The Daily Stoic - Take This Seriously | Ask Daily Stoic

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. camp, Admiral James Stockdale was thinking about taking his study of Stoicism, the philosophy he credited with helping him survive those horrific years, even more seriously. He wasn't exactly sure what

Starting point is 00:01:12 that might look like in practice, though. We write more about it, read more about it, apply practices like the dichotomy of control more? Again, he wasn't exactly sure. At a conference not long after he returned home, Stockdale met the great philosopher Will Durant and brought up his interest in stoicism. Durant wasn't much help as far as clarifying what the next step might be, but he shared Stockdale's interest and pointed him to a passage in his book, Life of Greece. Stoicism was a noble philosophy, it said, and proved more practical than a modern cynic would expect. It brought together all the elements of Greek thought, and though it naturally won only a small minority to its standards, those few were everywhere the best. Like its Christian counterparts,

Starting point is 00:01:55 Calvinism and Puritanism, it produced the strongest characters of its time. Theoretically, it was a monstrous doctrine of an isolated and pitiless perfectionism. Actually, it created men of courage and saintliness and goodwill, like Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Cato the Younger. That's what Stoicism has done throughout history. It has made people the best they could be. It's produced some of the strongest characters of all time. certainly that's what it had already done for Stockdale, and yet there he was, like Marcus Aurelius,

Starting point is 00:02:29 who's famously seen heading off to philosophy lectures even as an old man, remaining a student and still getting better as he went. And that's what it can do for you if you take it seriously. But maybe you, like me, like Stockdale, are always wondering about what that next step is, how to continue your studies of this philosophy. Well, that's why we created our course Stoicism 101, ancient philosophy for your actual life to help you do exactly that. It's the best practices and routines of stoicism delivered in 14 custom emails delivered daily. That's 20,000 words of exclusive content. You learn what a stoic does, what a stoic doesn't do, the stoic secrets to success, the stoic secrets to resilience, the stoic secrets to productivity, the stoic

Starting point is 00:03:16 secrets to virtue, and what sets stoicism apart from other philosophies and how to live your best life. For less than the tuition even of one intro to philosophy class at a community college, here you'll learn all you need to know about stoicism, and you'll learn it from yours truly. How much progress shall I make? This is Seneca's question. He said, just as much as you try to make. He says, don't wait. Wisdom comes haphazard to no man. But this course is beginning on November 10th, which is right here around the corner, and we'd love to have you join us together. and you can sign up right now at dailystoic.com slash 101. And remember, Daily Stoke Life members get this course

Starting point is 00:03:54 and all our Daily Stoke courses for free. The holidays are coming up that can take a lot out of you. You've got family, you've got travel, maybe you're not eating right, you're rushing to finish stuff for the end of the year. Maybe you're not noticing stuff that's happening in your body, markers or signs or indicators that something's wrong, need to be doing something differently, you need to be sleeping more, you need to get this checked

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Starting point is 00:06:45 indeed.com slash daily stoic. Just go to indeed.com slash daily stoic right now to support the show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash daily stoic terms and conditions apply. If you're hiring, do it the right way with Indeed. Hey, it's Ryan. Welcome to another Thursday episode of the Daily Stoke podcast. Back in September, I got to give a talk here in Austin. It was a lovely morning, got up, took my kids to school, I went for a long run, around town lake, went swimming in Barton Springs,

Starting point is 00:07:20 and then I went to the office and worked for a bit, and then I got to go give a talk here in my adopted hometown. You know, usually I'm in and out of the venues because I'm on the road, but this time it was local. We got to, you know, invite all the employees out, a bunch of our friends came. It was lovely. and I actually got to meet, like, you guys, right?

Starting point is 00:07:41 Most of the talks that I do are not available to the public. They're companies or corporations or nonprofits. Like, you can't just buy a ticket and come. But this one in Austin I did was, so that was really cool. I answered questions after. And I'm going to be doing that again in basically a month. On December 3rd, I'm going to be in Seattle. So you can come to that.

Starting point is 00:08:03 In February, I'm going to be in San Diego and Phoenix. You can grab tickets to any and all of those at DailyStoiclive.com. Thanks to everyone who came out to the talk in Austin and asked these questions. I can't wait to see you in Seattle, San Diego, and Phoenix, daily stoiclive.com. From one parent to another, a parent trying to teach his kids these virtues. Sure. Can you talk to me a little bit about how you try to give them this one? wisdom. When I start to talk about Marcus Aurelius, my girls lose me in about five seconds.

Starting point is 00:08:42 Do you think my kids are interested in it? Because they're not at all. Actually, often, you know, when they're like watching on their iPad or whatever, if we want to threaten them, we go, I'm going to turn on one of my videos. And that's the only thing you can watch. So, look, I don't think kids are ever interested in things their parents are interested, especially if the parents think that thing is educational. But I do try to find when there's the little slivers of interest and then I want to put as much energy behind that as possible. You know, obviously I've been talking to my son about the Romans and Marksurelius and Seneca and Epictetus and he was not interested at all. And then one day he became obsessed with Greek history, which is not exactly what I'm interested in, but it's in the ballpark and I'll take it, you know?

Starting point is 00:09:29 And he became obsessed with this podcast called Greaking Out, which we had to listen to an ungodly amount of times. had to go to Greece to see all the places, and then we had to read all these things. And it's like, it's on one level exhausting and on the other totally exhilarating and amazing. And you got to take the opportunities when they're there. So I try to find the little spark of interest. And you see if you can get that going.

