You Are An Artist (Whether You Know It Or Not) | Watch Over Your Perceptions

0:00It's time for Cyber Monday, Dell Technologies biggest sale of the year. That's right, you'll find the lowest prices of the year on select Dell PCs like the Dell 16 Plus with Intel Core Ultra processors. And with built-in advanced AI features, it's the PC that helps you do more faster. From smarter multitasking to extended battery life, these PCs get the busy work done so you can focus on what matters most to you. Plus, you can earn Dell rewards and join many other benefits like free shipping, expert support, price match guarantee, and flexible financing options. They also have the biggest deals on accessories that pair perfectly with your Dell PC, improving the way you work, play, and connect.

0:38Whether you just got started holiday shopping or finishing up, these PCs and accessories make perfect gifts for everyone on your list. Shop now at Dell.com slash deals and don't miss out on the best prices of the year. That's Dell.com slash deals.

0:54My 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 backcountry. We've taken it on backpacking adventures to Colorado and New Mexico, loaded it 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.

1:24From remote trails to scenic byways, Toyota Trucks empowers you to take the detour, roam freely, and discover places that still feel wild and untouched. And they're not just making great trucks, they're working to expand access to adventure so more people can connect with the outdoors and pass that passion on to the next generation. Discover your uncharted territory. Learn more at toyota.com slash trucks slash adventure dash detours. That's toyota.com slash trucks slash adventure dash detours.

1:53Welcome 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.

2:27You're an artist, whether you know it or not. Maybe you don't think of Socrates as an athlete, but that's how Epictetus described it. The man was a ball player, Epictetus said, catching what life threw at him and throwing it back. And not easy throws either, but war and pain and being misunderstood and even eventually being sentenced to death. Socrates handled this all with the grace and the skill of an elite athlete. Maybe you don't see yourself as an artist, just like Socrates didn't see himself as an athlete, but maybe you are. According to Michael Jolette, the founder of the band The Airborne Toxic Event and the author of a fascinating and haunting memoir about his troubled childhood, he said that we have to take our pain and make it useful.

3:11That's what it means to be an artist. And his own art came from growing up in a cult that his mother had joined and then living with her series of messed up husbands, struggling with addictions, getting in trouble at school, not knowing what to do with his own life. But this struggle ultimately shaped him and in turn shaped the art that he would make. And Marcus Aurelius wrote about how we have to turn our obstacles into fuel, that we convert the impediments to action into new opportunities for action. That's art, that's sports, that's philosophy. And it's a highly skilled thing and certainly not easy, but it's the only way.

3:44Because life is going to keep throwing stuff at us. We're going to experience pain and suffering. All we can do is catch it and throw it back. All we can do is find some way to make it useful. It's funny, I'm working on the 10th anniversary edition of The Obstacle is Away. So this is right now. And that's basically what I'm talking about in that book. And that's what my life for the last 10 years have been big and small, certainly not on the scale of some people, Marcus or, or, you know, an artist who goes through a cult, but we're all trying to take what life throws at us and turn it into something.

4:20That's when, when they say the obstacle is the way they don't mean that everything's magically going to become better and awesome, but it's that we have to use what happens to our own benefit. Even if it's just making art that comforts or entertains other people. I've got the obstacle is the way coin. Of course, that's one form of art, right? It was a cool opportunity to do. You can check that out at store.dailystoic.com. There's a ring, there's a necklace. And if you haven't read the book yet, I hope you will. We made a cool leather edition. You can grab that store.dailystoic.com.

5:04You probably heard the headlines about all the different cuts to foreign aid and food benefits. This is having a profound impact on the world's poorest people and the world's poorest communities. But, you know, just hearing about that, that's not what stoicism is about. Stoicism is, to me, what you're going to do about it. And that's where GiveWell comes in. GiveWell is trusted by tens of thousands of donors each year because they provide free and independent research that helps you understand how to have a big impact. GiveWell has spent the last 18 years researching global health and poverty alleviation, and they direct funding to the highest impact opportunities.

5:44Over 150 ,000 donors have already trusted GiveWell to give more than$2.5 billion over the last several years, and research suggests that these donations will save over 300 ,000 lives. I myself am one of those donors. I donate to GiveWell every year. It means a lot to me. and you can find all their research and recommendations on their site for free. And thanks to the donors that sponsor this research, GiveWell doesn't take a cut from your tax-deductible donation to their recommended funds. And if this is your first gift through GiveWell, you can have your donation matched up to$100 before the end of the year or as long as matching funds last.

