Take This Seriously

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0:55I'm recording this on a Monday and Monday is our grocery store day in our family. I usually pick my kids up from school and we go over to Whole Foods, get all our groceries for the week. Although here very shortly, we're going to go over there to get our Thanksgiving turkey because they've got a bunch of great options. Turkeys start at$1.49 a pound if you have Prime with organic birds at$2.99 a pound. And they only carry no antibiotic ever turkeys that will bring quality to your table at a great price. Whole Foods has great everyday prices on all your Thanksgiving essentials, whether you celebrate with a massive family or just a few close friends.

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1:43Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom in everyday life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2 ,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com.

2:10Take this seriously. Several years ago, Bridget Delaney, a columnist for The Guardian, went through Stoic Week, an annual event where people from around the world experiment in living like the Stoics for a week. She read, she journaled, she engaged with Stoic practices like the dichotomy of control, accepting what's up to us and what isn't. As she admitted in a recent episode of the Daily Stoic podcast. I didn't really like it. And I wrote essentially a piss take saying, oh, Stoics, you know, they're so po-faced and boring and, you know. The philosophy was just too strict, too dour for her to take seriously.

2:47She was more of an Epicurean, she decided. And then after her column was published, a bunch of present-day Stoics messaged her and asked her to reconsider. Try living like a Stoic for real, they said. Try reading Marcus Aurelius and Seneca and Epictetus. Try discussing the philosophy with family members and colleagues and see if it doesn't seep into you, they said. And so that's what she did. She recruited a friend to join her on the journey and hold her accountable. And so we started applying the Stoicism like it was the medicine to each other's lives. The second time around, she got it. After living like a Stoic for a year, she said she was calmer, less judgmental, no longer angry like she used to be.

3:24When she was passed over for a pay raise at work, she complained and vented. But her Stoic partner in crime reminded her that she was stressing about something that wasn't in her control, and it helped her slow down. She relaxed. She realized that those people who'd messaged her had been proven right, and Stoicism had seeped into her life, and it had improved things. The point of Stoic philosophy is it's to better your life, and by extension, better the lives of those around you. To do that, you got to put into practice what you read. You got to find the right stuff and you got to apply it the right way.

3:55That's what we've been doing over in the Stoicism 101 course, Ancient Philosophy for Your Actual Life, which we are kicking off as part of Stoic Week this week. Whether you are new to Stoicism or you've been studying it for years, this is about getting serious about that study of practice, giving it a real chance, like Bridget was talking about. In just 14 days, you'll receive the absolute best lessons from Stoicism. And we'll talk about some Stoic secrets to success, resilience, productivity, and most of all, virtue. And you don't do it alone. You'll be in a live cohort with a bunch of fellow Stoics, accountability partners who can bounce stuff off around.

4:30You can do some live office hours with me. I'll answer your questions about Stoic philosophy. That's my favorite part of the course. Seneca was once asked how much progress you'll make. And he said, just as much as you try to make. He says, why do you wait? Wizard comes haphazard to no man. So don't put it off. Don't wait. Maybe like Bridget, this could be the year for you to really fall down the rabbit hole of Stoicism. And the course begins on October 28th. That coincides with the start of Stoic Week. And you can head over to dailystoic.com slash 101 to join the 2024 session of Stoicism 101 today with me and thousands of Stoics all over the world.

5:05I can't wait to see you in there. dailystoic.com slash 101.

5:22Look, ads are annoying. They are to be avoided, if at all possible. I understand as a content creator why they need to exist. That's why I don't begrudge them when they appear on the shows that I listen to. But again, as a person who has to pay a podcast producer and has to pay for equipment and for the studio and the building that the studio is in, it's a lot to keep something like the Daily Stoic going. So if you want to support a show but not listen to ads, well, we have partnered with Supercast to bring you a ad-free version of Daily Stoic. We're calling it Daily Stoic Premium. And with Premium, you can listen to every episode of the Daily Stoic podcast completely ad-free.

6:10No interruptions, just the ideas, just the messages, just the conversations you came here for. And you can also get early access to episodes before they're available to the public. And we're going to have a bunch of exclusive bonus content and extended interviews in there just for Daily Stoic Premium members as well. If you want to remove distractions, go deeper into Stoicism and support the work we do here. Well, it takes less than a minute to sign up for Daily Stoic Premium, and we are offering a limited time discount of 20 % off your first year. Just go to dailystoic.com slash premium to sign up right now or click the link in the show descriptions to make those ads go away.