The Daily Stoic - Why Are You Surprised? | What Little Wins Can You Find

Episode Date: August 9, 2021

“In June of 2001, Paul Wolfowitz, then U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, addressed the cadets at West Point. While the speech he gave was not itself a historical moment, one remark in it would go down in history. Because it was one of those quotes that history would, in retrospect, make particularly poignant, if not outright ironic.”Ryan explains why you should never be caught unprepared, and reads this week’s meditation from The Daily Stoic Journal, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow 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.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. 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, you're happened to be doing. So let's get into it. Why are you surprised? In June 2001, Paul Wolfowitz, then the US DeputyS. Deputy Secretary of Defense, addressed the cadets at West Point.

While the speech he gave was not itself a historical moment, one remark in it would go down in history, because it was one of those quotes that history would, in retrospect, make particularly poignant, if not outright, ironic. Surprise happens so often, Wolfowitz said that it's surprising, we're still surprised by it. It was time he said for leaders and soldiers and citizens alike to replace a poverty of expectations within anticipation of the unfamiliar and the unlikely. Just three months later, Wolfowitz and most, if not all, of the

US government, would be stunned when Jihadist crashed two planes into the World Trade Center and won into the Pentagon. Wolffawitz himself would come to call the events of 9-11 awake up call and thus illustrate a timeless piece of stoic wisdom that saying and knowing are not the same thing, that it's incredibly easy tempting even to pay lip service to an idea without being fully able to integrate it into your life and your profession. Remember when Senika said the only unforgivable excuse is I did not think it would happen, we can nod our head at that, we can acknowledge how right he is, but it matters very little if you do not also, as Epictita said, embody that philosophy. Look at where we are right now, plenty of people warned about the risk of pandemics, plenty

of smart people noted that a decade-long bull market could not last, plenty of people spelled out the worst-case scenarios that accompany cronism, egotistical leaders, and political polarization. My galoist wrote an entire book titled The Fifth Risk about what happens when governmental bureaucracies are allowed to operate understaffed without clear priorities or accountability. Senaqa asked you to do a pre-meditatio malorum. Maybe you even carry a coin reminding you that in your pocket.

And yet here we are, surprised, unprepared, disappointed. We knew, but we didn't know, we talked about it, but we didn't live it. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wundery's podcast business wars. And in our new season, Walmart must fight off target, the new discounter that's both savvy and fashion forward. Listen to business wars on Amazon music or wherever you get your podcasts. So that's on us, but it never happened again. What little wins can you find?

Zeno, the Phoenician merchant who founded the Stoic school on the painted porch, the Stoic Okile, of the Agora after a shipwreck, said that happiness was a matter of small steps. While the Stoics believed in the perfectability of human beings, they knew that so much stood in the way of realizing that potential. So they would be skeptical of the so-called epic winds and quantum leaps that our culture obsesses over today. Instead, they would urge you to focus on your daily duties, on making incremental progress.

Spend your time this week thinking about small wins. What little gains can be had from this improvement or that one. A decision here or a decision there. Be satisfied with each small step. Keep moving and don't give up. This is from this week's entry in the Daily Stoke Journal, 366 days of writing and reflection on the art of living from yours. Truly, you can find this anywhere, books are sold, and of course we also have signed books in the Daily Stoke store,

but we have a quote from Marcus, a quote from Epititus, and a quote from Xeno today. Do what your nature demands, Marcus really says in Meditations 929. Get right to it if it's in your power. Don't look around to see if people will know about it. Don't await the perfection of Plato's Republic, but be satisfied with even the smallest step forward and regard the outcome itself as a small thing. Then, Epic Titus says, we don't abandon our pursuits because we despair of ever perfecting them. That's discourse is one, too. Well, being is realized by small steps, Zeno says, according to Diodgeny's laertis, but it is no small thing. I was actually just thinking about this this morning. I'm in the middle of writing the

book that I'm working on now. And there's a great writing rule, just a couple crappy pages a day. Just put in the time, put in the work, that'll get you to a manuscript, a draft one, then you can edit draft one, but you can't edit what doesn't exist. So people as a practices who despair of progress because it's not perfection, they never get there.

But the person who shows up and does work every day gets there. So I was actually writing this in my journal today. I was saying, okay, just show up, put your ass in the chair, do a little work. And as I was writing this in the journal, I was thinking, put your ass in the chair, be at the desk. And then this story popped in my head because I've been trying to write this chapter

about keeping your workstation clean that'll be in like two books from now. But the point is, as I was thinking about this, I remembered this little thing that I'd read about Robert Moses in Robert Carlos book, The Power Broker. And I wrote down my note card and I just, boom, the chapter just unlocked itself. So my point is, I wasn't even,

I wasn't even, my point is I was thinking about the process, when the process got to work and solved a problem that I was having trouble solving, I got to my desk, I got to sit down, I pulled the power broker off the shelf, started going through my folded pages and there on about page 280 something was it the exact story that I needed and about an hour I busted out the first draft of this chapter and that was all I have to do for the day

That was all I have to do for today's contribution to the book now a lot of days like this add up as George Washington was fond of saying, many mickles make a muckle. You show up enough days, you do this enough times, it gets you to phase one, then you improve, then you go on to phase two, phase three, and finally you get your completed product. So today, it's not about sort of big, huge wins. Like this was a minor, minor win.

This is maybe three paragraphs of a book that's going to be 60 plus thousand words. It's going to have to go through lots of rounds of editing that won't come out until 20, 23 probably. And who knows maybe it'll even get cut from the book. But the point is I followed the process. I showed up. I did the work. I didn't wait around. I put my ass where I wanted my heart to be, to quote Stephen Pressfield. And I made the smallest step forward, as Marcus said. I'm not going to get too high about this, I'm not going to get too excited. I'm going to, as Marcus says, regard it as a small thing. But I'm also confident enough, experienced enough to know that these small things add up,

and that's what I'm excited about. And I know that I just have to do this enough times for long enough that I'll eventually get to the other side of where I need to go. And that is true for your problems, for your projects, wherever you are, whatever you're doing. Show up, put your ass in the chair, do the work, let the process guide you

to the eventual inevitable accomplishment. This idea of premeditashio malorum, a premeditation of evils of Senica called it, I think is one of the most powerful reminders in Stoic philosophy. That's why we make the premeditashio medallion, the challenge going in the Daily Stoke store. Check that out at store.dailystoic.com. On the front it's got a picture of a shipwreck which Seneca sort of prepared himself to experience. He said all the lot, all the terms of the human lot should be before our eyes. Meaning we should be ready or

eyes should be open. We should not let things catch us by surprise. We should manage our expectations as Wolfowitz said and we should not be surprised by history. So check that out. store.dailystoke.com pre-meditashio. Malorum. 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 Wondering Plus in Apple podcasts. on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.