The Daily Stoic - These Are The Burdens Of Planet Earth | Things Happen In Training

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

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Hello, I'm Emily, one of the hosts of Terribly Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. Some of them hit the big time overnight, some had to plug away for years, but in our latest series we're talking about a man who was world famous before he was even born. A life of extreme privilege that was mapped out from the start, but left him struggling to find his true purpose. A man who, compared to his big brother, felt a bit, you know, spare. Yes, it's Prince Harry. You might think you know everything about him, but trust me, there's even more.

We follow Harry and the obsessive, all-consuming relationship of his life, not with Meghan, but the British tabloid press. Hounded and harassed, Harry is taking on an institution almost every bit as powerful as his own royal family. Follow Terribly Famous wherever you listen to podcasts, or listen early and ad free on Wandery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wandery app. I'm Afua Hirsch. I'm Peter Frankopan. podcasts or the Wander We App. I'm Afua Hirsch. I'm Peter Frankopan. And in our podcast, Legacy, we explore the lives

of some of the biggest characters in history. This season, we delve into the life of Alan Turing. Why are we talking about Alan Turing, Peter? Alan Turing is the father of computer science. And some of those questions we're thinking about today around artificial intelligence, Turing is the father of computer science and some of those questions we're thinking about today around artificial intelligence. Turing was so involved in setting and framing what some of those questions were, but he's also interesting for lots of other reasons, Afro. He had such a fascinating life. He was unapologetically gay at a time when that was completely criminalised

and stigmatised. And from his imagination, he created ideas that have formed the very physical, practical foundation of all of the technology on which our lives depend. And on top of that he's responsible for being part of a team that saved millions, maybe even tens of millions of lives because of his work during the Second World War using maths and computer science to code break. So join us on Legacy wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast. On Friday, we do double duty,

not just reading our daily meditation, but also reading a passage from the Daily Stoic, my book, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance in the Art of Living, which I wrote with my wonderful collaborator, translator, and literary agent, Stephen Hanselman. So today, we'll give you a quick meditation from the Stoics with some analysis from me,

and then we'll send you out into the world to turn these words into works. These are the burdens of planet earth. It's not the most wonderful thing to learn, but life has always sort of been this way. Marcus Aurelius opens meditations with a list of how obnoxious people can be, that they can be dishonest and jealous and surly and ungrateful and arrogant. He says later in the book that future people, the ones we hope to be remembered or admired by will also be annoying and ever the same.

He wasn't wrong. This is what humans are. This is what life is like. In their song, Pardon Me, the band Incubus sings about the burdens of planet earth, singing of gravity, hypocrisy, and the perils of being in 3D. That was life for Marcus Aurelius, and it's life for all of us here in the present.

It's always been this way, and it always will be. Things are not easy. Things are not simple. Gravity holds us down, dashes us against the rocks. We have to accept that. We also have to see it as a gift. Without gravity, we'd float off into space. The obnoxious people that Marcus returns to again and again in meditations, that's also who he's talking about in his famous passage on how the obstacle can be the way. Their hypocrisy, their hypocrisy, their annoyance is an opportunity

for us to practice virtue. The perils of being in 3D is a chance for courage, for honor, for poise and dignity. Embrace your burden. Bear it well. Things happen in training. This is the April 26th entry in the Daily Stoic. I'm holding the hardcover here. Today's quote is from Marcus Aurelius 620. When your sparring partner scratches or headbutts you, you don't make a show of it. You don't protest or view him with suspicion or his plotting against you. And yet you keep an eye on him, not as an enemy or with suspicion, but with a healthy avoidance.

You should act this way in all things in life. We should give a pass to many things with our fellow trainees, for as I've said, it's possible to avoid without suspicion or hate." By seeing each, actually you know what, before I get into today's quote, it's funny. I obviously read this quote when I first read Meditations. I liked it. It stuck with me. That's why I included it in the Daily Stoke.

But it really stuck with me more when I found out it was one of Robert Green's favorite quotes. And when I interviewed him, he was out in Texas. This was a couple years ago now. I asked him why that was his favorite quote. I want to play that for you real fast because it's really good. Marcus Aurelius has this great quote about when you enter a boxing ring, people start punching you in the face. You don't want to complain, say, why are you doing that? That's not fair, blah, blah, blah.

