Beware Lost Footsteps

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0:35Welcome 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 dailystoic.com.

1:26Beware lost footsteps. You know where you're trying to go. You have a goal you are aiming for. You're hard at work. You're doing what you can. This would be enough to get you there were it not for one thing. Other people. Not other people in the sense of what Marks really talks about, how they're obstacles and sources of difficulty, but rather that other people are sources of distraction and envy. If we were the only ones doing what we were doing, there would be clarity and simplicity. Well, that's not how life works. Seneca talked about how tricky it was to stay on the path you're supposed to be on when your path is crisscrossed by the paths of so many others.

2:06And worse of all, he says, crisscrossed by people who have no idea where they're going. Not long ago, we spoke of Seneca as a cautionary tale. He himself was led astray by his peers in politics and power, and he ended up in a dark and shameful place in Nero's service. We quoted from a song by the band Bearsden, which has another lyric that makes this point.

2:35Staying on our path will not be easy. The more we judge ourselves against others, the more we covet what they have or try to compete with them, the more likely we are to end up lost. We must find our true north and stick with it. Our feet will always move in the direction of our focus. So look where you want to go. Stay focused on the path. Keep moving forward, one foot in front of the other. Ignore the people crisscrossing you. It's the only way to get where you're trying to go.

3:13Thank you.