You Need To Hit The Road

0:00Ryan Holiday: I don't know what your house is like, but at my house, we beat the crap out of the stuff that we have. Kids, dog, my wife and I, if we have stuff at our house, it's got to be sturdy. I love vintage historic stuff, but it doesn't last long at the Holiday house. Sometimes you just need stuff that can be jumped on, knocked over, spilled on without falling apart. And that's why we look for furniture on Wayfair. Because on Wayfair, you'll find the stuff you need. Stuff that stands up to real life. They've got furniture and decor, all of it built to last. And when you shop with Wayfair Verified, you get pieces that are hand-vetted by product specialists using a 10-point quality inspection.

0:40Ryan Holiday: They test the materials, the functionality, the features, even how long it takes to build. One of the good things about Wayfair is the reviews. They've got more than 20 million verified five-star reviews from real shoppers. You get to see real customer photos and feedback before you buy, right? Sometimes it looks good in the photo, but you've experienced this. The hotel lobby looks good, but you want to see the actual room from an actual human being. Wayfair lets you see that with the stuff you're buying for your house. Transform your space with pieces that hold up to real life. And you can join Wayfair rewards today and get 5 % back on every purchase.

1:15Ryan Holiday: Head over to Wayfair.com or shop the Wayfair app for all things home. W-A-Y-F-A-I-R dot com. Wayfair, every style, every home. Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world.

1:39Ryan Holiday: You need to hit the road. Seneca warned against escapism. Marcus Aurelius reminded himself that he could retreat into his own soul as easily as he could the mountains or the beach. Epictetus said to take great care with the inside and not what's outside. Yet for all this, the Stoics traveled widely. Marcus Rius visited Syria and Turkey. Seneca visited southern Italy and Greece. In addition to his exile, and Corsica lived for nearly a decade in Egypt. Posidonius lived and worked in many places in his long life. Syria, Athens, Rome, Rhodes. Traveled almost the entirety of the known world. After completing his studies under Posidonius, Athenodorus traveled widely as a lecturer to Egypt and other Mediterranean cities before he became Octavian's teacher in Apollonia, which is on the coast of modern Albania.

2:37Ryan Holiday: These were beautiful and critical experiences for them. It opened their eyes to a larger world, to different perspectives, to nature. Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, Mark Twain famously wrote, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. This was true of America in the 19th and 20th centuries, and it was true of Rome in the first. Marcus Reus' passage in Meditations, which referenced being a citizen of the world, was probably shaped by the people he met in Athens and Tarsus and Alexandria. It's easy to be comfortable where you are. It might even be easy to use some of the Stoic teachings to tell yourself that travel is exotic or even frivolous.

3:19Ryan Holiday: But it isn't. It's essential. We need to experience cultures other than our own, environments and geography other than our own, cuisines, histories, music, and stories other than our own. This gives us perspective. It opens us up to new ideas and inspiration. It builds character. Most importantly, it provides new and meaningful ways to gain wisdom. So hit the road.