The Tim Ferriss Show - #137: How to Practice Poverty and Reduce Fear

Episode Date: February 2, 2016

Sometimes mindset is everything. That's why I hope you pay close attention to this episode of the podcast. This two-thousand-year-old letter from Seneca the Younger is a practical guide for constructing world-class habits. The careful listener will find an extremely practical blueprint for optimizing performance in high-stress situations. Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. If you enjoy this lesson, I highly recommend listening to more of these letters. You can find 27 hours of these letters at The Tao of Seneca: Practical Letters from a Stoic Master. If you want to find more audiobooks that I suggest, head over to audible.com/timsbooks. Enjoy! This podcast is brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service, led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it’s all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams. Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they’ll show you—for free–exactly the portfolio they’d put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim. This episode is also brought to you by Headspace, the world’s most popular meditation app (more than 4,000,000 users). It’s used in more than 150 countries, and many of my closest friends swear by it. Try Headspace’s free Take10 program — 10 minutes of guided meditation a day for 10 days. It’s like a warm bath for your mind. Meditation doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive, and it’s had a huge impact on my life. Try Headspace for free for a few days and see what I mean.***If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Visit tim.blog/sponsor and fill out the form.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferrissPast guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

optimal minimal at this altitude i can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking can i ask you a personal question now what is it i'm a cybernetic organism living tissue over metal endoskeleton this episode is brought to you by ag1, the daily foundational nutritional supplement that supports whole body health. I do get asked a lot what I would take if I could only take one supplement, and the true answer is invariably AG1. It simply covers a ton of bases. I usually drink it in the mornings and frequently take their travel packs with me on the road. So what is AG1? AG1 is a science-driven formulation of vitamins,

probiotics, and whole food sourced nutrients. In a single scoop, AG1 gives you support for the brain, gut, and immune system. So take ownership of your health and try AG1 today. You will get a free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free AG1 travel packs with your first subscription purchase. So learn more, check it

out. Go to drinkag1.com slash Tim. That's drinkag1, the number one, drinkag1.com slash Tim. Last time, drinkag1.com slash Tim. Check it out. This episode is brought to you by Five Bullet Friday, my very own email newsletter. It's become one of the most popular email newsletters in the world with millions of subscribers. And it's super, super simple. It does not clog up your inbox. Every Friday, I send out five bullet points, super short, of the coolest things I've found that week, which sometimes includes apps, books, documentaries, supplements, gadgets, new self-experiments, hacks, tricks, and all sorts of weird stuff that I dig up from around the world. You guys, podcast listeners and book readers, have asked me for something short and action-packed for a very long time. Because

after all, the podcast, the books, they can be quite long. And that's why I created Five Bullet Friday. It's become one of my favorite things I do every week. It's free. It's always going to be free. And you can learn more at Tim.blog forward slash Friday. That's Tim.blog forward slash Friday. I get asked a lot how I meet guests for the podcast, some of the most amazing people I've ever interacted with. And little known fact, I've met probably 25% of them because they first subscribed to Five Bullet Friday.

So you'll be in good company. It's a lot of fun. Five Bullet Friday is only available if you subscribe via email. I do not publish the content on the blog or anywhere else. Also, if I'm doing small in-person meetups, offering early access to startups, beta testing, special deals, or anything else that's very limited, I share it first with Five Bullet Friday subscribers. So check it out, tim.blog forward slash Friday. If you listen to this podcast, it's very likely that you'd dig it a lot and you can, of course, easily subscribe any time. So easy peasy. Again, that's tim.blog forward slash Friday. And thanks for checking it out. If the spirit moves you.

Hello, boys and girls. This is Tim Ferriss and welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferriss And thanks for checking it out. If the spirit moves you. Hello, boys and girls, this is Tim Ferriss. And welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show. It is usually my job to deconstruct world-class performers of some type, whether they are from sports, military, chess, entertainment, God knows where. They come from everywhere. And you find a lot of commonalities across them. This episode, though, is a special episode. I'm going to hand the mic over to Seneca the Younger. And what you are going to hear is roughly 2,000 years old, and it teaches you how to deconstruct or construct a world-class life. And suffice to say, Seneca and his letters have had an enormous impact on my life. I revisit his writing many dozens of times per year. And this particular letter has affected me in myriad of ways. Letter 18 on festivals and fasting. And I want you to

pay particular attention to a few passages that begin around two minutes and 20 seconds in with the line set aside a certain number of days. And what this will teach you and elucidate is how to practice poverty and reduce fear. Specifically, you can think of it as inoculating yourself against fear by practicing the worst case scenarios. This is a, an incredibly powerful concept that you can rehearse the things that you fear to take the fear away from them and out of yourself. It is extremely practical. And I do this with short-term fasting, which of course you shouldn't do without medical supervision. I must say that I'm not a doctor. Don't play one on the internet. I do that with wearing the same clothing, for instance, like white t-shirt and jeans for

a week or so, or you could do it by eating very cheap food, rice and beans, for instance, two to $3 a day in total cost for a week. But I will let Seneca get into it because he will do a much better job than I could ever dare to attempt. I implore you to listen to more of these letters. The 27 hours or so of audio that I just put out is in the Tao of Seneca. This is not a big moneymaker for me. It's something I've wanted to do for decades just to make these letters available to you guys in audio format. So you can do it, say, on the way to coffee or on the way to work once per day in the morning. You can digest one of these letters and they can set you up for optimal performance in high stress situations. So you

don't overly react and hurt yourself and others. So you can check out the Tao of Seneca at audible.com forward slash Tim's books. Check it out. You can listen to samples. And for those of you who downloaded it a few days ago, there was an issue with the longer on the shortness of life essay. So you can skip that. We're going to be removing it, but all the other letters should be in fine form. And this is one of my favorites. Like I said, letter 18 on festivals and fasting pay attention. It's changed my life. I think he can do the same for you. And if you want additional resources, I will try to include them in the show notes. So four hour workweek.com forward slash podcast and check out the Tao of Seneca at

audible.com forward slash Tim's books. Enjoy. Letter 18 on festivals and fasting. It is the month of December and yet the city is at this very moment in a sweat. Licence is given to the General Merrymaking. Everything resounds with mighty preparations, as if the Saturnalia differed at all from the usual business day. So true it is that the difference is nil, that I regard as correct the remark of the man who said, Once December was a month, now it is a year. If I had you with me, I should be glad to consult you and find out what you think should be done. Whether we ought to make no change in our daily routine, or whether, in order not to be out of sympathy with the ways of the public, we should dine in gayer fashion and doff the toga. As it is now, we Romans have changed our

dress for the sake of pleasure and holiday-making, though in former times that was only customary when the state was disturbed and had fallen on evil days. I am sure that, if I know you are right, playing the part of an umpire, you would have wished that we should be neither like the liberty-capped throng in all ways, nor in all ways unlike them, unless, perhaps, this is just the season when we ought to lay down the law to the soul, and bid it be alone in refraining from pleasures just when the whole mob has let itself go in pleasures. For this is the surest proof which a man can get of his own constancy, if he neither seeks the things which are seductive and allure him to luxury, nor is led into them. It shows much more courage to remain dry and sober when the mob is drunk and vomiting,

but it shows greater self-control to refuse to withdraw oneself and to do what the crowd does, but in a different way, thus neither making oneself conspicuous nor becoming one of the crowd. For one may keep holiday without extravagance. I am so firmly determined, however, to test the constancy of your mind that, drawing from the teachings of great men, I shall give you also a lesson. Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while, Is this the condition that I feared? It is precisely in times of immunity from care that the soul should toughen itself beforehand for occasions of greater stress,

and it is while fortune is kind that it should fortify itself against her violence. In days of peace the soldier performs maneuvers, throws up earthworks with no enemy in sight, and wearies himself by gratuitous toil, in order that he may be equal to unavoidable toil. If you would not have a man flinch when the crisis comes, train him before it comes. Such is the course which those men have followed who, in their imitation of poverty, have every month come almost to want, that they might never recoil from what they had

so often rehearsed. You need not suppose that I mean meals like Timon's, or Popper's huts, or any other device which luxurious millionaires use to beguile the tedium of their lives. Let the palette be a real one, and the coarse cloak. Let the bread be hard and grimy. Endure all this for three or four days at a time, sometimes for more, that it may be a test of yourself instead of a mere hobby. Then, I assure you, my dear Lucilius, you will leap for joy when filled with a pennyworth of food, and you will understand that a man's peace of mind does not depend upon fortune, for, even when angry, she grants enough for our needs. There is no reason, however, why you should think that you are doing anything great, for you will merely be doing what many thousands of slaves and many thousands of poor men are doing every day.

But you may credit yourself with this item, that you will not be doing it under compulsion, and that it will be as easy for you to endure it permanently as to make the experiment from time to time. Let us practice our strokes on the dummy. Let us become intimate with poverty, so that fortune may not catch us off our guard. We shall be rich with all the more comfort if we once learn how far poverty is from being a burden. Even Epicurus, the teacher of pleasure, used to observe stated intervals, during which he satisfied his hunger in niggardly fashion. He wished to see whether

he thereby fell short of full and complete happiness, and if so, by what amount he fell short, and whether this amount was worth purchasing at the price of great effort. At any rate, he makes such a statement in the well-known letter written to Polyinus in the archonship of Carinus. Indeed, he boasts that he himself lived on less than a penny, but that Metrodorus, whose progress was not yet so great, needed a whole penny. Do you think that there can be fullness on such fare? Yes, and there is pleasure also. Not that shifty and fleeting pleasure which needs a fillip now and then, but a pleasure that is steadfast and sure. For though water, barley meal, and crusts of barley bread are not a cheerful

diet, yet it is the highest kind of pleasure to be able to derive pleasure from this sort of food, and to have reduced one's needs to that modicum which no unfairness of fortune can snatch away. Even prison fare is more generous, and those who have been set apart for capital punishment are not so meanly fed by the man who is to execute them. Therefore, what a noble soul must one have, to descend of one's own free will to a diet which even those who have been sentenced to death have not to fear. This is indeed forestalling the spear-thrusts of fortune. So begin, my dear Lucilius, to follow the custom of these men, and set apart certain days on which you shall withdraw from your business,

and make yourself at home with the scantiest fare. Establish business relations with poverty. Dare, O my friend, to scorn the sight of wealth, and mold thyself to kinship with thy God. For he alone is in kinship with God who has scorned wealth. Of course, I do not forbid you to possess it, but I would have you reach the point at which you possess it dauntlessly. This can be accomplished only by persuading yourself that you can live happily without it as well as with it, and by regarding riches always as

likely to elude you. But now I must begin to fold up my letter. Settle your debts first, you cry. Here is a draft on Epicurus. He will pay down the sum. Ungoverned anger begets madness. You cannot help knowing the truth of these words, since you have had not only slaves, but also enemies. But indeed, this emotion blazes out against all sorts of persons. It springs from love as much as from hate, and shows itself not less in serious matters than in jest and sport. And it makes no difference how important the

provocation may be, but into what kind of soul it penetrates. Similarly with fire, it does not matter how great is the flame, but what it falls upon. For solid timbers have repelled a very great fire. Conversely, dry and easily inflammable stuff nourishes the slightest spark into a conflagration. So it is with anger, my dear Lucilius. The outcome of a mighty anger is madness, and hence anger should be avoided, not merely that we may escape excess, but that we may have a healthy mind. Farewell. Hey guys, this is Tim again. Just a few more things before you take off. Number one, this is five bullet Friday. Do you want to get a short email from me? Would you enjoy getting a

short email from me every Friday that provides a little morsel of fun before the weekend? And five bullet Friday is a very short email where I share the coolest things I've found or that I've been pondering over the week. That could include favorite new albums that I've discovered. It could include gizmos and gadgets and all sorts of weird shit that I've somehow dug up in the, uh, the world of the esoteric as I do. It could include favorite articles that I've read and that I've shared with my close friends, for instance. And it's very short. It's just a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend. So if you want to receive that, check it out. Just go to fourhourworkweek.com. That's

fourhourworkweek.com all spelled out and just drop in your email and you will get the very next one. And if you sign up, I hope you enjoy it. This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront, and this is a very unique sponsor. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive, in a good way, set it and forget it investing service led by technologists from places like Apple and world famous investors. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years, and they now have more than two and a half billion dollars under management. In fact, some of my very good friends, investors in Silicon Valley have millions of their own money in wealth front. So the question is why, why is it so popular? Why is it unique? Because you can get services previously reserved for the ultra wealthy, but only pay pennies on the dollar for them.

And this is because they use smarter software instead of retail locations, bloated sales teams, et cetera. And I'll come back to that in a second. I suggest you check out wealthfront.com forward slash Tim, take the risk assessment quiz, which only takes two to five minutes, and they'll show you for free exactly the portfolio they'd put you in. And if you just want to take their advice, run with it, do it yourself. You can do that. Or as I would, you can set it and forget it. And here's why the value of wealth front is in the automation of habits and strategies that investors should be using on a regular basis, but normally aren't great. Investing is a marathon, not a sprint and little things that you may or may not be familiar with, like automatic tax loss, harvesting, rebalancing your portfolio across

more than 10 asset classes and dividend reinvestment add up to very large amounts of money over longer periods of time. Wealthfront, as I mentioned, since it's using software instead of retail locations, et cetera, can offer all of this at low costs that were previously completely impossible. Right off the bat, you never pay commissions or account fees for everything. They charge 0.25% per year on assets above the first 15,000, which is managed for free. If you use my link wealthfront.com forward slash Tim, that is less than $5 a month to invest a $30,000 account. For instance. Now, normally when I have a sponsor on this show, it's because I use them and recommend them in this case. It's a

little different. I don't use wealth front yet yet because I'm not allowed to. Here's the deal. They wanted to sponsor this podcast, but because of SEC regulations, companies that invest your money are not allowed to use client testimonials. So I couldn't be a user and have them on the podcast. But I've been so impressed by Wealthfront that I've invested a significant amount of my own money, at least for me, in the team and the company itself. So I am an investor and hope to soon own money, at least for me, in the team and the company itself. So I am an investor and hope to soon use it as a client. Now back to the recommendation. As a Tim Ferriss Show listener, you'll get $15,000 managed for free

if you decide to open an account. But just start with seeing the portfolio that they would suggest for you. Take two minutes, fill out their questionnaire at wealthfront.com forward slash Tim. It's fast. It's free. There's no downside that I can think of. Now I do have to read a mandatory disclaimer. Wealthfront Inc is an SEC registered investment advisor. Investing in securities involves risks and there's the possibility of losing money. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Please visit

wealthfront.com to read their full disclosure. So check it out, guys. This is one of the hottest, most innovative companies coming out of Silicon Valley and they're killing it. They've become massively popular. Just take a look, see what portfolio they would create for you, and you can use that information however you want. Wealthfront.com forward slash Tim.