The Daily Stoic - Daily Stoic Sundays: How to Have Your Best Week Yet

Episode Date: March 1, 2020

Ryan uses eight Stoic lessons to teach us how to have the best week ever.See 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 Stood Podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. Welcome to the Sunday edition of the Daily Stood Podcast. My name is Ryan Holiday. For over a decade I've been writing and thinking and talking about stilicism and so each Sunday now We're going to be rolling out a special episode that will be either me riffing on a number of topics, maybe me riffing or expanding on an article that I've written or deep diving into an idea that I think's important that I think you'll benefit from. So I hope you like it. Support our sponsors who make this episode possible. And of course, keep studying, keep reading, and thank you. Raising kids can be one of the greatest rewards of a parent's life. But come on, someday, parenting is unbearable.

I love my kid, but is a new parenting podcast from Wondry that shares of our freshly honest and insightful take on parenting. Hosted by myself, Megan Galey, Chris Garcia, and Kurt Brown-Oller, we will be your resident not so expert experts. Each week we'll share a parenting story that'll have you laughing, nodding, and thinking. Oh yeah, I have absolutely been there. We'll talk about what went right and wrong.

What would we do differently? And the next time you step on yet another stray Lego in the middle of the night, you'll feel less alone. So if you like to laugh with us as we talk about the hardest job in the world, listen to, I love my kid, but wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. It's easy to think that philosophies is this sort of abstract thing that it's

just exercises or thought exercises or just big words, but the truth is in ancient philosophy, philosophers were just regular people. They had day jobs. Marcus really says the Emperor of Rome, Z Zeno was a merchant. One of the Stoics was a manual labor. They had normal lives, lots of responsibilities. And so philosophy was a way for them to get through life and to get through life effectively, happily, productively. And so what we see in Stoicism is all sorts of really awesome exercises that help us live the best life that we can.

The first lesson from the Stokes is that you have to guard your time. Seneca talks about how even though time is the only non-renewable resource on the planet, it's the one we are the most frivolous with. If someone stole some of your property, he said, you'd fight to get it back. But we let people steal our time or worse, we waste our own time. And you have to be able to guard your time carefully. You have to know, hey, this is my most valuable resource. I cannot waste it. I cannot afford to fritter it away because I'm not getting any of it back. And so I think the Stoics would be avid protectors of their inbox. They

wouldn't frivolously agree to things. They would say no to things. They would guard their time. The next lesson we get from the Stoics is to just wake up earlier. Marcus Aurelius has this fascinating dialogue with himself in book five of meditations where he talks about how he can't stay under the covers and be warm all day. He goes, oh, but it's so nice here. And he says, but you weren't put on this planet to feel nice. You were put on this planet to do what you were put on this planet to do.

He said, people who love their work have no trouble getting out of bed. They throw themselves into it. He's like, you should be that kind of person. When you wake up earlier, there's less distractions. You've got to jump on the day. You can win the day early by getting up. And that's what I try to do in my life. I want to know that by 10 or 11, I've done most of what I need for the day. And then the rest of the day, I have some freedom. I can take my time. I can make decisions on the fly, but you wake up early and you start the day with a win. The next lesson is you've got to focus on the task at hand. So many people are trying to do a million things at once, and of course they don't do any

of it well. Marcus Aurelius talks about focusing like a Roman, doing this thing in front of you like it's the last thing that you're doing in your life. He says, let all your efforts be directed at one thing. Do that well, then move on to the next thing. We think we're good at multitasking. We are not good at multitasking. Do one thing. Do it well. Move on to the next thing. Repeat ad nauseam. That's how people are successful. That's how you'll have the best week ever. One of the more interesting lessons from the Stokes is this idea of pre-meditashio malorum. That's negative visualization. Instead of imagining everything going exactly how

you want it to go, what can go wrong? How can you be prepared for it? Marcus really talks about starting the day and thinking about all the frustrating, annoying, selfish, rude, stupid people he's going to meet. And then he knows when he meets them, that that's who he's meeting. He's not upset by this, he's not surprised by it, he's prepared for it. So you prepare yourself in advance for what's going to happen today,

this week, this month, and then you're able to prepare for the worst case scenarios, you're able to prepare for success as well, but you want to know what can happen, you want to visualize it all and be ready for it. The next lesson from the Stoics is actually what Epictetus says is probably the most important thing in the whole philosophy. He says, separate things into two categories.

