Take Back Control With This | Two Tasks

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1:44Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast. On Friday, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation, but also reading a passage from The Daily Stoic, my book, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living, which I wrote with my wonderful collaborator, translator, and literary agent, Stephen Hanselman. So today, we'll give you a quick meditation from the Stoics with some analysis from me, and then we'll send you out into the world to turn these words into works.

2:25Take back control with this. It often feels like the world is spinning out of control. And lately, it sure looks like it. There's all this uncertainty around the economy and the upcoming election. There's natural disasters and ongoing wars that are wreaking havoc and destruction upon those undeserving. But in a way, it's always been thus. In meditations, Marcus Aurelius reminds himself that in the age of Vespasian, a forgotten emperor, people were lying and killing and stealing just as readily as they were smiling, raising children, and writing books. The age of Trajan, which came a half century later, was the same.

3:03As the emperor of Rome, Marcus Aurelius experienced plagues and war and floods and tragedies. He buried his own children. He was betrayed in a coup attempt by a trusted ally. So what helped him through? How did he remain grounded and kind and true to himself during such turmoil? How did he survive, let alone manage to be good and decent and effective? In a word, the answer is stoicism. Because whether it's by learning to differentiate what is or isn't within our control, how to turn obstacles into advantages, or how to be a master of yourself, stoicism provided decades of support to Marcus Aurelius, and it can provide us practical solutions to the problems of life in a world spinning off its axis.

3:43And this is what we talk about in Stoicism 101, ancient philosophy for your actual life. We wanted to build a course that's the best practices and routines that Stoicism has to offer. And it's a two-week deep dive into why Stoicism matters and what's so awesome about it. Imagine if you had the tools to be less angry, less distracted, less impulsive. Imagine if the news and social media didn't make your blood boil or your heart race. Imagine if you felt like you had enough, like you were enough. Would that help you be calmer, experience more peace? Yeah. Would you make better decisions, help establish healthier relationships, pursue more fulfilling work?

4:19If you felt more in control of yourself and your life, would it still feel like the world was so out of control? As Mark Stoicillus once urged himself, it's time you realize that you have something in you more powerful and miraculous than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet. That's what Stoicism can help you do because it's a philosophy designed for the real world to solve real problems. It's a tool in the pursuit of self-mastery and perseverance and wisdom. It's a way to live the good life. And in Stoicism 101, which I'm so proud of, you'll learn how to apply this philosophy in your actual life.

4:52This is me, Ryan. Obviously, I've written some of these books maybe you've heard of. I'm going to be the instructor of the course, and we're going to get into it together. Heather, this is Stoicism 101 that I wish I could have taken in college. And by the way, it's way less than I paid to take my real philosophy 101 class when I was in university. It's two weeks of emails, over 20 ,000 words of content. There's two live office hours Q &As with me where you can ask me a bunch of Stoicism-related questions. There's a private discussion board. You can ask questions. You can share thoughts. You can find accountability partners in the course.

5:24You get all the other previously recorded office hours with me, plus a calendar to mark your progress as you go. So whether you're a beginner at Stoicism or you've been studying it for years, I think there's a bunch of stuff in here that you can get if you get up and go to school because learning, as Mark's really said, is always a good thing. And look, registration is only open until Monday, October 28th. It's closing very soon. We're all going to do this course together like we would in college. So you can head to dailystoic.com slash 101 to sign up today. And remember, if you sign up for Daily Stoic Life, you get this course and all the Daily Stoic courses for free.

6:05Two tasks. This is today's entry in the Daily Stoic, 366 meditations on wisdom, perseverance, and the art of living. I am holding what, yeah, I think this is a first edition cloth bound from when the book came out in 2016. We've got a leather bound edition now, which you can check out in the Daily Stoic store. It seems crazy to me. This book came out in 2016. This is the eighth year that it's out, which is nuts. But also, it's like Time Flies, Tempest Fugate. But here's how you really know Time Flies. I record the weekly episode where I read one day a week from the book. But I did a bunch of them at the beginning of the year.

6:46I was like, you know what? I really got in rhythm. And I did the first nine or so months of the year. I just took a couple hours and I sat down and did it. And I was like, and then I won't have to think about this forever. And then here we are. I'm back to week to week. You get a buffer. And then what's happening? Every day, every minute, every second is chipping away at that buffer. And I think, wow, nine months is gone. Nine months. I'll never get back. What do I have to show for those nine months? I created that buffer so I could be really productive, not have to think about this for nine months.

7:21But did I use it? I don't know. It's just crazy to me. But anyways, here's today's entry. It starts with a quote from Epictetus' Discourses 4.1. What then makes a person free from hindrance and self-determining? For wealth doesn't, neither does high office, state, or kingdom. Or rather, something else must be found. In the case of living, it is the knowledge of how to live. You have two essential tasks in life. This is where I add my little interpretation. You have two essential tasks in life, to be a good person and to pursue the occupation you love. Everything else is a waste of time and energy and a squandering of your potential.

8:02How does one do that? Okay, that's a tougher question. But the philosophy we see from the Stoics makes it simple enough. Say no to distractions, to destructive emotions, to outside pressure. Ask yourself, what is it that only I can do? What is the best use of my limited time on this planet. Try to do the right thing when the situation calls for it. Treat other people the way you would hope to be treated, and understand that every small choice and even tiny matters are an opportunity to practice these larger principles. That's it. That's what goes into the most important skill of all, how to live.

8:41I would say two things. Maybe Epictetus wouldn't have agreed that you have to pursue the occupation that you love because he lived in a time where people had a lot less control. Maybe he would have firmly put that in the camp of things that are not up to us. Marcus Revis didn't seem to think he had much say over whether he was emperor or not, but of course, we've made some progress now. You don't have to follow in your father's footsteps. You don't have to be another link in a long chain of accountants or police officers or politicians or notaries or whatever. You can do what you want to do. At the same time, I don't know if Epictetus thought he had that much control because he didn't.

9:21He was enslaved. He eventually found his freedom. He did find what he was good at, what he was meant to do. So maybe he would have agreed. We do know there's something from Epictetus and Musonius Rufus where they say basically like, they're talking to a young kid who says, you know, my father won't let me study philosophy. And he says, you know, if you really wanted to study philosophy, your father can't possibly prevent you from doing that. I think that's true. Anyways, Anyways, that's an advice, a little mantra I try to remind myself. Be a good person. Do what you love. Focus on what's right.

9:54And look, when you do that, I think you find what I was saying earlier, which is time flies by, you lose track of time. I think that's a sign. If you don't lose track of time, if you don't forget what day it is, maybe you don't like what you do that much, right? If time feels like it's going by intermittently slow, you're probably focused on the wrong things. Anyways, that is today's entry. You can check out the Daily Stoic 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living Anywhere books are sold. I'll talk to you soon, and I'm going to try to get a little buffer on these things going so I'm not rushed week to week recording this on a Sunday night before I put my kids in bed.

10:38Thanks so much for listening to the Daily Stoic podcast. If you don't know this, you can get these delivered to you via email every day. Check it out at dailystoic.com slash email.

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