Choose to See What It Gave You

0:00Ryan Holiday: As a business owner, I'm super familiar with how important a strong internet connection is to keeping everything running smoothly. A slight delay in the internet connection in the store, it could mean missed sales, a lag in a Zoom call or a podcast recording could mean you lose everything you were doing. When every minute matters, every transaction, every customer, you cannot rely on a subpar internet connection. You need a provider that's reliable. You need Spectrum Business. Spectrum Business keeps businesses of all sizes seamlessly connected with fast, reliable internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, and mobile services.

0:37Ryan Holiday: They offer 100 % U.S.-based customer support 24-7 to help you stay up and running and are sure to have the right plan for you with tailored connectivity solutions and packages built for every business budget. Millions of business owners rely on Spectrum Business to keep them connected. Visit spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Service is not available in all areas. Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world.

1:12Parenting can present us some of our greatest tests. Your son has dyslexia. Your oldest has behavioral issues. The youngest is on the spectrum. Your daughter has a chronic health issue. Your kid has trouble regulating emotions. These are challenges to be sure, challenges for you, challenges for them. It's not easy and it's not cheap. There are accommodations you'll have to make. There will be things you need to buy. There will be things that you and they will not get to do. There will be heartbreak, heartbreak that both Marcus Aurelius and Seneca experienced after the devastating loss of their own children far too young.

1:52But as always, the Stoics remind us that everything has its compensation if we choose to see it, if we choose to welcome it. The challenges we face as parents become our greatest teachers and guides. You'll have moments at the dialysis center that years from now you wouldn't trade for anything. You'll develop patience and resilience that you could not have otherwise imagined. They will too. You will learn how to advocate for yourself and for them. You'll come face to face with this thing called acceptance. You will understand what it means to love, to really love unconditionally. This thing with your kid, you wouldn't have wished for it.

2:32You wouldn't have wished it on them or indeed on any other parent. And yet you are coming to see that it gave you something, gave you perspective on what truly matters, on what real strength looks like. It gave you connection to your child, to yourself, to others who have gone down this road. It gave you purpose to fight for them, to guide them, to help them navigate a world that isn't always built for them. And most of all, it gave you love. Not the easy, effortless kind, but the kind forged through trials. The kind that endures. The kind that, in the end, makes it all worth it. And by the way, if you didn't know, we also have a parenting daily email and daily podcast called The Daily Dad, which like the Daily Stoic is built on one piece of ancient wisdom every day applied to life practically.

3:23Last year, we created this thing called Daily Dad Society,

3:26Ryan Holiday: sort of a dad's group for people who are getting the email, but want to sort of take it to the next level. And it's honestly, it's helped me a lot. We just did our monthly call. We've been reading articles. We've been doing these kind of mini challenges together. It's been really awesome. It's helping me be the best dad I can be. And I'd like to think it's helping other dads do the same. We'd love to have you join us. It's a community of fathers who want to show up for their family as the best version of themselves, who are reflective about what it means to be a good parent, who are open to talking about the challenges they're dealing with, who want to share advice, who are willing to open up about the stuff that they went through as kids and how to do better with their own kids.

4:07Ryan Holiday: You can be the parent your kids need, and Think Daily Dad Society will help you do that. And if you join us before Father's Day, you can get$60 off your yearly membership with code FathersDay. I can't wait to see you in there. And I can't wait to see you on the calls. It's been great. And I'm excited to keep doing it. And I will talk to all of you very soon.