The Daily Stoic - This is Calling You | We Are A Product Of Our Habits

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

📔 Grab a signed copy of Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave at The Painted Porch.💪 Check out the Daily Stoic Life challenges and courses at store.dailystoic.com/collections/courses✉️ 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.

Hi, I'm Anna. And I'm Emily. And we're the hosts of Terribly Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. And we are really excited about our latest season because we are talking about someone very, very special. You're so sweet. A fashion icon. Well, actually, just put this on. A beautiful woman. Your words, not mine. Someone who came out of Croydon and took the world by storm. Kate Anna, don't tell them where I live. A muse, a mother, and a supermodel who defined the 90s. I don't remember doing the last one. Wow, Emily, not you.

Obviously, I mean Kate Moss. Oh, I always get us confused. Because you're both so small. How dare you. We are going to dive back into Kate's 90s heyday and her insatiable desire to say yes to absolutely everything life has to offer. The parties, the Hollywood heartthrobs, the rockstar bad boys, have I said parties?

You did mention the parties, but saying yes to excess comes at a price as Kate spirals out of control and risks losing everything she's worked for. Follow Terribly Famous wherever you listen to podcasts, or listen early and ad free on Wandery Plus on Apple podcasts or the Wandery app. Hello, I'm Hannah. And I'm Saruti. And we are the hosts of Red Handed,

a weekly true crime podcast. Every week on Red Handed, we get stuck into the most talked about cases. From Idaho student killings, the Delphi murders, and our recent rundown of the Murdoch saga. Last year, we also started a second weekly show, Shorthand, which is just an excuse for us to talk about anything we find interesting because it's our show and we can do what we like. We've covered the death of Princess Diana,

an unholy Quran written in Saddam Hussein's blood, the gruesome history of European witch hunting, and the very uncomfortable phenomenon of genetic sexual attraction. Whatever the case, we want to know what pushes people to the extremes of human behavior. Like, can someone give consent to be cannibalized? What drives a child to kill? And what's the psychology of a terrorist? Listen to Red Handed wherever you get your podcasts and access our bonus short-hand episodes

exclusively on Amazon Music or by subscribing to Wondry Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondry app. Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. Each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics, illustrated with stories from history, current events and literature to help you be better at what you do. And at the beginning of the week we try to do a deeper dive setting a kind of stoic intention for the week. Something to meditate on, something to think on, something to leave you with to journal about whatever it is This is calling you. The good life is simple, the Stoics say. It's quiet, defined by adoraxia or stillness. It shouldn't require fancy things or high honors. It's internal. We find it within ourselves, Marx really said, not in far-flung destinations or accomplishments. And yet the

Stoics also hold up courage as an essential virtue. The great Thomas Wentworth Higginson, translator of Epictetus, abolitionist and a leader of Black troops in the American Civil War, explained that life is sweet, but it would not be sweet enough without the occasional relish of peril and the luxury of daring deeds. Perhaps every man sometimes feels this longing when he would feign leave politics and personalities, even endearments and success behind, and would exchange the best year of his life for one hour at Balaklava with the six hundred. That's why the Stoics, for all their focus on tranquility, also lived lives of adventure. They answered the call to courage, whether it was on the battlefield or in the causes

of their time. They got up there on the rostrum and gave speeches. They stared down tyrants. They wrestled and boxed, hunted and explored. Seneca started each year by hurling himself into the freezing Tiber River, which would have been no easy swim. "'You were not made to sit on the couch. You were not made for idleness. You were made for adventure, for daring deeds. Fortune favors the bold,' went the Ancient, saying.

"'Life is short. Seize it. Be brave. Courage is calling, will you answer? And if you didn't get that reference there from Higginson, he says spend an hour at Balaclava with the 600, he's referring to the charge of the light brigade, which actually it's a more complicated story. They were brave, they were also stupid. As I talked about in Courage is Calling, because it's a fascinating sort of moment of discipline and courage, but also thoughtlessness and recklessness and irresponsibility. I talk a lot about that story in Courage is Calling. I also use that saying, Fortune favors the bold as, as the subtitle of the book. So if you want to learn a little bit more about that stoic

virtue of courage, which is some say the one that all the other virtues descend or depend really, check out Courage is Calling, Fortune Favors the Bold. It's my first in the Stoic virtue series. I'm really proud of it. I'll sign your copy if you buy it from stuart.dailystoic.com. Click the sign copy link or swing by the painted porch and pick one up also. Copulink or swing by the painted porch and pick one up also.

