The Daily Stoic - Surrender But Don’t Give Yourself Away

Episode Date: January 31, 2024

The fact of life is that we’re going to get tossed around by forces outside our control. Never forget fortunes’ habit of behaving exactly as she pleases, Seneca reminds us, never forget that adversity is inevitability. There would be war, he said, and torture and shipwrecks and exile, along with a lot less dramatic stuff: traffic jams, divorces, food poisoning, annoying neighbors, bad weather, pets that run away.The only option according to the Stoics was to submit. No amount of wishing otherwise, no amount of anxiety, no amount of power or wealth would fully protect us from this. We had to surrender to the fates, let them guide us. But perhaps we could add to this idea a little corollary from Cheap Trick—surrender, but don’t give yourself away.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 DailyStoic.com. Surrender but don't give yourself away. For more, you can visit us at dailystillup.com. There would be war, he said, torture and shipwrecks and exile along with a lot of less dramatic stuff like traffic jams and divorces and food poisoning and annoying neighbors and bad weather and pets that run away.

The only option, according to the Stoics, was to submit. No amount of wishing otherwise, no amount of anxiety, no amount of power or wealth would fully protect us from this. We had to surrender to the fates. We had to surrender to the fates to let them guide us. But perhaps we could add to this idea a little corollary from Cheap Trick. Surrender, but don't give yourself away.

Stockdale obviously had to surrender as a POW. You had to accept his powerlessness. He had to be objective reality of his fate and captivity. And yet he kept the most important part of himself to himself within himself. Marcus really accepted the job of the emperor, which he did not seek out, but there was a part of himself to himself within himself. Marcus really accepted the job of the emperor, which he did not seek out, but there was a part of himself, the part we read in the pages of meditations

that it did not allow his professional identity to consume. We all have to surrender and accept and exceed to the events that life throws at us. There will be moments when we have to give up, when we have to admit defeat. But like Stockdale, like Marcus, like a stoke, we don't have to give ourselves away in the process. Nothing can make us depart from our virtues and values but ourselves.

No one and nothing has any say over our character. That's always ours. 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 on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts.