The Daily Stoic - This Is What To Surprise Them With | No Time For Theories, Just Results

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 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, visitdailystoic.com. them with. In the year 161 AD, Marcus A.D. Marcus Aurelius did something that shocked the world. Upon inheriting the throne from Antoninus, he did what almost no one who has ever held

Starting point is 00:01:10 absolute power before has ever done. It gave half of it away by naming his stepbrother, Lucius Verus, co-emperor. Rome had once been run by two elected consuls, but after 15 emperors, there was hundreds of years of precedent, which Marcus was shockingly and selfless. throwing aside. It's like that line in Hamilton when King George finds out that George Washington was handing over his power and returning to his farm. I wasn't aware that was something a person could do. But of course it is. We can always choose not to be imperialized or stained purple, as Marcus Reles put it, in meditations. We don't have to be changed by power or selfishly cling to it. We can do what's best for our country or our team or our family. We can share. We can live. We can

Starting point is 00:02:00 lift others up. And many people have done this throughout history. There's a whole chapter in Discipline's Destiny about it. It's easy to think that success means having it all, holding on tightly, standing alone at the top. But Marcus reminds us that real greatness lies in what we're willing to give away, our ego, our need for control, our fear of being overshadowed. The mark of a strong leader of a strong person is not how much power they keep for themselves, but how much they empower others. So ask yourself today, where can I be less possessive? Where can you share the load, elevate someone else, or choose principle over pride or power? Because Marcus showed us that the most powerful thing you can do with power is to let it go. I don't know how many times I've gotten

Starting point is 00:02:53 blood drawn over the years, gone to different doctors, had different tests. And, and And I don't really know where this information is. Maybe my health insurance provider has it. Maybe they don't. I know I don't have it. And I sometimes worry, like, what if there is a trend in there? What if there's something that these different specialists are looking for because they're only looking for what they're a specialist in?

Starting point is 00:03:17 Well, that's where today's sponsor comes in. Function consolidates all the blood work and scans that you've gotten and looks for new or interesting information about your health. Function is the only health platform that gives you access to the kind of data most people will never see, and then insights to actually take action. You can test over 160 biomarkers from heart to hormones to toxins, inflammation, and stress. You can also access MRI and CT scans all in one secure place over time. It's basically an enhanced view of everything that's happening in your body, and it's why lots of different top health leaders are all behind function health. Lab visits are fast and convenient at 2,000 locations across the U.S.

Starting point is 00:04:00 And the good news is function isn't going to push supplements or pharmaceuticals. It's just powerful, unbiased health data designed to help you own your health. And you can learn more by using the link. I'll put that in today's show notes. And the first 1,000 people will get a $100 credit towards their membership. You just visit functionhealth.com slash daily stoic 100 or use code daily stoic 100 at sign up to own your health. I don't know how many times I've gotten. drawn over the years, gone to different doctors, had different tests. And I don't really know

Starting point is 00:04:30 where this information is. Maybe my health insurance provider has it. Maybe they don't. I know I don't have it. And I sometimes worry, like, what if there is a trend in there? What if there's something that these different specialists are looking for because they're only looking for what they're a specialist in? Well, that's where today's sponsor comes in. Function is an app that consolidates all the blood work and scans that you've gotten and looks for new or interesting information about your health. Function is the only health platform that gives you access to the kind of data most people will never see, and then insights to actually take action. You can test over 160 biomarkers from heart to hormones to toxins, inflammation, and stress. You can also

Starting point is 00:05:14 access MRI and CT scans all in one secure place over time. It's basically an enhanced view of everything that's happening in your body. And it's why lots of different top health leaders are all behind function health. Lab visits are fast and convenient at 2,000 locations across the U.S. And the good news is function isn't going to push supplements or pharmaceuticals. It's just powerful, unbiased health data designed to help you own your health. And you can learn more by using the link. I'll put that in today's show notes. And the first 1,000 people will get a $100 credit towards their membership. You just visit function health.com slash daily Stoic 100 or use code Daily Stoic 100 at sign up to own your health. No time for theories, just results. This is the August 11th entry in the Daily Stoic. I hope everyone is

Starting point is 00:06:08 doing well. When the problem arose for us whether habit or theory was better for getting virtue, if by theory is meant what teaches us correct conduct and by habit we mean being accustomed to acting according to this theory, Musonius thought habit to be more effective. That's an excerpt relayed to us from Musonius Rufus listed in his lectures. But I prefer the quote from Hamlet. There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Starting point is 00:06:37 There is no time to chop logic over whether our theories are correct. We are dealing with the real world here. What matters is how you're going to deal with the situation in front of you, whether you're going to be able to move past it and on to the next one. That's not saying that anything goes, but we can't forget that although the theories are clean and simple, the situations rarely are. Mark Surrealis says a version of this,

Starting point is 00:07:02 Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be, B1. He says, don't go around expecting Plato's Republic. You don't live there, right? We live in reality. It's much more practical life and stoicism. Like you get accidentally ced on an email in, and one of your coworkers says something not nice about you. Are you going to let that go or are you going to blow it up, right?

Starting point is 00:07:25 Your order is messed up at a restaurant. Are you going to try to think about the person who did that what their life is like? Or are you going to go full Karen? Right. You're tired and exhausted and your kids are being a nightmare. How do you respond? Right. That's what stoicism is to me.

Starting point is 00:07:43 There is an element of physics to the stoics, and there's logic too. But the stoics tried to apply the philosophy to what they actually did to their lives as people, which is what we're trying to do. I've talked about this before, too. You know, you watch what's happening in the news and you go, oh, why isn't this person voting this way? They're just trying to keep their job, blah, blah, blah. And then it's like when was the last time you ever risked your job, right? How often do you do things that are in your financial best interest, but maybe not in the interests of the world? It's there that stoicism is supposed to be applied.

Starting point is 00:08:18 Right? Stoicism is not a standard we hold other people to. It's not a game. It's not a lens through which we debate things. This is not like a sport show where they go, who's the best? Is it LeBron James? Is Kevin Durant good because you only won a championship with Golden State and hasn't anywhere else? No, it's how are you as a teammate, right? Are you achieving and doing your best? Are you a team player? Right. It's about you. It's, you can spend all your time thinking and debating and questioning, you can waste your whole life doing that. But who cares? You have enough problems, your own life. You have things you should be dealing with. That, to me, is what stoicism is, right? That's what we're trying to do. That's what I want this podcast to be about. That's why I pick up meditations by my side of my bed. I go, oh, yeah, I was doing that today. I don't want to do that anymore. When I'm writing, I'm not only writing to accomplish that, hopefully for other people. But that's what I'm looking for as a writer. That's what I'm trying to do. And I hope that's what you take from this podcast, too. No time for theories,

Starting point is 00:09:29 just results. Is habit or theory better? Habit is better, man. Habit. Make the stuff a habit. That's what we're trying to do. Make it a practice. Build it into the muscle memory. Make it part of who you are. Try to get to a point, ideally, where nobody even knows that you study philosophy, but when they look at your actions ago, that lines up, right? That lines up with the code. And I think if you look at Marcus Reelis's life, you don't have to know he studied philosophy to get the sense he was a philosophical guy, that he lived according to those four virtues. That's the most powerful thing he said about courage, temperance, justice, wisdom was how he lived. And so it goes for you. And so I try to make it go for me. None of us

Starting point is 00:10:15 are perfect at it. The theory is much more interesting. The theory is easy, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. One bit prepared to the actions. 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.

The Daily Stoic - This Is What To Surprise Them With | No Time For Theories, Just Results

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