We are a product of our habits. This comes from this week's entry in the Daily Stoic Journal, 366 days of writing and reflection on the art of living. Journaling, of course, is a critical exercise to the Stoics. It's really hard to separate journaling from Stoicism. Meditations is Marcus Aurelius journaling and talking to himself. And so today's entry comes from the prompt

and the sort of meditative part of the Daily Stoic Journal for this week's, and it's all about habits. The Roman Stoics put a heavy emphasis on dealing with habitual behavior in order to make progress in the art of living. The great Roman Stoic educator, Musonius Rufus, he's Epictetus' teacher, held that all the theories in the world couldn't trump good habits, and they couldn't overcome bad habits either. Epictetus followed Musonius in this focus on habit with an eye on not reinforcing bad habits, such as anger, and finding a way to replace them with better ones.

We all recognize bad habits when they see them in others, but it's harder to see them in ourselves. So this week, meditate on the habits and recurring behaviors that are holding you back and even ask others around you for their view. And the first quote comes to us from Epictetus. He says, every habit and capability is confirmed and grows in its corresponding actions, walking by walking and running by running. You remember, we talked about this earlier in the week. Therefore, if you want to do something, make a habit of it.

If you don't wanna do that, don't, but make a habit of something else instead. The same principle is at work in our state of mind. When you get angry, you have not only experienced an evil, but you've also reinforced a bad habit, adding fuel to the fire. Tepictetus' discourse is 2.18. Then he also says, if you don't wish to be a hothead, don't feed your habit. Try as a first step to remain calm and count the days you haven't been angry.

I used to be angry every day and now every other day, then every third and fourth. And if you make it as far as 30 days, thank God. For a habit is first weakened and then obliterated. When you can say, I didn't lose my temper today or the next day or for three or four months, but I kept my cool under provocation. Then you are in better health. That's again, Epictetus' discourse is 218. And then this is the funny one. He says, what assistance can we find

in the fight against habit? Try the opposite. The point is the Stoics thought a lot about habits. They had to, right? It's not just enough to think philosophical thoughts to sort of have high principles or standards, but how do you make them real in your life? How do you turn them into muscle memory? Right? An athlete can watch videos, can be coached, can review painstakingly their swing or their

shot or their throw, and then they're going to get tweaks and thoughts, but then that has to become habit, that has to become part of the routine. That's why they sit in the gym and take, you know, a thousand free throws or a thousand jump shots. That's why they practice doing this or that so that under immense amounts of pressure, under the stresses of life in the game,

they can revert back to that training. They can do what they need to do. And I love this little expression from Seneca about how bad habits, the old way of doing it, first we weaken it, then we obliterate it. You don't just magically do the new thing, you weaken it. And he's saying one way to weaken it is to try the opposite. You know, it's like you have a piece of paper

with a crease in it or bend in it, you can fold it the opposite way and it kind of flattens it out. I just think that's an interesting way of thinking about it. But look, habits make the man, right? The habits that you do, the things you habitually do day in and day out, this is what we're talking about earlier in the week, that's who you are. Who you say you are, who you want to be, who cares, right? The habits you habitually do, the choices you regularly make, that's what make you who you are, that's what make you beautiful,

as we also talk about from Epictetus. We are a product of our choices, our routines, our habits. As a writer, how does it work? You create a routine, you create a structure, you follow it every day, work comes out the other side of that. It's not about fits of inspiration, it's not about genius. And I think this is true for all crafts

that one seeks out to master, it's about habit. But I've also found even as a parent, if you want to do good, if you wanna manage this or that, you create habits, you create routines, you create structures, and then you stick to it. That's the key. So habits, we are a product of our habits, you create routines, you create structures, and then you stick to it. That's the key. So habits, we are a product of our habits.

The Stokes believe that. And I hope you are working on your habits. You can check out the Daily Stoke Habits Challenge at DailyStoke.com slash habits, which you get free if you're a Daily Stoke life member. But the point is, habits will make you happier. They will give you a better life. I'm not saying they're easy, they're very difficult, but habit is everything, and it's also the hardest thing,

but let's keep working on our habits. 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 Christopher Nolan Tenet trophy, which is given to someone who did something

that we didn't understand. Catalina wine mixer trophy. Ooh, the Lauryn Hill, you might win some, but you just lost one trophy. And what's more, the NBA playoffs are here, so you want to make Six Trophies your go-to companion podcast through all the craziness. Follow Six Trophies on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts, listen ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus.