it's about doing the thing over and over again so you're not afraid when it happens. And I hope this little meditation or exploration of that theme will do some good for all of you as it did for me to think about it and work on it and practice it in my own life. 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 audiobooks on your daily walks. And stillness 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 well-being 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 well-being

journey, Audible is there for you. Are other people naturally braver than you, or are they just better prepared? Know how is a help opens the Army life handbook that the US Army brass handed each of its millions of soldiers in the Second World War. There is more mental comfort. It continues more personal satisfaction in knowing your place in part in this army than in any other single thing you can now do for yourself. Be selfish about it if you like.

Learn your job because knowing how to handle yourself will make you feel better. And knowledge of your duties and obligations, your rights and opportunities will one day make you more valuable to the army. That too will give you a personal satisfaction in the long run. Although fear can be explained away,

it's far more effective to replace it with what? Competence with training, with tasks, with a job that needs to be done. So it went with the Roman army when they were trapped in the Caudine forks in 321 BC. Barricaded in a narrow pass by felled trees piled with rocks on one end, and by armed men on the heights on the other end, the troops were hopelessly trapped. As the magnitude of their predicament sunk in, surrounded on all sides by insuperable obstacles and a dug-in enemy, they were numb with fear. Each man looked around at the next, assuming that he might know what to do. The generals, too, were lost in a stupor. How could this have happened? What could be done? How could they possibly survive?

Then one soldier, nameless, anonymous, lost a history made the first move towards setting up fortifications. Instinctually, without orders, the other men followed. Sure, it seemed utterly pointless to build a stockade given the desperate nature of their position, but doing something was better than nothing. They let their training take over, they found solace and strengthened it. It was mental comfort. It was something to occupy the time was their job.

The enemy watching this strange behavior began to jeer and taunt. The Romans themselves laughed at their own fruitless labor but continued. Indeed, in fortifying their positions, the Romans fortified themselves. The stupor they found themselves in soon lifted, and they resolved hardened. The enemy soon made terms with the Romans rather than risk attacking such a disciplined foe. Where can I get help hiring people with disabilities? There are hundreds of thousands of Canadians with disabilities who are ready to work. And many local organizations are available to help you find qualified candidates and

make your workplace more accessible and inclusive. Visit Canada.ca slash right here to connect with one near you today. A message from the government of Canada. Training is not just something that athletes and soldiers do. It is the key to overcoming fear in any and all situations. What we do not expect, what we have not practiced, has an advantage over us. What we have prepared for, what we have anticipated, we will be able to answer. As Epictetus says, the goal when we experience adversity

is to be able to say, this is what I've trained for, for this is my discipline. If you do not want to flinch when it comes, Seneca would say around the same time, train before it comes. What we are familiar with, we can manage. Danger can be mitigated by experience and good training. Fear leads to aversion, aversion to cowardice.

Repetition leads to confidence. Confidence leads to courage. The bully who must be confronted, the difficult press conference, the risky bet, the unpopular but ethical stand, being surrounded by enemies on all sides. These are the moments when our training must kick in because if it doesn't, fear will. Doubt will. Minding our own business, taking the easy road. That's what we'll instinctively do.

To borrow a famous phrase from Alan Iverson, we're talking about practice. Yes, we're talking about practice because it is the most important thing. With practice, you go through the actions in your mind. You build the muscle memory of what you do in this situation or that one. You learn how to fortify and you are fortified in the process. You run through the drills, you play your scales. You have someone ask you purposely tough questions. You get comfortable with discomfort. You train at your tee pace for deliberate intervals, raising your threshold as a runner.

You familiarize. You assemble your rifle with a blindfold on. You work out with a weight vest on. You do it a thousand times, and then a thousand times more while there is no pressure so that when there is you'll know exactly what to do Know how is a help, but it's preparation that makes you brave 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 with Wondery

Plus in Apple Podcasts. From Wondery, this is Black History For Real. I'm Francesca Ramsey. And I'm Consciously. What do most people think about when they hear the words Black History For Real. I'm Francesca Ramsey. And I'm Kahncez Lee. What do most people think about when they hear the words Black History? Rosa Parks, Reconstruction, MLK, February Black History, Mom. Exactly, exactly. There are so many stories of Black History that we just are not really talking about or thinking about,

especially outside of February. And we are about to flip the script on all of that. Because on this show, you're gonna hear a little less in August, 1492, Columbus, the ocean blue, and a little bit more. She is a heroine to some as a fighter for black rights. She is a villain to others. Follow Black History for Real on the Wondery app

or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen everywhere on February 5th, or you can early and ad-free on Wondery Plus starting January 29th. Join Wondery Plus on the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.