The Daily Stoic - Just A Few Seconds Of Courage | A New Way To Pray

Episode Date: September 13, 2021

Ryan explains how a few seconds can define so much of your life, and reads this week’s meditation from The Daily Stoic Journal, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.Pre-orders are available for Ryan Holiday’s new book Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors The Brave - check it out at https://dailystoic.com/preorderSign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://DailyStoic.com/emailFollow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee 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 Stoic podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast. Each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics 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 stoic 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. Just a few seconds of courage. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wanderer's podcast business wars. Just a few seconds of courage. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wonderree'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. John F. Kennedy won the 1960 US presidential election by less than half a percentage point, but actually he won it by making two phone calls. As I explained in my new book Courage is Calling, in October of that year Martin Luther King was arrested. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested, denied bail, and sentenced to four months hard labor

on a chain gang. Coretta Scott King, worried that her husband might be beaten or lynched, called both the Nixon and Kennedy campaigns, who both desperately needed the black vote. Though he was friends with King and sought his advice when he led the Eisenhower administration's civil rights efforts, Nixon hesitated. Not wanting to wait into the middle of the controversy when the call came, Nixon betrayed King. Kennedy, meanwhile, made calls first to console Coretta and then secure King's release. King made it known who stepped

out for him when he needed it. Kennedy went on to win the election two weeks later by just 35,000 key votes across two states. How much time would it have taken to pick up a phone call and call the wife of a good man wrongly imprisoned? 20 seconds, 20 seconds of cowardice, cost, Nixon, the office. It doesn't matter who you are or what your track record is. What matters is what you do in the critical moment. Sometimes even less than a moment. Do you pull the trigger or are you too scared?

It takes just a few seconds to hit send on that email to get those first words out of your mouth to put your arm in motion to volunteer, to take that first step and a run towards a machine gun nest to switch your vote from yes to no or no to yes, to pick up the phone as Kennedy did. Can anyone promise that something good will come of this?

No. Outcomes are never certain. What is certain is that the failure to act, even just 20 seconds of cowardice, sticks to us like a scarlet letter. I was afraid is not an excuse that age as well, particularly for those who wish to be remembered well by the people they love, respect and admire. Think about that today as you consider whether to get up and approach that attractive person across the room as you're mulling over that big decision, as you're questioning whether

you should speak up or just go along with something you disagree with. Don't get intimidated by all of it as a whole, as Marcus Aurelia said. Just look at what's immediately in front of you. Take that single step. You can't swallow an elephant in one bite as the sand goes. You break courage down. The most important of the stoic virtues into little pieces. Because no one is brave generally. It can only be brave specifically for a few seconds. But, with a few seconds, we can be great. And that might just be enough. This idea of courage is actually the subject of my new book. Courage is calling Fortune Favours the Brave. It's the next series I've done after obstacle ego and stillness. This

is a four book series on the Cardinal Virtue's Courage, Temperance Justice Wisdom, and this one is out at the end of September. General James Mattis is called it a superb handbook for crafting a purposeful life. Matthew McConaughey called it an urgent call to arms for each and all of us. My dear friend, George Rowling says, it dresses us with the proper garments of courage, something we need now more than ever. We've got a bunch of awesome pre-order bonuses including signed copies of the book available. Just go to dailystilic.com slash courage. You can even get signed copies of the manuscript pages

if you pre-order enough. It doesn't matter what format you get it in just that you pre-order it. If you've gotten anything out of my podcast, my interviews, my writings over the years, it would mean so much to me. If you could pre-order courage is calling, I hope you check it out. Go to dailystoke.com slash pre-order or click the link below. A new way to pray. We often pray for things we desire, and in the process, excuse ourselves from the equation. We're hoping that the heavens will magically gift us with the outcome we want, whether it's for a promotion or a speedy recovery of a loved one. The Stokes would urge you to stop doing this. Marcus Aurelius reminded himself not to

present the gods with a list of demands for pleasures or comforts, but instead ask for help not needing those things. He was in a sense asking himself, so think about all the things you want that you're praying or hoping for, and try turning them around like this. See what you come up with instead. And this is from this week's entry in the Daily Steuord Journal, 366 days of writing and reflection on the art of living by yours truly and my co-writer and translator, Steve Enhancelman.