Starting point is 00:09:56 And one out of 10 times, you find something that really gets going. Right when you start to figure out dinosaurs, they're like, I don't care about dinosaurs anymore. And then, you know, that's kind of part of it, too. And just like, I just try to love this period that we're in where we're excited about this thing. And then I also try to do my best as excruciating as it is to be, you know, interested in Mr. Beast and stuff like that. Adding to the countries that are here tonight, I come from Iceland.

Starting point is 00:10:29 Wow. So I would have to say I'm an Austinite now at this point. My question is very simple. I've been reading your books for a number of years now and they've helped me through difficult periods. But as you mentioned to one of my fellow audience here that, yes, we tend to be lone wolves. Yes.

Starting point is 00:10:49 Do you see yourself running like workshops in the future because I feel like that's one of the things that I would really appreciate? This is an independent work for me. Yeah. But if I get into the right community, is that something you would maybe establish in our area? I haven't thought too much about it. I like the idea.

Starting point is 00:11:13 I mean, what I love to do is write. I love to write books. That's my main thing. That's what lights me up. And one of the hard, weird parts about succeeding as a writer is people want you to do a lot of things that are not writing. Like this, this is the opposite of writing. No one becomes a writer because they want to talk to large groups of people. people in person. It's like you became a writer because the thought of that is mortifying.

Starting point is 00:11:39 So I've got a lot of my plate and I'm mostly trying to protect that. And I know my next couple books that I'm in the middle of. But maybe someday, I obviously I love talking about this, as you can tell, and maybe smaller groups would be slightly less intimidating. I'm Jess. And I was really glad that you brought up John Mackie in conscious capitalism earlier because I've been into libertarianism for a really long time. And lately, I've gotten interested in self-governance. I was wondering how communities can utilize Stoic ideas. Yeah, that's probably beyond my pay grade, to be perfectly honest.

Starting point is 00:12:20 But obviously, the Stoics were obsessed with and fascinated with the idea of governance. We know Zeno writes a book called Zeno's Republic. which is unfortunately lost, although as they excavate Pompeii, they're finding more and more of these tightly rolled papyri that they're able to scan, and AI can slowly see what they say. So who knows? Maybe this will come out at one point in all the Stoic writings on what a government should look like

Starting point is 00:12:47 and how it should work will survive. But yeah, I think obviously the idea of personal liberty is essential to the Stoics. There's a passage in meditations where Marcus talks about what he looks, learned from his fellow Stoics, and he says, let me find it here, because I love it. He says, he says, I learned from my brother Severus to love my family, truth, and justice, and he says it was through him that I encountered Thrasia, Helvidius, who we talked about, Cato who we talked about, Dion and Brutus, and conceived of a society of equal laws

Starting point is 00:13:21 governed by equality of status and of speech, and of rulers who respect the liberty of their subjects above all else. Now, again, a bit rich to hear from the emperor of Rome, an enormous exploitative colonial hegemon, but it's like, you know, hearing about how all men are created equal from Thomas Jefferson. The idea is good, and then we have to make that promise real, and that's obviously the project we're all engaged in, either on a local level or a national level. I was wondering if you teach younger students, because I would love to learn more about stoicism and wisdom. Oh, that's very nice. I don't teach any students, but...

Starting point is 00:14:02 Like, do you have any clubs or anything like that? Well, and especially now that I'm not allowed back at the Naval Academy, I teach even fewer students. No, I mostly try to write my books, and then I try, like, I don't watch a lot of YouTube videos, I definitely don't go on TikTok, but the reason we make content in all these different mediums is that I want to meet people where they are. I'm trying to translate my work in as many mediums as possible. And then I, in turn, learn by being in that medium. And, of course, I am trying to teach my two kids, however uninterested they currently are in the Stoics. But you sound like you're already ahead of the curve and doing great.

Starting point is 00:14:46 So thank you for your question. I know you do hard things, and you were in Athens in Delphi a few some time ago. Yes. I plan to be there in November. Are you going to do the marathon? I am. Oh, it's going to be fun. I know. Well, I saw you run it. I did. And I wanted to get some pointers from you. What, how do I survive the trip for marathon to Athens? Don't do it by yourself in the middle of July.

Starting point is 00:15:13 That's my first tip. I should have started earlier because I definitely got heat stroke and I threw up all over the Olympic Stadium when I arrived. obviously discipline and sort of fortune and strength and commitment that's part of it I did not really think at all about nutrition or caloric intake I was just like I can do this and I did do it it was just much more painful than it needed to be so it's a all concrete up and down course it's has almost a thousand feet of elevation climb it's pretty industrial the whole like you see the ocean for a little bit but then you're like under freeway underpasses and it's like not obviously not what the Greeks did. On my birthday I did 20 and I had some gas in the tank when I finished and when I'm looking at my time I'd come out a little slower than I

Starting point is 00:16:08 needed to and I think I overcorrected in the marathon and I came out a little too fast. I think I was like like in the low sixes for my first three or four miles which is not sustainable. Discipline is not just doing more and more, I guess is what I'm saying. It's also about holding back and restraining and, you know, being by myself, I had trouble pacing a little bit. And so that's what I, that's what I learned. Also, you have to wear a shirt to enter the stadium. I found that out. I had to go find out wherever I'd put my shirt. And so that, that sent me back a little bit too. But good luck. It's, it's a beautiful thing. you for listening to the Daily Stoak podcast. I just wanted to say we so appreciate it.

Starting point is 00:16:56 We love serving you. It's amazing to us that over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in the couple 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. 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.

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The Daily Stoic - Take This Seriously | Ask Daily Stoic

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