The Daily Stoic - How Will You Account for This Time?

Episode Date: November 20, 2020

"When Ebola was first spreading, the news would run fascinating stories about the habits of the people who were unknowingly infected. These stories are often as revealing as they are cautionary. First, how clueless people are—how flagrantly they violate warnings and guidelines out of selfishness and dismissiveness. But more interestingly, how much time people waste."Ryan exhorts us to use the time given to us during the pandemic wisely, on today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee 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. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wundery'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. music or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Daily Stoic. For each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, 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 dailystowach.com. How will you account for this time? When Ebola was first spreading, the news would run fascinating stories about the habits of the people who were unknowingly infected. The same has been true for COVID-19. It always goes something like this. 39-year-old male on a flight back to Seattle from South Korea visited McDonald's three

meals a day for a week, went bowling with friends, worked on Sunday, and then cheated on his wife with a girlfriend. Or it's 57-year-old man finished a vacation in England, then went skiing in Italy, then licked the microphone at a condo board meeting after a multi-leg flight home in coach. Or it's 26 year old female who is feeling sick and told to stay home, attended church, then went to a concert, then to the post office, and then finished with a trip to the beach in Florida. These stories are revealing as they are cautionary.

First, how clueless people are, how flagrantly they violate warnings and guidelines out of selfishness and dismissiveness. But more interestingly, it shows how much time people waste. It calls to mind that story from Senaiko who observed the mind list almost automated wandering of the people in Rome. Nobody seemed to have any idea what they're doing day to day or why. They were just going from one urge or task to another, unthinking, unaware. And then these same people complain that life is short. Well, thankfully you are not one of those people, but you are right now stuck at home or in some heightened state of awareness. Maybe you're looking at an extended period of working from home or your travel has been canceled or a lot of your big projects have been rescheduled for the next year.

Okay. So now the question is how will you account for this time? What use will it be to you? It's worth imagining how our day to day existence would look if it were detailed minute by minute by a reporter. It's worth thinking about how proud or disappointed we would be of ourselves. If we had to detail to the authorities who and what we encountered over the last few weeks, were we wasting our time or were we using it, were we safe or stupid, were we mindless or intentional. Again, remember, we don't it, where we're safe, or stupid, where we mindless, or intentional. Again, remember, we don't control the moment we are in, but we do control what we do in the moment. We decide whether this period will be a dead loss

or a fruitful investment. We decide whether we will live it or simply live through it. And so, what will it be today for you? Hey, thanks for listening to the Daily Stoke Podcast. You can sign up to get our daily email at dailystoke.com slash email. I'd also encourage if you want to take your practice of stoicism to the next level to sign up for Daily Stoke Life, which is our members only program. It's got all sorts of awesome benefits.

You can check that out at dailystowaglife.com. Hey, Prime Members. You can listen to the daily Stowag 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. 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 Codopaxi, 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 Wonder yet. your podcasts. You can listen early and add free on the Amazon or Wonder yet.