The Daily Stoic - The Decades Disappear Like Sinking Ships | Impulse Control

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

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Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. The decades disappear like sinking ships. You swear you were just in your 20s, and now here you are looking at an invite to your 20-year reunion. You remember those early months of the pandemic like it was yesterday, except it wasn't just yesterday. It was six. years ago. The 2020s are more than halfway done. The century is more than 25% of the way done. Your babies aren't babies anymore. You are not young. Albums and movies you remember coming out are now celebrating anniversaries. Athletes you remember being drafted are retiring after long careers. The Roman poet Virgil said, Tempice fuget, time flies. Whole blocks of your life go by like that, and you barely notice as it's happening.

Presidential administrations, winter Olympics to summer Olympics, births, graduations, weddings, funerals. This is happening and it's happening in one direction. You have to pay attention. Seneca reminds us that time will cause no commotion to remind you of its swiftness, but will glide on quietly. It will not lengthen itself for a king's command, or a pretextant. people's favor. Don't waste it. Don't miss it. Don't miss your opportunity to make the most of the moments that turn into months, that turn into years, that turn into decades, and disappear as soon as they

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What happened? Who caused it? Now think about your reaction. What did you say? What did you feel? Did this make it better or worse? Marcus Aurelius's emperor clearly had many people and causes to be upset. He also had real power and authority.

Even so, we find that he would tell himself, you have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this and you will find strength. So too with what has happened to you. You did not control what happened, but you do control which impulses you will follow in the wake of it. And this is this week's meditation in the daily stoic journal titled Impulse Control. I do hope you check out the journal.

It's a little journal I do every morning. We have three quotes here that go along with it. Epictetus says we must discover the missing art of assent and pay special attention to the sphere of our impulses, that they are subject to reservations to the common good and that they are in proportion to actual worth. It's Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, 1137. I just love that it Marks realis quoting Epictetus. You say good fortune used to meet you at every corner, but the fortunate person is the one who gives themselves a good fortune. and good fortunes are a well-tuned soul, good impulses, and good actions. That's Marcus Aurelius' Meditations 536.

Frame your thoughts like this. You're an old person. You won't let yourself be enslaved by this any longer, no longer pulled like a puppet by every impulse, and you'll stop complaining about your present fortune or dreading the future. To me, journaling is just such a great way to do this exercise. of impulse control. I usually do it in the morning, but you could do journaling at any time, but I think, what are you upset about? Why are you angry? What are you holding on to? What's the

thing inside you that you really want to say to that person? Say it on the page first. And Frank talks about how paper is more patient than people. Sometimes I find that the thing that I was writing down, I hadn't quite worked it out yet. And if I had said it the way I was thinking on the paper, it would not go well. Or I find that having said it once, I'm done. I don't need to mention this to anyone. It's probably better that I see it to myself. So to me, journaling is really a way to work out some of those urges. Just because you think something doesn't mean you need to say it. You need to develop this emotional impulse control, but that doesn't mean you just stuff it down and you don't deal with it. You've got to deal with it on the pages in the journal. That's the idea.

You let it out. It's a place to do some spiritual combat, but it's also a place for your ideas, your competing impulses, your competing opinions to battle themselves out, to fight for that limited space. So spend some time with your journalized therapy. That's what it's there for. And if you're not taking advantage of it, chances are you are just taking those feelings out on other people or you're taking them out on yourself. And that's not a good way to go through life. So use the journal as an instrument of impulse control. It's gotten me out of trouble time and time again. I can think of a moment when one of my books was coming out and I got sort of royally screwed over by a journalist. I wouldn't even say screwed over anymore. Let's just say someone did something to me that was quite unethical and quite petty and annoying.

And actually the prompts in the Daily Stoic Journal, it caught me. It was like three prompts in a row. I didn't rush into saying something. I was going to wait a few days. And at the end of the three days, at the end of the journaling, kept it to myself. And even now, I don't need to tell you the specifics. I've moved on. And it saved me some headache. Probably saved me creating an enemy for no reason.

And then I can move on. And I hope you can do the same. 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 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.