The Daily Stoic - You Either Are Or You Aren’t | Panic Is Self-Inflicted Harm

Episode Date: September 25, 2023

It’s impossible not to read Marcus Aurelius or Seneca and sense that they were always working. Not that they were literally always at the office–as we said, they believed in a kind of work life balance–but on themselves.They were studying. They were reflecting. They were asking questions.---And with today's meditation on the day's Daily Journal excerpt, Ryan discusses why panic, which only serves to expose us to greater danger, can only be avoided by effective preparation.✉️ 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.

Ghosts aren't real. At least as a journalist, that's what I've always believed. Sure, odd things happen in my childhood bedroom. But ultimately, I shrugged it all off. That is, until a couple of years ago, when I discovered that every subsequent occupant of that house is convinced they've experienced something inexplicable too. Including the most recent inhabitant who says she was visited at night by the ghost of a faceless woman. And it gets even stranger. It just so happens that the alleged ghost haunted my childhood room might just be my wife's great-grandmother. It was murdered in the house next door by two gunshots to the face.

From Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios comes Ghost Story, a podcast about family secrets overwhelming coincidence and the things that come back to haunt us. Follow Ghost Story on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus. Hello, I'm Hannah. And I'm Seruti. And we are the hosts of A Red Handed, a weekly true crime podcast. Every week on Red Handed, we get stuck into the most talked about cases.

But we also dig into those you might not have heard of, like the Nephiles Royal Massacre and the Nithory Child Sacrifices. Whatever the case, we want to know what pushes people to the extremes of human behavior. Find, download, and binge Red Handed wherever you listen to your podcasts. 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 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 happen to be doing. So let's get into it. You either are or you aren't. It's impossible not to read Marcus Aurelius or Seneca and not sense that they were always working. Not that they were literally always at the office, as we said they believed in a kind of work-life balance, but they were always working on themselves. They were studying, they were reflecting, they were asking questions. Late at night after his wife went to sleep, Seneca would pull out his journals and evaluate

the day going over what he'd done well and where he didn't live up to his standards. Marcus, most famously, was seen as an old man picking up his tablets and heading off to attend a lecture by sexist, a wise teacher. I found one had to do some work every day, even at midnight, the sculptor Barbara Hepworth explained, because you're either a professional or you aren't. And the same goes for philosophy and self improvement. You're either putting in the work or you're not. You're either making the time for it or you're not. Marcus Aurelius time for it or you're not. Marcus Aurelius and Seneca were not too busy

and neither are the powerful people who have come to stoicism since. They delight in their own improvement day to day, as Apequeeta said. They make it a priority. Can you say the same for yourself. Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic podcast. Panic is self-inflicted harm. This is from today's entry in the Daily Stoic journal, where we riff on, we have a weekly meditation and then daily journaling. But let's think about it, right? Name one situation that is improved by panicking. Go ahead. Like seriously, can you think of something where

panicking makes it better? Sennon can be used often about the problem of panic both in his letters and his essays. The problem with panic is that it creates danger and it limits our ability to function effectively. It prevents us from finding success and seeing objectively, and worse, it makes us weaker over time. Because we've never truly faced the danger that we're worried about. We're always running away and then we're weaker as a result. So spend some time today meditating on scary things that might make you panic. Think about them in advance. Think about what's so overwhelming about them, come to understand them, get familiar with them. One of the chapters I have encouraged is calling, is I talk about this dictum that Napoleon had for his generals. He said,

ask yourself three times a day, what would I do if the enemy appeared on my left or my right, or the center? Obviously, the idea here wasn't to create anxiety. It was precisely to prevent panic by thinking about what scares us in advance, by familiarizing ourselves with it, Napoleon was saying, we can respond to it. We can have a plan, a general who has a plan who has an understanding, who has contingencies, who has backup plans and backup plans for the backup plans. And they understand that no plan survives contact with the enemy That's the general who can endure things. That's the general who's less afraid fear makes us worse For familiarity makes us less afraid

But we have three quick quotes from Sennaka today for even peace itself will supply more reason for worry Not even safe circumstances will bring you confidence once your mind has been shocked once it gets in the habit of blind panic. You can't provide for its own safety. For it doesn't really avoid danger, it just runs away. Yet we are exposed to greater danger with our backs turned. There's another great quote I have in the book from Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut. He says, remember it's always possible to make a problem worse. Panic does that, worry does that, fear does that, makes us worse. As Seneca says, we're actually more in danger as we're running away than when we face our problems. Then he says success comes to the lowly and to the poorly talented, but the special characteristic of a great person is to triumph

over the disasters and panics of human life. And then he says, the unprepared are panic stricken by the smallest things. Another quote I have from Seneca and Courage is calling that I really love. He says, the only inexcusable thing for an officer to say is I did not think that could happen. So you can't panic just because it's a surprise, just because it came out of nowhere, just because it's a black just because it came out of nowhere just because it's a black swan in fact your whole job is to be prepared for exactly this your whole job is how do you perform under pressure how do you perform when the enemy is up close how do you perform when other people are running away when other people are scared this is why courage is so important we have to see panic and fear as something that makes us worse. It's a competitive disadvantage.

It's not that we never have fear. It's that we have the fear. We are alert to what it's trying to tell us, and we try to get to work, breaking it down. We try to get to work, preparing for it. We try to get to work, anticipating it. We try to get to work, putting ourselves in a position where if it does happen, and it probably will happen, we'll be able to respond, we'll know what we can do, we'll have something. That's, you know,

as Napoleon was saying, what would you do if they were on your left? What would you do in your front? What would you do if they were over here? What would you do if all of these things happened at the same time? I'm not afraid of it anymore. I'm focused instead on solutions. I'm focusing as a stoic must on what you can do about it. That's what confidence and courage gives you. And I hope you spend some time journaling about panic and fear this week. I hope it makes you Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke early and ad-free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts. We can't see tomorrow, but we can hear it.

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