The Daily Stoic - Life Comes At You Fast Pt II

Episode Date: December 21, 2018

Just two and a half years ago, General Michael Flynn stood on the stage at the Republican National Convention and led some 20,000 people (and a good many more at home) in an impromptu chant of “Lock Her Up! Lock Her Up!” about his enemy Hillary Clinton. A few months later, he was swept into the White House with the Trump Administration, finding himself now the National Security Advisor to the most powerful man in the world. It was an incredible second act for a man who had been unceremoniously fired by the previous president and whose sanity many had questioned when he had first signed on with the campaign.That’s life. It comes at you fast.But then, just 24 days into his new job. Flynn was fired once more, in this case for lying to the Vice President about conversations he’d had with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States. Soon enough there was a special prosecutor breathing down his neck with criminal charges for lying to the FBI. On December 18th, a grand total of 29 months since his appearance on that stage in Cleveland, Michael Flynn found himself standing before Judge Emmet Sullivan, who had the power to decide whether it was he who would be locked up, and possibly branded as a traitor.Again, life comes at you fast.The purpose of today’s email is not to gloat at the fall of Michael Flynn, a man who in a previous lifetime served his country honorably, but to ring the reminder that all tragedies are supposed to ring: That our fates are always uncertain and that hubris only makes them more precarious.It was ambition of the kind that Flynn had--the desire to get ahead, or to get even, at all costs--that the Stoics warned against time and time again. Indeed, Seneca’s own life was a cautionary tale that Flynn might have done well to study as he greedily gobbled up consulting and speaking fees from foreign entities, and whose painful dance with power might have served as a deterrent to a man considering entering another controversial administration.When we take shortcuts, when we fall in with the wrong crowd, when we act in ways we know run contrary to the principles we believe in...we are chipping away at our own security and our own peace of mind. When we attack the flaws in other people and ignore our own (or, use that as a strategy to obscure our own), we are writing the end of our own tragedy.Life comes at us fast. It is unmerciful and often poetic in the justice that it metes out. Be careful. Be ready. And, more than anything, don’t be your own worst enemy.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 the 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. Life comes at you fast, part two. Just two and a half years ago, General Michael Flynn stood on the stage of the Republican National Convention and led some 20,000 people in a good many more at home in an impromptu chanting of lock her up,

lock her up about his enemy Hillary Clinton. A few months later he was swept into the White House with the Trump administration, finding himself now the national security adviser to the most powerful man in the world. It was an incredible second act for a man who had been unceremoniously fired by the previous president and whose sanity many had questioned when he first signed on with the new campaign. But that's life. It comes at you fast. But then just 24 days into his new job, Flynn was fired once more. In this case for lying to the vice president about conversations he'd had with Sergei Kislyak,

the Russian ambassador to the United States. Soon enough, there was a special prosecutor breathing down his neck with criminal charges for lying to the FBI. On December 18th, a grand total of 29 months from his appearance on that stage in Cleveland, Michael Flynn found himself standing before Judge Emmett Sullivan, who had the power to decide whether it was he who would be locked up and

possibly branded as a traitor. Again, life comes at you fast. The purpose of today's emails not to gloat at the fall of Michael Flynn, a man who in a previous lifetime served his country honorably, but to ring the reminder that all tragedies are supposed to ring, that our fates are always uncertain, and that hubris only makes them more precarious. It was ambition of the kind that Flynn had, the desire to get ahead, or to get even at all costs, that the Stoics warned against time and time again.

Indeed, Senaq's own life was a cautionary tale that Flynn might have done well to study, as he greedily gobbled up consulting and speaking fees from foreign entities, and whose painful dance with power might have served as a deterrent to a man considering entering another controversial administration. When we take shortcuts, when we fall in with the wrong crowd,

when we act in ways we know, run contrary to the principles we believe in, we are chipping away at our own security and our own peace of mind. When we attack the flaws in other people and ignore our own or use that as a strategy to obscure our own, we are writing the end of our own tragedy. Life comes at us fast. It is unmerciful and often poetic in the justice that it melts out. Be careful, be ready, and don't be your own worst enemy.

Epic Titus' line was how much longer are you going to wait until you demand the best for yourself? I think he was really saying how long are you going to wait until you demand the best for yourself? I think you was really saying how long are you going to wait until you demand the best of yourself? And for that reason we've created this new 14-day Stoic challenge. I'm just going to kick off on January 1st. I hope you'll check it out. It's 14 days of awesome Stoic-based challenges that make you a better person, a better learner, a better thinker. Whatever it is, I think you'll like it. I'm going to be doing it. It's an awesome community that goes along with it. If you want to check it out, you can go to dailystoic.com slash challenge.

But remember, this closes on at 11.59 pm on December 31st. If you want to kick the year off right, I hope you join us daily stoic.com slash challenge. 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 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 discussed 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. Ah, the Bahamas. What if you could live in a penthouse above the crystal clear ocean working during the day and partying at night with your best friends and have it be 100% paid for? FTX Founder's Sam Bankman Freed lived that dream life, but it was all funded with other people's money, but he allegedly stole. Many thought Sam Bankman Fried was changing the game as he graced the pages of Forbes and Bannety Fair. Some involved in crypto saw him as a breath of fresh air from the usual Wall Street

buffs with his casual dress and ability to play League of Legends during boardroom meetings, but in less than a year, his exchange would collapse, and SPF would find himself in a jail cell, with tens of thousands of investors blaming him for their crypto losses. From Bloomberg and Wondering, comes Spellcaster, a new six-part docu-series about the meteoric rise and spectacular fall of FTX and its founder, Sam Beckman-Freed. Follow Spellcaster wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, prime members, you can listen to episodes Add Free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon

Music app today. spellcaster wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, prime members, you can listen to episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.