What's in your control, what's outside your control. So the person who starts their week off by thinking, here's all the things that I need to do. Here's the part of that I control. Here's the part of it I don't control. I'm flying from New York to Phoenix. Okay, I control that I've bought the ticket. I control that I got myself to the airport.

I don't control when the plane takes off. I don't control the weather. I don't control whether there's a malfunction with the plane. I don't control who I sit next malfunction with the plane. I don't control who I sit next to on the plane. So by focusing on what we control, on not wasting time and energy on what we don't control, we have an advantage over the people who they hear that the flight is 30 minutes delayed and they throw a temper tantrum and they go stuff themselves with a synabun. The stoic sits down and starts answering emails or sits down and writes an article or makes the sales call.

The stoic tries to use the time that they have. The stoic tries to focus on what they control, which is how they respond to things and not on what they don't control. The next lesson from the stoics might not seem like an important one, but I think it's a really important part of having a great week. And that is taking a walk, a one hour walk, a 10 minute walk, a walk every day, multiple times a day. Seneca talks about the importance of taking long, wandering walks out in nature where you can think, where you're present, where you're relaxed,

where you're giving your mind and your body a chance to recuperate. If you're just doing, doing, doing all the time, if you're crunching yourself into a chair or into a car all the time, you're not going to be in your best shape, you're not going to feel good, you're going to be stressed, you're going to be fraught and overwhelmed, and eventually you're going to break. So take a walk, it's a philosophical thing to do, consider that the human species have been walking far longer than we've been engaged in any other form of transportation, and that by doing this, we're going back to our roots and we're experiencing something pure and important. The next lesson from the Stoics is journaling.

And I would say that there's almost no distinction between stoicism and journaling. The philosophy is the philosophy of journaling. Marcus really says, Meditations, that's not a book he intended for you and me. That's not a book he intended for you and me. That's his journal. He was writing these things to himself as the most powerful man in the world about how to be better, how to think more clearly, how to let things go. What was important, what his principles were, who he wanted to be as a person. So if you're one of those people that says, oh yeah, I'd like to journal, but who has the time? I don't have 20 minutes in the morning. I don't have time before bed. The most powerful man in the

world spent time with a journal every single day. He had to do it with far inferior technology to you and I. So you absolutely have the time. You have to make it. And in the final lesson, the final most important part of having a great week, at least according to the Stoics, is this idea of memento mori, of meditating on your mortality. I actually have a ring on my finger right here, a signate ring, which is an ancient form of jewelry, the Romans, all wore these. And on it, it says memento mori, and on the inside, it has inscribed from Marcus Rerelyus a quote, you could leave life right now, he says, let that determine what you do

and say and think. The idea that this could be the last week that we have on this planet. This could be the last day we have on this planet. This could be the last video that you watch. What are you going to do? Are you going to be present? Are you going to show up? Are you going to be distracted and inefficient?

Are you going to seize this moment? As Marcus Realius talks about, he says, do this as if it was the last thing you going to seize this moment? As Marcus really talks about, he says, do this as if it was the last thing you will do on this earth. Do it well, do it right. Don't take it too seriously. On the other hand, don't be too upset about anything. Life is too short. You can have a great week by focusing on the fact that it may be your last week on this planet. Ultimately, that's what stoicism is. It's a set of practical exercises and ways of thinking that make you better,

that give you tools for being productive, principled, honest, accurate, hard working, dedicated, clear-headed. That's what we try to do at Daily Stoic. I hope you'll check out more of our videos. I hope you'll check out the email that we send out every day. We go to dailystoic.com slash email. And most of all, I hope you have an out more of our videos. I hope you'll check out the email that we send out every day. Go to dailystoward.com slash email.

And most of all, I hope you have an amazing Stoic week. 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 on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.