The Daily Stoic - The One Thing In Your Life You Can Control | The Obstacle Is The Way
Episode Date: June 30, 2025Our lives are unpredictable. We are at the mercy of so many forces. 📚 Books Mentioned:The Inner Citadel by Pierre HadotThe Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday📖 Preorder the final b...ook in Ryan Holiday's The Stoic Virtues Series: "Wisdom Takes Work": https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/wisdom-takes-work🎙️ Follow The Daily Stoic Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoicpodcast🎥 Watch top moments from The Daily Stoic Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dailystoicpodcast✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/📱 Follow 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.
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Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a stoic-inspired meditation
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The one thing in your life you can control.
Our lives are unpredictable.
We are at the mercy of so many forces.
The weather, the economy, your boss's mood, your teenager's mood.
Whether the contractor finishes the job in time.
Whether that idiot in front of you drives right.
People can mess up our day.
They can mess up our margins.
They can imperil our safety.
But it has always been thus.
Marcus Aurelius opens Book 2 of Meditations with a meditation on precisely this, preparing
himself in the morning for what he's likely to encounter.
He didn't control other people or external events, he understood, but he did control
whether he allowed them to change who he was, whether he allowed them to implicate him
in ugliness, as he put it.
He controlled, in short, how he allowed them to implicate him in ugliness, as he put it.
He controlled, in short, how he responded.
It's not much, but it's plenty.
And the paradox is that the more we control ourselves, the more we end up shaping the
world around us.
That's why when we focus on what's in our control, on what's up to us, we find that
it's more than enough.
Not only does it become a kind of hidden superpower,
but also a secret source of peace.
The Obstacle is the Way. This is the June 30th entry in the daily Stoic, of course, also referencing the title of
my first book on Stoicism. Let's say it into today's quote, because we have the fuller quote
here from Marcus Aurelius. This is, people don't know this quote that I derived the obstacles away
from comes from Meditations 520. Marcus Aurelius says, well, it's true that someone can impede our
actions. They can't impede our intentions and our attitudes, which have the power of being conditional And I will give you the Hayes translation as well, because I just love it. I actually think there's a really good translation for this.
And I will give you the Hayes translation as well, because I just love it.
And I will give you the Hayes translation as well, because I just love it.
And I will give you the Hayes translation as well, because I just love it.
And I will give you the Hayes translation as well, because I just love it.
And I will give you the Hayes translation as well, because I just love it.
And I will give you the Hayes translation as well,
because I just love it.
I actually think there's a really good translation.
I'm a big fan of Pierre Hedot and his book,
The Inner Citadel, which I carried the painted porch
we'll link to in today's episode.
But Hedot does his own translation of meditations,
which has not been published,
except for the excerpts in the book.
And there's a really good one inside the inner citadel, which you should read.
But here's Hayes' rendering of the same passage, Meditations 520.
In a sense, people are our proper occupation.
Our job is to do them good and to put up with them.
But when they obstruct our proper tasks, they become irrelevant to us,
like sun and wind and animals.
Our actions may be
impeded by them, but there can be no impeding our intentions or our dispositions, because we can
accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle
to our acting. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
I just love that passage.
I'll give you what I say in the daily stoic.
Today things will happen that will be contrary
to your plans.
If not today, then certainly tomorrow.
And as a result of these obstacles,
you will not be able to do what you planned.
That is not as bad as it seems
because your mind is infinitely elastic and adaptable.
You have the power to use the stoic exercise
of turning obstacles upside down,
which takes one negative circumstance
and uses it as an opportunity to practice
an unintended virtue or form of excellence.
Something prevents you from getting to your destination
on time, then this is a chance to practice patience.
If an employee makes an expensive mistake,
then this is a chance to teach a valuable lesson an employee makes an expensive mistake, then this is a chance to teach a valuable lesson.
If a computer glitch erases your work,
then it is a chance to start over with a clean slate.
If someone hurts you, it is a chance to practice forgiveness.
If something is hard, it is a chance to get stronger.
Try this line of thinking and see if there is a situation
in which one could not find some virtue to
practice or derive some benefit.
The truth is there isn't one.
Every impediment can advance action in some form or another.
I think a couple of things here.
I'm not saying that some terrible thing, awful, unfortunate, tragic event that happened is
just wonderful.
It's that the nature of that event presents within it opportunities to be great.
No one would choose this.
I have tried to focus on my family.
I have tried to focus on being more community minded.
Tried to focus on my stillness.
I've tried to focus on improving my work habits.
I've tried to focus on being present.
I've tried to adjust my news habits.
My marriage is better. I have improved in focus on being present. I've tried to adjust my news habits. My marriage is better, right?
I have improved in innumerable ways, the thing happened,
and it is a chance to step up, to grow, to change,
to practice different virtues, right?
That's what the obstacle is the way it means.
It's not that every negative thing is positive,
it's that there is a chance to practice positive traits
in response to the things that have happened.
But second, if you notice the full quote from Marcus
and the obstacles away,
I'm really talking about all forms of obstacles,
but Marcus is specifically talking about difficult people.
He's saying difficult people are a chance
to practice these virtues.
That when someone is frustrating or mean or stupid
or annoying or dishonest or cruel or aggressive,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
these are opportunities to call from yourself
positive virtues, patience, kindness, forgiveness,
creativity, et cetera.
You gotta use that situation.
So that's what the obstacle is the way means to me.
That's why I have it tattooed here on my left arm.
It's why we make the challenge coin.
By the way, I don't know if you know this,
but if you've liked the obstacles the way
you wanna give it as a gift,
we have a leather bound edition,
which you can check out in the Daily Stoic store
or you pick up the painted porch.
But the point is, this is the philosophy
with which I try to live my life.
Stuff happens.
How do we grow from it?
How do we improve from it? How do we improve from it?
How do we use it as an opportunity to be better?
Will it make you a better person or a worse one?
That's the part of it you decide.
That's what the obstacle is the way means.
That's what Marcus is saying. And as it happens, there's also a Zen expression.
The obstacle is the path.
The obstacle is the way.
The impediment to action advances action. what stands in the way becomes the way.
Don't forget it.
And of course, check out the leather bound at store.dailystorac.com.
And we have a really cool challenge coin you can carry with you too.
Actually, and if I remember correctly, the book comes with a challenge coin.
So you can get two for one there.
The book comes with a challenge coin, so you can get two for one there. 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.