The Daily Stoic - This Is How The Impossible Became Possible

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 to 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, visit DailyStstoic.com. This is how the impossible became possible. Look, it doesn't just happen.

Starting point is 00:01:03 People tend not to handle power well, and what we know from history is that they absolutely cannot handle absolute power well. So how did it happen then? How did Marcus Aurelius remain good? How did he manage to remain a master of himself when he was literally the master of millions? Well it's because he was handed a book as a teenager. His philosophy teacher thought he would benefit from reading Epictetus's lectures, which, Marcus tells us, his teacher loaned him from his own shelf.

Starting point is 00:01:34 It was this remarkable bit of philosophy, the teachings of a slave, which properly trained and oriented Marcus Aurelius to be the richest, most powerful, most famous human on earth. How crazy is that? Except it's not crazy because Epictetus knew not just adversity and pain, having spent thirty years of his life as a slave, but he also knew temptation and corruption and vanity, having spent the bulk of his life attached to an owner who worked directly with the emperor Nero. What Epictetus learned in his fascinating life, beginning in slavery and culminating

Starting point is 00:02:09 in a legacy as one of the most influential philosophers of all time, was simple, profound and enduring. Perhaps his greatest insight, shaped by his experiences as a slave, was what he called our chief task in life, to distinguish between what is up to us and what is not. And he taught that true freedom comes from recognizing what lies beyond our control and focusing only on, in his words, what is up to us. And this is why the most powerful Romans flocked to learn

Starting point is 00:02:40 from the former slave, including the Emperor Hadrian himself. It's why countless Roman families sent their children to learn from Epictetus at his school in Acropolis. And that's why we're spending this month at Daily Stoic doing a deep dive into Epictetus. Because if reading him changed Marcus Aurelius' life, how might he change yours? And that's right, just like we did with Marcus Aurelius for Meditations Month in July,

Starting point is 00:03:05 we're doing Epictetus month here at Daily Stoke. And we're gonna be peeling back the layers of Epictetus and his discourses, those lectures that Marcus read as a teenager. And we're gonna show you how to apply this wisdom to improve your life and the lives of those around you. And to do that, we created what we think is this awesome guide on how to read Ep, we created what we think is this awesome guide

Starting point is 00:03:25 on how to read Epictetus, which we think is the best place to start with Epictetus. It's what I wish that I had when I first started reading Epictetus. It's something I've been going through and as I've been traveling around Greece here the last couple weeks, trying to follow a little bit in some of Epictetus' footsteps and the early Stoics. And we want to all work through his teachings together. Thousands of us all over the world want to rise above temptation, want to live more deliberately, focus our energy on what is up to us, letting go of the rest. You know, Epictetus didn't write any of his philosophy down.

Starting point is 00:04:01 Instead, it was one of his students, Arian, who put those lectures down, and that's what made its way to Roussikis, Marks-Ruiz's teacher, and then to Marks-Ruiz. But just like Marks-Ruiz had someone to walk him through Epictetus's teachings, I think it's beneficial that you have that too. And that's what we designed this guide around. And we're gonna be doing a live Q&A together about it

Starting point is 00:04:23 on July 26th as part of Epictetus Month. We've got a great package where you can get our favorite edition of Epictetus, plus the Q&A, plus the course. All of that at a discount. You just got to go to dailystoic.com slash epictetus course. Of course, I've linked to all this in today's show notes. I'll wrap this episode up.

Starting point is 00:04:40 You can hear some of the cars and motorcycles zipping around me here in Ithaca where I'm spending a couple more days, but I'm really excited about this thing. I'm excited to do this deep dive in Epictetus. He's the Stoic philosopher that changed my life. He's actually the first Stoic that I ever heard of, and I'm really excited. So I hope you join us. That's dailystoic.com slash epictetus course. I'll see you in there.

Starting point is 00:05:02 And of course, remember to sign up for Daily Stoic Life. You get all these courses, including this one for free. That's dailystoiclife.com.

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The Daily Stoic - This Is How The Impossible Became Possible

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