I actually do this journal every single day. There's a question in the morning, a question in the afternoon, and then there's these sort of weekly meditations. As Epictetus says, every day and night we keep thoughts like this at hand, write them, read them aloud, and talk to yourself and others about them. You can check out the Daily Stoke Journal, anywhere books are sold. You can also get a signed personalized copy for me in the Daily Stoke store at store.dailystoke.com. Try praying differently, Marcus writes in Meditations

940, see what happens. Instead of asking for a way to sleep with her, try asking for a way to stop desiring to sleep with her. Instead of asking for a way to get rid of him, try asking for a way not to crave his demise. Instead of a way not to lose my child, try asking for a way to lose my fear of it. And then Epic Titus and Discourse says, we cry to God Almighty, how can we

escape this agony? Don't you have hands? Or could it be that God forgot to give you a pair? Sit and pray your nose. Doesn't run or rather just wipe your own nose and stop seeking the scapegoat. And then Epictetus and discourse is for one. He says, but I haven't at any time been hindered in my will and were forced against it. How is that possible? I have bound up my choice to act with the will of God. God, wills that I be sick, such as my will. He wills that I should choose something. So do I. He wills that I reach for something or something be given to me. I wish for the same. What God doesn't will. I will not wish for. It's the idea of blowing your own nose.

That's a great expression from Epipetitis that I love. I think what the Stokes are talking about here is self-sufficiency. I was just reading a great little biography of Musashi, the Samurai swordsman, and I wrote down a line in my commonplace, but from him he says, you know, he says,

worship the gods in Buddha, but do not rely on them, right? He didn't want to go into a sword fight, hoping that Buddha would bless him. He trained for it to make that irrelevant, right? He wanted to rely on his sword and his actions. Remember the Stokes talk about what's in our control, what's not in our control.

I think what the Stokes are talking about is, don't pray for things that are not in your control that are not up to you. Don't make yourself dependent on getting lucky, on being blessed on your dreams coming true, on everything going right. Focus on having a plan that, as the Stokes say, is indifferent to all that, right?

There's another great line from Epictetus where he says, you know, a student's like, how should I do this? He says, you're asking me to show you what to do it. And he says, wouldn't it be better to ask to be adaptable to all circumstances? And so this is really where we're trying to get, a place where there isn't anything we pray for. I take some pride, you know, every year my wife will go,

what do you want for your birthday? I go, I don't, nothing, I don't want anything. There's nothing I need. There's nothing I want. It's not because I'm a billionaire. It's that I, I spent more time, you know, just getting the things that I did need, the tools I need for my life, for my, you know, my, my happiness. And then for the most part, being indifferent to all the other things and not needing to wait for my birthday or Christmas or a check to come in to be able to afford this thing. It's better to not want it in the first place. And I think this is true for all the kinds of luck or cool experiences or things that

we think we want or need. Now, either get it for yourself if it's possible or write it off. I think that's what the third quote, that final quote from my particular thing is, I'll just align my likes with what happens. If God wants me to have it, or the God's want me to have it, or the logos,

or whatever, Stokes obviously had complicated somewhat contradictory views on religion. But what will be will be what I get is what I get. I won't throw a fit, right? That's where we're trying to get a Stokes. Trying to get to this place of self-sufficiency where we blow our own nose, where we're good, whatever happens. And I wish that for you. It's not easy. It doesn't just happen. You've got to work for it. But that's what we're doing here. These meditations that I hope this helps, and I'll talk to you soon. My newest book, Courage is Calling Fortune Favors the Brave, is now available for pre-order.

We've got a bunch of amazing bonuses. You can get signed copies, of course. I'm so proud of this book. General Jim Mattis is called it a superb handbook for crafting a purposeful life. Matthew McConaughey called it an urgent call to arms to each and all of us. I do hope you check it out.

It's my first in the four virtue series Courage Temperance Justice Wisdom. Courage is calling Fortune favors the Brave. If you want to pre-order it, I'd really appreciate your support. Go to dailystoic.com slash pre-order. 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 add free with Wondering Plus in Apple podcasts.