6:19To claim your match, go to givewell.org and pick Daily Stoic from the drop-down menu under podcast. That's how they know that you heard about GiveWell from the Daily Stoic and you'll get your donation matched. That's givewell.org, code thedailystoic to donate or find out more.

6:42Watch over your perceptions. Every moment brings a flood of impressions of the world around us, and our minds are filled with the perceptions that arise with them. The Stoics teach us that we must keep a constant watch over this flood, as if we are standing guard to protect something of vital importance. What is it that we are protecting? Our peace of mind, clarity, and freedom, all of which are anchored in our perceptions. Epictetus reminds us that we need to pay attention to what matters and learn how to ignore so many of the relentless provocations that come our way. That's from the Daily Stoic Journal, obviously.

7:23And here we have Epictetus telling us, Keep constant guard over your perceptions, for it is no small thing you are protecting, but your respect, trustworthiness, and steadiness, peace of mind, freedom from pain and fear. In a word, your freedom. For what would you sell these things? Epictetus' Discourses. An important place to begin philosophy is this, a clear perception of one's own ruling principle. That's Epictetus' Discourses as well. I don't agree with those who plunge headlong into the middle of the flood and who, accepting a turbulent life, struggle daily in great spirit with difficult circumstances.

8:03The wise person will endure that, but won't choose it, choosing to be at peace rather than at war. Seneca, Moral Letters, 28.

8:16It's tricky, right? I mean, the Stoics ask us to be active. They ask us to be involved. They ask us to be engaged and then somehow they expect us to be at peace, to not be bothered by what's happening in the world. That's the tricky thing, right? Like you can go off in your cave, right? You can go on your 10 day meditation retreat and get some semblance of peace or stillness. The tricky thing, and this is what I was trying to write in that book as well. The tricky thing is to find peace now within yourself. while engaged, while fully aware of what's happening in the world. What you don't know about, what you tune out, what you pretend doesn't exist, it's easy not to be bothered by.

9:04But the key to Stoicism is finding the ability, the strength to have that peace and stillness despite everything that's happening. I hope in stillness is the key with the story of Seneca trying to write a letter to Lucilius, and he's in this noisy apartment in Rome, and he's trying saying, look, I didn't choose this. I had to do it. That's the cost of what his philosophy is demanding to him. The Epicurean said, hey, go flee to the gardens. Seneca has to be engaged. He has to live in the city. He has to be involved. But can he find peace within that? And he says that you can. You can find peace.

9:43You can become, as Marcus Aurelius talked about, the rock that the waves are crashing over, but eventually become still around. And we do this by keeping guard over our perception, as Epictetus is saying. It's knowing what to care about and what not to care about. I've had Mark Manson on the podcast before. The subtle art of not giving a fuck is not caring about anything. It's about finding the right things to care about and things not to care about. So that sort of discernment is really essential to managing our emotions and our perceptions, which is the theme in the journal this month. As we say, every moment brings a flood of impressions, a flood of news, a flood of interruptions, a flood of things that we're called to have opinions about, to react to, that are vying for our attention.

10:34And our ability to stand guard against this, to let the good things in, to keep the bad things out. That's the key. That's the struggle. That's the fight that we're all engaged in. So even me, obviously I live out in the country a little bit. I live the life of a writer, which allows me some shelter from the craziness of a person who has to commute into a major city and work in an office with dozens of other people or hundreds of other people and TVs blaring and phone calls and meetings. And yet even there, even amidst my sort of privileged situation, I have to decide what to let in and what not to let in.

11:16You know, what role does the phone play in your life? What role does, you know, your colleagues or your partners play in your life? You know, how disciplined are you about staying on task while you're in it? How long are you able to maintain your focus on what matters? Even if nothing's going on, is your mind the enemy of itself? Are you drawing yourself towards here? Are you drifting? Are you daydreaming? How to stay focused, how to concentrate like a Roman, as Marcus said, that's the most important thing. And so having a clear perception about our own mind, our own limitations, our own temptations, this is really the key.

11:53That's what we're working on here. That's what I want you to think about today and this week. remember keep constant guard over your perceptions for it's no small thing you are protecting you're protecting your respect your trustworthiness your steadiness your peace of mind freedom from pain and fear in a word what you're protecting is your freedom the 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 mean. The detours where each adventure pulls you toward the next and wrong turns to not right. So why would you ever take a tour when you could take a detour?

12:42Toyota trucks. Look, 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.

13:27And with Premium, you can listen to every episode of the Daily Stoic podcast completely ad-free. No 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.

14:03Just 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.