The Daily Stoic - Do Not Ignore This Warning

Episode Date: December 31, 2019

In Greek mythology, the god Apollo curses the Trojan princess, Cassandra, with the power of accurate prophecy that will always be ignored. In Aeschylus’ play Agamemnon, Cassandra is brought back to Greece after the capture of Troy as one of the great spoils of war. Unlike Agamemnon, who is happy to be home, Cassandra predicts ominous deaths for both herself and her new master. “I know that odor,” she says, “I smell the open grave.” She warns him that death is near, but he won’t listen. Agamemnon ignores the obvious signs and walks right into a trap—taking her with him. Soon enough, they are both murdered by Clytemnestra, his jealous, cheating wife. Cassandra might not be real, but the essential truth of her warning to Agamemnon is real enough: Memento mori. The grave is dug and waiting for each us. We know this, it was prophesied to us at birth—that one day we would die—and yet we go around living as if that isn’t true. We spend our time as if we have an infinite amount of it, as if someone isn’t waiting to steal our kingdom like Clytemnestra.A new year sits before us, but how many of us are holding our noses? Plugging our ears? Closing our eyes? Pretending as if we know for certain that we have plenty more left. Blithely acting as if nothing threatens us, as if we can afford to be entitled and unprepared. As Marcus said, we could leave life right now. We could leave life this week, this year, this morning. Are you ready? Have you been living with that in mind? Or have you been in denial? Do not wait for the doctor to deliver the prophecy to you a second time: You have cancer. You have leukemia. We’re not able to stop the bleeding. It will be too late when you hear these words. You’ll never get back what you wasted.Don’t ignore Cassandra’s warning. Do not doom yourself to a rude awakening—or rather a very rude and sudden sleep. Be ready. Be prepared. Listen. Live. While you still can.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 Stoke podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. Welcome to the Daily Stoke. For each day, we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living good life. insight, wisdom necessary for living good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com. Do not ignore this warning. In Greek mythology, the God Apollo curses the Trojan princess Cassandra with the power of accurate prophecy that will always be ignored.

In the Escalus play Agamemnon, Cassandra is brought back to Greece after the capture of Troy as one of the great spoils of war. Unlike Agamemnon who is happy to be home, Cassandra predicts ominous deaths for both herself and her new master. I know that odor, she says, I smell the open grave. She warns him, but he won't listen. Agamemnon ignores the obvious signs and walks right into a trap, taking her with him. Soon enough, they are both murdered by his jealous, cheating wife.

Cassandra might not be real, but the essential truth of her warning to Agamemnon is real enough, Memento Mori. The grave is dug and waiting for each of us. We know this, it was prophesied to us at birth that one day we would die, and yet we go around living as if that isn't true. We spend our time as if we have an infinite amount of it, as if someone isn't waiting to steal our kingdom from us. As Marcus said, we could leave life right now. Are you ready? Do you make your choices accordingly? Do not wait for the doctor to deliver the prophecy to you a second time. You have cancer.

You have leukemia. We're not able to stop depleting. It will be too late when you hear these words. You'll never get back what you wasted. Don't ignore Cassandra's warning. Do not doom yourself to a rude awakening or rather a very rude and sudden sleep. Be ready. Be prepared, listen, live while you still can. Hey everyone, there's just a few more days to sign up for our 2020 new year, new you daily

stoke challenge. I asked people like, look, what would you give to be the best person you know, you're capable of being? What would you do to get rid of some of your bad habits, replace them with new positive habits. Well, that's why we made this challenge. We want to work on ourselves every day, day to day, delight in our own improvement, as EpicTDA said, and this challenge is going to help you do it. And it's going to help me do it because I'm going to be doing it there alongside you.

You can check it out at dailystilic.com slash challenge, but on January one, it closes and no one else can do it because that's when it starts. And hopefully that's when the new you begins as well. Hey, prime members, you can listen to the daily Stoic early and add free on Amazon music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts. Hey there listeners! While we take a little break here, I want to tell you about another podcast that I think

you'll like. It's called How I Built This, where host Guy Razz talks to founders behind some of the world's biggest and most innovative companies, to learn how they built them from the ground up. Guy has sat down with hundreds of founders behind well-known companies like Headspace, Manduke Yoga Mats, Soul Cycle, and Cotopaxi, as well as entrepreneurs working to solve some of the biggest problems of our time, like developing technology that pulls energy from the ground to heat in cool homes, or even figuring out how to make drinking water from air and sunlight. Together, they discuss their entire journey from day one, and all the skills they had to learn

along the way, like confronting big challenges, and how to lead through uncertainty. So, if you want to get inspired and learn how to think like an entrepreneur, check out how I built this, wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and add free on the Amazon or Wondery. Celebrity feuds are high stakes. You never know if you're just going to end up on page 6 or Du Moir or in court. I'm Matt Bellesai. And I'm Sydney Battle, and we're the host of Wonder E's new podcast, Dis and Tell,

where each episode we unpack a different iconic celebrity feud. From the buildup, why it happened, and the repercussions. What does our obsession with these feud say about us? The first season is packed with some pretty messy pop culture drama, but none is drawn out in personal as Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears. When Britney's fans form the free Britney movement dedicated to fraying her from the infamous conservatorship, Jamie Lynn's lack of public support, it angered some fans, a lot of them. It's a story of two young women who had their choices taken away from them by their controlling

parents, but took their anger out on each other. And it's about a movement to save a superstar, which sets its sights upon anyone who failed to fight for Brittany. Follow Disenthal wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music or The Wondering App.