This Predicts Everything | with Show, Don't Tell

0:00The world is full of tours. But you don't choose a Toyota truck to follow the beaten path. You choose it to find the places in between. The detours, where each adventure pulls you toward the next. And wrong turns turn out right. So why would you ever take a tour when you could take a detour? Toyota Trucks. my family owns a 2023 toyota 4runner and honestly it's my favorite vehicle that i've ever owned around town it's smooth and reliable but where it really shines is on our trips into the back country we've taken it on backpacking adventures to colorado and new mexico loaded up with gear and never had to think twice about whether it could handle the terrain that's what toyota trucks are built for off-road confidence rugged durability and the freedom to explore toyota has a long history with the outdoor community and they're committed to helping more people get out there and experience what nature has to offer.

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1:29Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. Each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics, illustrated with stories from history, current events, and literature to help you be better at what you do. And at the beginning of the week, we try to do a deeper dive, setting a kind of Stoic intention for the week, something to meditate on, something to think on, something to leave you with, to journal about, whatever it is you happen to be doing. So let's get into it.

2:08This predicts everything. Who a person is determines what will happen and what they can do. It's true in sports. It's true in politics. It's true in business. No matter how talented a person is, how great the incentives, how great the system around them, in the end, character is everything. It can't be hidden. It can't be compensated for. It comes out. Your job as a parent, as you seek to create a better world for your kids and raise them to be good in the world, is to value character, to teach it to them, to model it for them, to reward it when you see it in them. Yes, you want them to be smart.

2:53Yes, you want them to be ambitious. Yes, you want them to be creative and hardworking, but these traits are worthless, if not yoked, behind good character. We are seeing the costs of ignoring that in every facet of life right now. We need to fix it, and the fix starts at home.

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4:22Show, don't tell. This is this week's entry in the Daily Stoic Journal, 366 days of writing and reflection on the art of living. The art of living isn't a set of teachings or a formula we can memorize. It's a practice that requires constant work. Epictetus was constantly reminding his students not to parrot back what they learned in the lecture hall or read in books, but to put that work into practice. He knew that progress you could see was better than any proclaimed. Let your journaling and thinking this week exhibit what you have done and what you are doing, not what you plan to do or think you are.

5:03Let it be a catalog of your actions, good actions. As Epictetus says,

5:38first practice not letting people know who you are keep your philosophy to yourself for a bit in just the manner that fruit is produced the seed is buried for a season hidden growing gradually so it may come to full maturity but if the grain sprouts before the stock is fully developed it will never ripen that is the kind of plant you are displaying fruit too soon and the winter will kill you. You know, this is a theme the Stoics talk about quite a bit, the idea of conceit being the impediment to improvement, that ego is the enemy. And, you know, when I look back, you know, I first introduced the Stoics now like 15 or so years ago, I look back at some of my early writings, and I'm doing exactly what Epictetus is talking about.

6:23I'm just regurgitating things that I'd heard. I mean, that exercise itself was educational, but I didn't even begin to comprehend what I was talking about. It took time. It took experience. As Plutarch says, it's not that words that give us the meaning of experiences, but experiences that give us meaning of the words. And so I wish I'd taken a bit more time. Now, this is obviously what some of these social media and blogging platforms do. It's a way of thinking out loud, but I actually wish I'd taken more sort of quiet, reflective time to myself. And I think we do this whenever we discover something.

7:00We get some product we like or join a movement or a cause we like, and suddenly we become this evangelist for it. I think part of that is out of insecurity, right? We want other people to like it. We're not quite sure what we think of it ourselves. So by bringing other people on, we feel less insecure. We go, see, I'm not crazy. Other people like it too. But let's just slow down a little bit. If you're listening to this podcast for the first time, if you're new to stoicism, let it stew a little bit. Think about it a little bit. Look at it critically. Find out what's wrong. Go read more about it, right?

7:34Find people who love stoicism, people who hate stoicism. Consume it in different mediums, but just explore. You don't have to convert. You don't have to identify yet. You know, just keep thinking, let it remain underground, let it germinate, let it solidify there. And then when it comes out, it'll be in better shape and in better form. And so as you work on your practice, you know, you don't have to put on errors. Epictetus talks about this. Don't put on errors about your self-improvement, he says. Be humble about it. You know, I definitely wish There was things that I hadn't said, that I thought about longer, that I took time to think about privately more.

8:17And that's probably most of my regrets on any social media platform is I jumped, I leapt out with my opinion instead of sitting on it, stewing on it, thinking, letting it germinate. And I think that process is just really valuable. So slow down. That's the advice of this week's meditation. Slow down. Think. Really mull it over. Turn it over in your mind. and the plant will be stronger for it. You will be stronger for it. Your wisdom will be better for it. That's what we're working on. Anyways, stay at it. Keep listening. I'll talk to you again next week.

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