The Daily Stoic - It Blows You Away | Just Say No to Future Misery

Episode Date: August 22, 2022

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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 Podcast. Each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stokes, illustrated with stories from history, current events, and literature to help you be better at what you do. And at the beginning of the week, we try to do a deeper dive, setting a kind of stoke, intention for the week, something to meditate on, something to think on, something to leave

you with, to journal about whatever it is you happen to be doing. So let's get into it. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wunderree'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. It blows you away. There's an initial skepticism to any ancient philosophy. How could these dusty old dead guys, usually rich white guys, possibly relate to my life?

What could they possibly understand about the modern world? But perhaps that's what makes the first time one reads the stoic such a powerful experience, as Joe Rogan recently talked about when he had me as a guest. You pick up even a half decent translation of Marcus Realis and somehow space and time and status falls away and you're communing with the Emperor of Rome. The same thing with the writings of Epictetus, how could you possibly relate to the experiences of a slave? The Stockdale did, finding that Epictetus explained everything he needed to know after being shot out of the sky in a jet and taken prisoner by a communist guerrilla army. Why is this? Well,

the Stokes would dispute any credit to their brilliant writing style or philosophical genius though both were true It's because as the philosophy teaches people are people and life is life the ancient world was very different than ours But it's also exactly the same people were ambitious siblings argued over money marriages were pulled apart by betrayal and temptation Fate delivered painful news what could go wrong did by betrayal and temptation. Fate delivered painful news, what could go wrong did. Plagues, wars, political dysfunction, that was their world then, just as it is our world now. And the things they discovered about themselves living in that world? Well, they're as simple and as true today as they were then. Focus on what you control. Be good. Be brave. A veil yourself of the wisdom of the past. Just say no to future misery.

How often we make ourselves miserable in advance, at a fear of this, at a desperate hope for that. When we focus on pining for avoiding a certain future, we make ourselves miserable here in the present. Hakato of Rhodes, a great student of the Middle Stoic Scholar Panitius, taught that this misery is always tied to hopes and fears that we have of imagined future outcomes. And so from this, Seneca reminds us to say no to both, because indulging in hope or fear robs us of the ability to enjoy the present. So today, try not to think so much

about the future, what you hope will happen, what you fear might, and just focus on right now, be where you are, with what you're doing, what you're thinking right now. And this is from this week's entry in the Daily Stoke Journal, 366 days of writing and reflection on the art of living by yours truly Ryan Holiday. You can pick this up anywhere, books are sold. I use this journal myself every single day. And you can also pick up a sign copy at store.dailystoke.com.

It's ruinous for the soul to be anxious about the future and miserable in advance of misery, Seneca writes in moral letters, engulfed by anxiety that the things that desires might remain its own until the very end. For such a soul will never be at rest, by longing for things to come, it will lose the ability to enjoy present things. Then Seneca again, there is no reason to live and no limit to our miseries if we let our fears predominate. And then going back to the original quote, Seneca and Moral Letter says, Hakato says cease to hope and you will

cease to fear. Primary cause of both these ills, then instead of adapting ourselves to the present circumstances, we send out our thoughts too far ahead. You know, it's funny in my podcast interview with Oliver Berkman in his new book, 4,000 hours, he quoted something that he said is a real British expression, but I had actually heard a couple days earlier in Ted Lasso, the idea that it's the hope that kills you. Which, it's not that the still eggs are nihilists who, you know, don't hope. It's that they try to get to a place of indifference, where they're just like, whatever will be will be, I'm going to be good with it.

This is also a theme that came up in my interview with Dr. Edith Eger, who wrote the choice, which was about her experience in the Holocaust. And she talks about how there was a person who knew she knew in the camps who thought they would get out, be freed by a certain date. And then the woman died on that day of despair, of disappointment. And Admiral Stockdale talks about this that it was the optimists who got crushed, right? Because they said, oh, in March,

oh, in June, oh, by Christmas. But this was not something in their control. And so, in a way, hope is the same as fear. It's to hand over your happiness, your, your contentment, your ability to continue on to some arbitrary thing or event or person or intervention in the future, which is not up to you. I've been trying to think about that during the pandemic. Just is, man. It just is. It'll be over at some point, but I don't need it to be over by any point. I'm going to adjust to what is.

I'm going to accept it unflinchingly in the sense that it simply is. I'm going to adapt to it. I'm going to adjust to it. I'm going to make it unflinchingly in the sense that it simply is. I'm going to adapt to it. I'm going to adjust to it. I'm going to make the most of it. I'm going to be here now. I'm not going to rob myself of the present, right? The person who needs it to be a certain way or needs it to not be that way.

And that's why they're afraid. Sena Kusrite, that soul will never be at rest. And by longing for things or by fearing things, we lose the ability to enjoy present things. I thought this little phrase, particularly good one, and I think it's worth repeating again, where he says, to be miserable in advance of misery.

That's what fear is, right? But hope is just the opposite of misery. That's what fear is, right? But hope is just the opposite of that. It's just being delusional in anticipation of an event outside of your control, which often will be misery. So just try to put fear or hope aside. Just try to be, be here with this, whatever it is, wherever you are, whether that's a plane ride you have today, whether that's traffic you're stuck in, whether it's a job, you have a couple more months left in, or maybe it's just, maybe it's battling an illness or a blown out knee, just is, don't magically hope it's going to get better, don't fear it getting worse, just be with it now. Focus on what you can do now.

Enjoy present things as best you can. Be indifferent, as the stoic say, which is to say, good with any of the possibilities, because you are good, you are capable. And that's the stoic prescription. For you this week, say no to future misery. It's not worth it. I'll talk to you soon. 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.

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