That's part of the boxing ring, part of being in the power game. It's people exploiting your labor and it's how you respond. It's not by whining, complaining, getting bitter inside, it's by realizing that this is how it's played. How can I exploit the situation for my own good? How can I use this in the future

and make it a positive experience? And you know what, he's totally right. And it fits in with the reality of how you're supposed to use the 48 Laws of Power. It's not supposed to make you this maniacal evil genius. It's supposed to realize that people do things and that we're supposed to train ourselves against them. We're supposed to not be surprised by these things.

We're not necessarily supposed to use them ourselves, but we're supposed to understand that when you're in the boxing ring, sometimes you're going to get hit and sometimes you're going to get scratched and sometimes you're going to be in the ring with a dirty boxer. And I think, and this is what I tried to write in the Daily Stoke, by seeing each day and each situation as a kind of training exercise, the stakes suddenly become a lot lower. The way you interpret your own mistakes and the mistakes of others is suddenly a lot more generous. It's certainly a lot more resilient attitude than going own mistakes and the mistakes of others is suddenly a lot more generous. It's certainly a lot more resilient attitude than going around acting like the stakes of every encounter put the championship on the line.

When you catch an elbow or an unfair blow today, shake off the pain and remind yourself, I'm learning. My sparring partner is learning too. This is practice for both of us. That's all. I know a little bit more about him or her and from my reaction, they're going to learn a little bit more about me too." I had to talk about this very idea with my son Clark. He's been doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu now for a couple of years, and he got tossed up against a wall by a kid who wasn't very, who was a little more experienced than him, but not super great.

What you tend to find in the martial arts is actually the people you need to be most worried about, most on guard about, or not the super talented people, but it's the semi-knowledgeable people who are insecure. This kid was a little bit older, kind of messing around trying to manhandle him. Anyways, my son got thrown and hit the wall and ended up breaking his elbow. And obviously that didn't feel good and

required the doctor and getting x-rays and missing a bunch of time. But the important thing was that he got back out there a couple of months later, which he did. And I remember his, sorry, he didn't break his elbow, he broke his wrist. I don't know why I said that. I've broken my elbow, he broke his wrist. But what I really liked is his coach, Alex, took him aside after that first day back. And he said, look, I know how much that hurt you

when that happened. And I also watched in a similar practice, Alex take aside those kids who were messing around and not taking it seriously and said, hey, you have a responsibility and obligation when you're in a class with younger, less experienced people, people who are smaller than you. You can't mess around, you have to take it seriously.

Their safety is in your hands. So that was great too. But he said to my son, he said, look, like what I'm most impressed by is that you came back. You could have used this as an excuse to not come back. And that would have been perfectly understandable and reasonable. Came back and you're here and you're not afraid.

Or you are afraid and you're still doing it. And he's like, I really respect and admire that. And I really respected and admired that. Cause I think that's a big thing for a six, seven year old to do. And that's what I meant here in today's entry, which is like, you learned something about them and how they treat people or how they take things

or what they're thinking about. And so you learned something about that other kid, but that kid, that class and the coach and me, we all learned something about my son also, which is that he's tougher than he looks, which is that he is not easily rattled, which is he's not easily discouraged, which is that he's a brave, tough little guy.

And I admire that so much. And that's today's message. And I was really excited. I was really glad to not only tell that story, but to be able to bring that little clip from Robert as well. So leave it there and I'll talk to you all soon. 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. You know, if I would have applied myself, I could have gone to the NBA. You think so? Yeah, I think so. But it's just like it's been done. You know, I didn't want to, I was like, I don't want to be a follower. Hi, I'm Jason Concepcion and I'm Shea Serrano and we are back.

We have a new podcast from Wondering. It's called Six Trophies. And this is the best each week. Shea Serrano and I are combing through all the NBA storylines, finding the best, most interesting, most compelling stories, and then handing out six pop culture themed trophies for six basketball related activities. Trophies like the Dominic Toretto I Live My Life A Quarter Mile At A Time trophy, which is given to someone who made a short-term decision with no regard for future consequence. Or the

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