The Daily Stoic - There’s a Bad Moon Rising

Episode Date: July 13, 2020

"The global economy was strong for over a decade. All sorts of wondrous new technology is cheaper than ever before. You might think this is cause for major celebration, and indeed, for many people, it was."Ryan talks about how we must always be ready for the future, good or bad, in today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee 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. music or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Daily Stoic. For each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the 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 dailystowach.com. There's a bad moon rising. The global economy was strong for over a decade. There have been no major wars since the 1950s. There have been no nuclear bombs dropped in anger since 1945. All sorts of wondrous new technology is cheaper than ever before. You might think that this is caused for major celebration, and indeed for many people, it

has been. Yet for all the positivity of the last 12 months or so, you would have also heard when you talked to smart people and politics and in finance, a growing and general sense of unease. For months, they had begun to think that setbacks were a reset were not just likely, but inevitable. Maybe it would be a war, maybe another recession. Maybe it would be something related to climate change. Nobody was sure, but the experts all seem to share a mood

not unlike the lyrics to the classic Creedence Clearwater Revival song. I see a bad moon arising. I see trouble on the way. I see earthquakes and lightning. I see bad times today. While this might be a little depressing, it is in fact a very stoic exercise. Actually, it's quite close to one of the rules that Seneca swore by.

As he wrote, clinging to the nail to the following rule, not to give in to adversity, never to trust prosperity, and always to take full note of Fortune's habit of behaving just as she pleases, treating her as if she were actually going to do everything. It is in her power to do. A stoke is suspicious of a party that goes on too long

or too much uninterrupted success. They know that what goes up must come down. It's not that they're afraid. It's just that they're ready. They enjoy good times like everyone else, but unlike everyone else, they don't get too comfortable while these times roll. Indeed, would you believe that the original draft of this email, written way back in late 2019, actually contained lines about how there had been no truly deadly pandemics like those that had ravaged the world for most of human history. And it spoke of political unrest that spreads throughout the world.

Life is unpredictable, fortune is fickle, don't take good times for granted, use them to prepare, use them to grow strong and resilient, not fat and entitled. This way you can thrive no matter what the state of the world is. It's important that you don't just speculate about these things, but plan for them. What would happen if things suddenly shifted? Would you be okay? Or would you be caught flat-footed? What preparations have you made for far less peaceful times? What would you do if you lost your job or your income went down by half?

Could you make do with less household help? Could you survive on your own? Because it's scary and as bad as things are right now, whereas unscathed as you might think you've been, they can still get worse. The moon may still be rising, more trouble, maybe on the way. Thanks for listening to the Daily Stoic podcast. If you could leave us a review in iTunes,

it helps a great deal. And of course, if you know anyone who had benefit from these messages, please spread the word. Thanks. 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.