This Is How We Get Death Wrong

0:00Ryan Holiday: Shopping at Whole Foods is one of the things I do in our family. Like the grocery shopping is my job. So I was glad to be able to do that even on vacation. And then, you know, being here in Hawaii, it was the same Whole Foods experience we're thinking about. But then also a bunch of regional stuff, too, that they only have at this Whole Foods. We love shopping at Whole Foods because there's always new flavors and foods to choose from whichever Whole Foods you are like, whichever Whole Foods you happen to be at. So save on regional flavors at Whole Foods Market, and maybe I'll see you at the Whole Foods in Austin sometime.

0:34Ryan Holiday: Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world.

0:49You look around and you see people rushing through traffic, rushing to get their kids down to bed, rushing through work to get to the weekend. No time to talk, no time to sit. There's too much to do. There's somewhere to go. Faster the better. And this was true in the ancient world as it is today. In Rome, people were rushing to get their mail, rushing to win the next public office, rushing to the next round of the games in the Colosseum, rushing to their next big accomplishment. At least that's what they thought. Seneca makes the point, however, that what we're really rushing towards, with all deliberate speed, is death.

1:22That's what he means when he says that we get death wrong. Death is not some distant thing in the future, some looming end date to which the proper response is to try to squeeze in as much time as possible before it comes. Instead, he said, death is something happening to you right now. It's happening to you as you listen to this episode. I hope it's been worth it. It's happening to you as you struggle to put on your daughter's shoes so you can drop her off at school. And then it's still happening as you sit down to that coffee meeting you rushed through, even though you didn't want to have it in the first place.

1:51The time that passes, Seneca reminds us, is death. It belongs to death. You'll never get to live that which has been lived again. So why are you rushing? Why are you thinking about the future at the expense of the present? But no season reminds us of the possibility of rebirth, of a chance for life to start anew than spring. After the long hibernation of winter, it's time to reset, to reassess. A patient time to plant seeds in the form of better habits and better routines so you can reap what you sowed come summer and fall with more meaningful relationships and success and presence. And by the way, that's what we created this challenge I've been telling you about, the Daily Stoic Spring Forward Challenge.

2:33It's 10 brand new actionable challenges designed to push you to examine your choices, your relationships, your day-to-day patterns, and move you closer towards living your best life. Remember how long you've been putting this off, Mark Surrealis writes, how many extensions the gods gave you and you didn't use them. He says that there is a limit to the time assigned to you. And if you don't use it to free yourself, it will be gone and never return. Don't rush through life. Don't rush towards death. Use the time assigned to you and sign up right now for the Spring Forward Challenge that we're doing at Daily Stoic.

3:06You can sign up at dailystoic.com slash spring. It starts on March 20th. I'm really excited about it. Remember, if you're a Daily Stoic Life member, you get this challenge and all our challenges for free. But I hope to see it in there. dailystoic.com slash spring.

3:21Ryan Holiday: 20 % off when you use code DSPOD20 at checkout. You can join me and thousands of other Stoics in the Daily Stoic Spring Forward Challenge. Just head over to dailystoic.com slash spring and enter code DSPOD20 to get 20 % off.