The Daily Stoic - Beware the Freight Train Coming Your Way | (Dis)integration

Episode Date: March 3, 2022

Ryan talks about why you need to be prepared for what is to come, about how everything we do for others comes back to us, and reads The Daily Stoic’s entry of the day.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/emailFollow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic Podcast early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Thursdays, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation, reading our daily meditation, but also reading a passage from the book, the daily Stoic, 366 meditations on wisdom, perseverance, and the art of living, which I wrote with my wonderful co-author and collaborator, Steve Enhancelman. And so today we'll give you a quick meditation from one of the Stoics, from Epititus Markis, Relius, Seneca, then some analysis for me, and then we send you out into the world to do your best to turn these words into works. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wanderer's Podcast Business Wars.

And in our new season, Walmart must fight off target, the new discounter that's both savvy and fashion forward. Listen to business wars on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Beware the freight train coming your way. You're starting to feel some relief that you're coming out of a slump that your industry is starting to rebound. That vaccines for your youngest might be available soon. That the pandemic is nearly over. That your depression feels less heavy. that your exile is going to be lifted.

It's good to have hope, it's good to look towards the future, but we have to be careful, because sometimes as the Metallica lyrics go, it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel was just a freight train coming your way. We've talked before about how a stoic can never say, I did not think that could happen, or I did not think that would happen to me, or I didn't think that would happen again. But we also have to be on guard, Sennaka reminds us against hope. Edith Egger told us on the Daily Stoke podcast about a friend in a concentration camp where she'd been in prison, that they came to be convinced that she would soon be freed.

And on that day came and went, she died of a broken heart. Hope was the scaffolding that held her up. It was the oxygen that filled her lungs and it kept her going. And when it collapsed, so did she. That light at the end of the tunnel can deceive us. It can make us do crazy things. It can put us in danger. It may well be that things are getting better. The end may in

fact be close, but don't relax your guard until you get there. Don't take anything for granted or fall prey to bad habits in the process. Keep doing what you're supposed to be doing. Stay focused. Let the end of hard times resolve themselves as they will, but remain prepared for the new normal. all of themselves as they will, but remain prepared for the new normal. Whatever. That. Maybe. Disintegration. And I'm reading to you today from the Daily Stoic 366 Meditations on wisdom, perseverance in the art of living by yours truly. My co-author and translator, Steve Enhancelman, you can get signed copies, by way in the Daily Stoke Store, over a million copies of the Daily Stoke and Print now. It's been just such a lovely experience to watch it. It's been more than 250 weeks, consecutive weeks on the best cellist. It's just an

awesome experience. But I hope you check it out. We have a premium leather edition at store.dailystoke.com as well. But let's get on with today's reading. These things don't go together. You must be a unified human being, either good or bad. You must diligently work either on your own reasoning or on things outside of your control. Take great care with the inside and not what's inside, which is to stay stand with the philosopher or else with the mob. Epic teedus' discourse is 315. We are all complicated people. We have multiple sides to ourselves, conflicting wants and desires and fears. The outside world is no less confusing and contradictory.

For not careful all of these forces pushing and pulling will eventually tear us apart. We can't live as both juggle and hide, not for long anyway. We have a choice to stand with the philosopher and focus strenuously on the inside, or to behave like a leader of a mob, becoming whatever the crowd needs at a given moment. If we do not focus on our internal integration on self-awareness, we risk external disintegration. Obviously you're listening to me so you can't see it but in the book I have disintegration that

the diss in parentheses, one word but there's the parentheses. And the reason I do that it's actually something I talk about in an intro, my first book Trustman Line. And if you've read Trustman Line we've heard of it, it might seem very different than what I talk about here at Daily Stoke. Or if you see a video of me and then you contrast it with the somewhat ominous, if you'd even evil cover of Trust Me I'm Lying, it might seem as difficult to reconcile. And indeed it is. And I talk about this in the intro of the book.

I was of course familiar with Stoicism when I wrote that book. I was of course studying Stoke Philosophy before I even got into marketing. And I've read Marxist-Ruses many times in those years that I worked for those controversial clients. Was hypocrisy was I a bad person? I mean, I don't get to say that. But what I think about it, and as I

reflected on it when I wrote that book, is that I was not integrated. I have these two different parts of myself that were very not aligned. Does that make sense? Like, it's funny. We use the word disintegration to mean like comes apart, right? But really, what it would mean, dis and integrated means not integrated. And that's what I was. I was not integrated. I had these different spheres. I had this part of me that really liked philosophy that really believed in these ideas and stozes and was trying to apply them in my life. And then I had my actual occupation and day job where I was, you know, pulling these marketing stunts and, you know, living it. I'm going to

say an unfilisophical life, but certainly not a life fully in accordance with the philosophical ideas. I don't think I was making the world a better place. That's partly why I wrote the book, partly why I changed, the philosophy helped me get there. But for a long time, these things were compartmentalized. They were not integrated.

And so I think that's what What epititus is talking about it says you must be a unified human being You can't be these different things. Santa was not a unified human being. He was a brilliant artist and a ruthless power broker He was a philosopher Who also coveted wealth and status and influence. I wanted to be on the inside of things. And that disintegration, someone would call hypocrisy. I would just say it was not the integration you needed. And got closer to that integration as it got older.

He ultimately leaves neurosurface and dedicates the last few years of his life to getting there. And that's where I think few years of his life to getting there. And that's where I think a lot of his best work is from. But that lack of integration is a problem for all of us, right? You say you love your spouse, that your family is really important, and then you spend all your time at the office, or maybe you're having a affair. Or you say you care about the environment but then look at some of your personal decisions right you claim to be a good person but then

look at how you treat people who are close to you right. Hypocrisy is one thing but I think it's often that we have trouble just applying what we believe or applying it fully or seeing, in fact, that the way that we're acting, which feels normal or appropriate or necessary given our profession, is actually out of not in accordance with their values or resistances, and not in accordance with nature, not who we're supposed to be, what we're capable of being. So this integration is the work that we need to do. Both in studying the philosophy, maybe it's going to therapy, maybe a relationship helps

to get there, maybe just long conversations, a lot of self-awareness. I think ultimately, not to reference another one of my books, but it's our busyness, our franticness, our yearning, or push for things that keeps us so busy and preoccupied that we don't notice the disintegration. I think that's largely what it was for me. I was just trying to get ahead doing cool things as they came up. I was young, I had a million things going on, I didn't want to let certain people down. And so that lack of awareness about my disintegration was largely rooted in just not having the time,

not having the space to reflect, not having literally a minute to do it. And I think part of the reason we keep ourselves busy is so we don't have to do that. So when we do it, it's painful, and we do it, it demands change. So I'm urging you, I guess, to take a little time to think about whether you're integrated, to think about where you're not a unified person, to think about where you're focusing

on things outside your control. Because inevitably, it will tear you apart. It does not end well. And it can make you do things that you're ashamed of or embarrassed by or later regretter. Have trouble explaining all of which are true for me to a certain degree and true for, I think anyone as you get older and wiser and better. I'm wishing you much integration

and the stillness required to get to that integration and encourage you to do that work. Thanks so much for listening to the Daily Stoke podcast. If you don't know this, you can get these delivered to you via email every day, check it out at dailystoke.com slash email. Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic early and ad free on Amazon music. Download the Amazon music app today, or you can listen early and ad free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.

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