The Daily Stoic - Remind Yourself Who is in Charge

Episode Date: December 24, 2021

Ryan discusses how you can turn anything into a good thing, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.Get signed copies of Courage Is Calling in the Daily Stoic Store.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://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 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. on music or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom every day life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoweth.com.

Remind yourself who is in charge. There's that cliché bit of advice. Do one thing every day that scares you. The Stoics might say, do one thing each day that you'd rather not do. Seneca regularly took cold plunges and intermittently fasted, when Marcus Aurelius discovered philosophy he made a habit of sleeping on the ground. Kato made his walks around Rome barefoot in the warmer months and bare headed in the colder months. Epicetus exercised and lifted weights. The body should be treated rigorously, Seneca wrote wrote, so that it may not be disobedient to the mind.

How can you expect yourself to step out of your comfort zone when the stakes are high if you aren't regularly doing it when the stakes are low? We must test ourselves daily. We must make courage a habit. We must remind ourselves who is in charge. You, not the pull, to be comfortable. You, not the desire for everyone to like you, you, not the need to sound smart and all knowing. If you don't want to fail yourself in the big moments,

the best thing you can do is practice in the little ones. We can crank the knob in the shower to cold, we can volunteer to address the rowdy audience, we can put on the silly costume to please our kids and not care what anyone thinks. We can admit that we don't know something. The risk of eye rolls and condescension, we can agree to try what we have never tried before. And then, when it counts, we'll know what to do. The brave thing, the right thing, the thing we'd rather not do, but know we have to do. Does a chapter in Courage is calling about John McCain, sort of this habit of being the Maverick, taking the unpopular political stance, sort of final act of his

political career was precisely that. And he trained for it, and he worked for it, and he, I would imagine a little bit of Stockdale rubbed off of him, rubbed off on him there in the Hanoi Hilton and therefore indirectly some stoicism. But I think the idea of courage, the idea of doing something that scares you, is that you build it up as a resource, as a muscle, so that you can act on it when it really, really counts. That's what the book is about. I hope you check it out.

And it's sign copies in the Daily Stoke store at store.dailystoke.com. And of course, you can grab the audio book, the ebook, Kindle, iBooks, Audible, whatever, support your local independent bookstore. We have copies here at my bookstore that painted porch as well. But I'd love for you to support the new book. Check it out. Appreciate the sport, everyone. Be well. Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic 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. 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 Wonder yet. under yet.