The Daily Stoic - Tell Yourself: This Is All Worth It

Episode Date: December 27, 2019

Even if you’re not a college basketball fan, you may have heard about this incredible upset in 2018, when top-ranked University of Virginia was defeated by University of Maryland-Baltimore County in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. It was the first time in the tournament’s 80 year history that a number 16 seed beat a number one seed. Virginia had been the favorite to win the entire 68-team tournament, and then the biggest of underdogs came in and surprised everyone, pulling off one of the greatest victories in sports history. The Virginia loss ruined millions of brackets and could very well have ruined one man’s career. As one local Virginia newspaper put it, Virginia and head coach Tony Bennett “will be remembered in years, perhaps decades, to come, for becoming the first No. 1 seed...to lose to a No. 16 seed. That stain,” the article continued, “does not easily, if ever, wash away.”Maybe you’ve experienced a loss or a setback like that in your life. Maybe it’s worrying about that kind of failure that keeps you up at night--and keeps you out of big-time moments. God, we think, I hope that never happens to me. But that’s not how Bennett saw it. He decided to accept it—to take the hit. Because that’s all you can do, if you want to play on the biggest stages, at the highest levels, and test yourself against the best.. As he explained in a press conference after the game:That's life. We talk about it all the time...If you play this game, and you step into the arena, this stuff can happen...And all those who compete take that on. And so we'll accept it.That’s the first part. The Stoics knew you had acquiesce to misfortune, to the reality of life. If you play the game, sometimes you’ll lose. Sometimes you’ll lose big. What matters is what you do next. As Marcus Aurelius wrote, perhaps after one of his failures, “If you accept the obstacle and work with what you’re given, an alternative will present itself—another piece of what you’re trying to assemble.”The second part is beyond acceptance. It’s amor fati. It’s deciding to love what happened, to realize it was meant for you. Because it’s teaching you something. It’s leading you somewhere and preparing you for something...if you let it. For Coach Bennett, that was winning the national championship the following year. That’s right, Coach Bennett and his University of Virginia Cavaliers went from being the basketball world’s biggest goats in 2018, to “The GOAT” in 2019. As Coach Bennett explained in a recent speech: "All of the ridicule, all of the criticism, all the humility, all the things that happened, at that moment, it was crystal clear that it was all worth it...If you learn to use failure, suffering, adversity right, it will buy you a ticket to a place you couldn't have gone any other way." Acceptance. Amor Fati. That’s the recipe, that’s the right way to use adversity. That’s life. It’s buying us a ticket to a place we wouldn’t have gone any other way, but now that we’re here, let us get the most out of it. Accept it. Love it. Use it. It’ll take you somewhere great.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 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. Tell yourself, this is all worth it. Even if you're not a college basketball fan, you may have heard about the incredible upset in 2018 when University of Virginia was defeated by UMBC. It was the first time in 80 years of the NCAA

that a number 16 seed beat a number one seed. Virginia had been the favorite to win the entire tournament and then an underdog came and surprised everyone, pulling off one of the great wins in sports history. The Virginia lost ruined millions of brackets and quite possibly one man's career. As one local Virginia newspaper put it, Virginia head coach Tony Bennett will be remembered in years, perhaps decades to come, for being the first number one seed to lose to a number 16 seed, that stain, the article continued, does not easily, if ever, wash away.

Maybe you've experienced a loss or a setback like that in your life. Maybe it's the worry about that kind of failure that keeps you up at night. God, we say, I hope that never happens to me. That'd be understandable, but it's not how Bennett saw it. He decided to accept it to take the hit, because that's all you can do. As he explained in a press conference after the game, that's life. We talk about it all the time. If you play this game and you step into the arena, this stuff can happen.

And all those who compete take that on, and so we'll accept it. That's the first part. The Stoics knew you had to acquiesce to misfortune to the reality of life. If you play the game, sometimes you'll lose. Sometimes you'll lose big. What matters is what you do next. As Marcus Aurelius wrote, perhaps after one of his failures, if you accept the obstacle and work with what you're given, an alternative will present itself, another piece of what you're trying to assemble. The second part is beyond acceptance.

It's a more faati, a love of fate. It's deciding to love what happened, to realize it was meant for you, because it's leading you somewhere. It's teaching you something. It's preparing you for something if you let it. And you somewhere. It's teaching you something. It's preparing you for something if you let it. And that's what Coach Bennett did explaining in a recent speech, all of the ridicule, all of the criticism, all the humility, all the things that happened

at that moment, it was crystal clear that it was worth it. If you learn to use failure, suffering, adversity, right, will buy you a ticket to a place you couldn't have gone any other way. Acceptance, a more faulty, that's the recipe, that's the right way to use adversity, it's life. It's buying us a ticket to a place we couldn't have gone any other way, but now that we're here, let us get the most out of it, accept it, love it, use it. It'll take you somewhere. Great. Hey everyone, there's just a few more days to sign up

for our 2020 new year, new you Daily Stoke Challenge. I ask people like, look, what would you give to be the best person you know, you're capable of being? What would you do to get rid of some of your bad habits, replace them with new positive habits? Well, that's why we made this challenge. We wanna work on ourselves every day, day to day, delight in our own improvement, as Epictita said,

and this challenge is gonna help you do it, and it's gonna help me do it, cause I'm gonna be doing it there alongside you. You can check it out at dailystilic.com slash challenge, but on January 1, it closes and no one else can do it because that's when it starts. And hopefully that's when the new you begins as well. Hey, prime members, you can listen to the daily Stoke 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 Cotopaxi, 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 discuss 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 app. Celebrity feuds are high stakes. You never know if you're just going to end up on page 6 or Du Moir or in court. I'm Matt Bellesai. And I'm Sydney Battle, and we're the host of Wondery's new podcast, Dis and Tell, where each episode we unpack a different iconic celebrity feud. From the buildup, why it happened, and the repercussions.

What does our obsession with these feud say about us? The first season is packed with some pretty messy pop culture drama, but none is drawn out in personal as Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears. When Britney's fans form the free Britney movement dedicated to fraying her from the infamous conservatorship, Jamie Lynn's lack of public support, it angered some fans, a lot of them. It's a story of two young women who had their choices taken away from them by their controlling parents, but took their anger out on each other. And it's about a movement to save a superstar, which set its sights upon anyone who failed

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