The Daily Stoic - How You Look At Things Matters

Episode Date: January 29, 2020

If you’ve ever been stuck in Los Angeles traffic at night, you know it’s miserable. But if you’ve ever seen a helicopter shot of Los Angeles at night, you’ve seen how this same miserable experience can suddenly be made to seem beautiful and serene. We call one a traffic jam, the other a light show.The chaos of international politics can strike us with fear—wars break out, property is destroyed, and people are killed. Yet if you zoom out just slightly, all those terrifying CNN updates seem to blur together into an almost coordinated dance of nations lurching towards a balance of power. We call one journalism, the other history.Same thing, different perspective. Life is like that. We can look at it one way and be scared or angry or worried. We can look at it another and find an exciting challenge. We can choose to look at something as an obstacle or an opportunity. We can see chaos if we look up close, or order if we look from afar. Which is the right lens? What perspective does the Stoic bring to each experience? That’s a trick question. The Stoics alternate between lenses, choosing to see things in the way that allows them to move forward, to reduce anxiety, to find humility, or even humor. As Epictetus said, each situation has two handles—one that will bear weight and one that won’t. We have to choose carefully and properly. The world is dyed by our thoughts, colored by the glasses we decide to wear. So that’s what you have to think about today and always. How are you going to look at things? Which perspective will you choose? Will you choose to be miserable or awed? Terrified or reassured? It’s up to you. It’s up to us.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. How you look at things matters. If you've ever been stuck in Los Angeles traffic at night, you know it's miserable.

But if you've ever seen a helicopter shot of Los Angeles at night, you know how the same miserable experience can suddenly be made to seem beautiful and serene. The chaos of international politics can strike us with fear. Wars break out, property is destroyed, and people are killed. Yet if you zoom out just slightly. All those terrifying CNN updates seem to blur together into an almost coordinated dance of nations lurching towards a balance of power. We call that history. Same thing, different perspective.

Life is like that. We can look at it one way and be scared or angry or worried. We can look at it another and find an exciting challenge. We can choose to look at something as an obstacle or an opportunity. We can see chaos if we look up close or order if we look from afar. Which is the right lens? What perspective does the stoic bring to each experience? That's a trick question, the stoics alternate between lenses, choosing to see things in the way that allows them to move forward, to reduce anxiety, to find humility, even humor. As Epictetus has said, each situation has two handles, one that will bear weight and one that won't. We have to choose carefully and properly.

The world is dyed by our thoughts, colored by the glasses we decide to wear. So that's what you have to think about today and always. How are you going to look at things? Which perspective will you choose? Will you choose to be miserable or odd, terrified or reassured? It's up to you. It's up to us. If you're liking this podcast, we would love for you to subscribe.

Please leave us a review on iTunes or any of your favorite podcasts listening apps it really helps and tell a friend. Hey Prime Members you can listen to the Daily Stoke 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. Celebrity feuds are high stakes. You never know if you're just gonna end up on page six or Du Moir or in court. I'm Matt Bellasai. And I'm Sydney Battle, and we're the host of Wondery's new podcast, Dis and Tell, where each episode we unpack a different iconic celebrity feud from the build up, why it happened, and the repercussions. What does our obsession with these feuds 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 Lynnins 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 set its sights upon anyone who failed to fight for Britney. Follow Dissentel wherever you get your podcast. You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music or the Wondery app. 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

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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. Or check out how I built this, wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and add free on the Amazon or Wondery app.