The Daily Stoic - There’s Only One Path To Greatness | Try the Other Handle

Episode Date: June 14, 2021

“Thirteen years before Marcus Aurelius would be old enough to legally hold any public post, Hadrian decided something extraordinary: he was going to make Marcus Aurelius the emperor of Rome. What was it that Hadrian saw in this young boy?”Ryan discusses the importance of reading, and reads this week’s meditation from The Daily Stoic Journal, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.Blinkist is the app that gets you fifteen-minute summaries of the best nonfiction books out there. Blinkist lets you get the topline information and the most important points from the most important nonfiction books out there, whether it’s Ryan’s The Daily Stoic, and more. Go to blinkist.com/stoic, try it free for 7 days, and save 25% off your new subscription, too.***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 Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@daily_stoic 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 Stoic podcast early and add free on Amazon music download the app today Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast each day. We bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics Illustrated with stories from history Current events and literature to help you be better at what you do. And at the beginning of the week, we try to do a deeper dive, setting a kind of stoic intention for the week, something to meditate on, something to think on, something to leave you with, to journal about, whatever it is you happen to be doing. So let's get into it.

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. There is only one path to greatness. 13 years before Marcus Aurelius would be old enough to legally hold any public post, Hadrian decided to do something extraordinary. He was going to make Marcus Aurelius the future emperor of Rome. What was it that Hadrian saw in this young boy? What gave him the sense that he was destined for great things? Hadrian regarded himself as the greatest polymath

of all time, Frank McClinn says in his biography of Marcus Aurelius, and Hadrian wasn himself as the greatest polymath of all time, Frank McClendon, says in his biography of Marcus Aurelius, and Hadrian wasn't bashful about his affection for other intellectuals. Hadrian bestowed honors and riches on tragedians, grammarians, comedians, and rhetoricians, McClendon says, like it or not, Hadrian judged a man by his interest in literature. From an early age, Marcus Aurelius showed that he fit that bill. His tutor, Fronto, wrote that Marcus used to go about in public with two serious a face and used to read books at the theater and at bankwits. McGlin talks about how the worst that his detractors could say about him was that he sometimes took books from the

city libraries for his own use. That was exactly the kind of person that Hadrian was drawn to. Young or old Hadrian believed that a love of reading was one of the surest signs that greatness lay ahead. And that love seemed to be inherent in Marcus, but that's not always the case. More often it's cultivated by the seeking and unseeking alike. When he was in second grade, Harry Truman came down with a rare bacterial infection that paralyzed his arms and legs. The boy who could hardly stand to be indoors was suddenly and helplessly bedridden.

That's when he started reading his sister recalled, he couldn't do anything else. Truman read so much that when, miraculously and abruptly, he recovered, it was recommended that he skipped third grade. The infection would never come back, but the reading bug it turns out was incurable. I don't know anybody in the world that ever read as much or as constantly as Harry did when Cousin said, he was what you'd really call a bookworm. A classmate remembered, I saw Harry go home from school many a time with two or three books on the weekends, and I guess by Monday he'd read them all. He became obsessed with finding out what caused success and failure he said and he poured over

Plutarch's lives. Biographies, even Marcus are really his meditations and Truman's copy was famously filled with notes and underlines. Even comments were he disagreed with Marcus. The great Truman concluded were all readers of books, particularly books of biography and history. Not all readers are leaders, he said, but all leaders are readers. Hadrian, Newett, Marcus, Newett, Truman knew it. So what are you waiting for? Why aren't you reading more? Why aren't you challenging yourself as a reader?

You've got to be. Try the other handle. Epic Titus offered a powerful tool in his handbook, The Incaridian, which the Stoics use as an exercise in decision-making about difficult events. Everything, Epictetus says, has two interpretations or handles by which it can be grabbed. One that will make it harder,

one that will make it easier. Do you take a fence or do you focus on a common ground? Do you focus on all that's gone wrong or what has gone right? Ask yourself these questions about everything you see and feel. Try to always grab the right handle. That's from this week's entry in the Daily Stoke Journal, 366 days of writing and reflection on the art of living, which you can get anywhere books are sold, including, of course, my book store, The Painted Porch, which you can check out, thepaintedporsche.com or come see us on Main Street in Basterp, Texas. Let's listen to Epictetus drill down on this.

Every event has two handles. He says, one by which it can be carried and one by which it can't. If your brother does you wrong, don't grab it by its wrong doing, because this is the handle incapable of lifting it. Instead, use the other, that he is your brother, that you are raised together, and then you have hold of the handle that it carries. The Zeppictetus in Criadian 43, and then he says in discourses 4-1,

no, it is events that give rise to fear when another has power over them or can prevent it, that a person becomes able to inspire fear. How is the fortress destroyed, not by iron or fire, but by judgments? And it is here that we must begin. And it is from this front that we must seize the fortress and throw out the tyrants. So this idea of grabbing things by the handle, in fact,

there's this interesting list you can Google it, Thomas Jefferson wrote a bunch of rules for one of his young relatives. And he says somewhat elusively, he says, you know, always grab things by their smooth handle. And I think it was Donald Robertson who pointed out to me that he's referring to Epic Teed as grabbing by the right handle. Instead of the rough handle, grab the smooth handle. The point being, stuff happens. Are you going to try to say this was done to me? Or are you going to say this is done for me, or are you gonna say this is done for me? Are you gonna say, look at all I've lost?

Are you gonna say, look at all I've gained? As Epictetus says, you're gonna say, look at my brother, what did he do when an asshole? Are you gonna say, this is my brother? I love him. He would never hurt me on purpose. You grab the handle that makes you stronger, the one that gives you agency,

not the one that strips you of agency. You grab the one that gives you agency, not the one that strips you of agency. You grab the one that gives you hope, not the one that strips you of hope. You grab the one that gives you a path forward, not the one that freezes you hopelessly in place. What's the right handle? That's what we're thinking about. And every situation has a handle. And are you going to get mad?

Are you going to use it as an opportunity? I think about this with my kids. They do something. Am I going to lose my temper and show them that I lose my temper and that I should be afraid. They should be afraid of me or that they should hide things from me. Or am I going to use it as a chance to talk to them to teach them something famously. The story of George Washington and the Cherry Trees teaching this lesson. His father catches him chopping down the cherry tree. He asks who does it, George Washington tells the truth. His father could be angry, he just has a confession from his son that he chopped down a priceless cherry tree, instead the moral of the story is, I'm glad that you

told me the truth, and you can trust me, I'm not going to punish you for having told me the truth, I'd rather you chop down my trees than tell a lie, right? What handle are you going to choose as a parent, as a teacher, as a boss? And by grabbing the right handle versus the wrong handle, are you making the relationship stronger? Better? Based on trust, based on online incentives, based on shared history, or by grabbing the wrong handle, are you showing them to lie?

Are you showing them to hide things? Are you showing them that you should be feared? That you should be ignored? That you can't be taken seriously. That you're not really their ally or friend. Right? The handle we choose matters. Even Epictetus, you've got to imagine, he's trapped in slavery. It's horrible. He spends the first 30 years of his life that way. Does he choose to see this as the worst thing that could possibly happen or does he learn from it? Even the so-called Stockdale Paradox. And he says, I knew I would survive. And if I did, I would turn this into the very best thing that happened to me. That's choosing to grab the right handle, that's choosing to grab the smooth handle, which is what you must do, which is what we must all do in any and all

situations. And that's it for me today. I'm exhausted. I've just spent all day recording videos. You hear my voice going out a little bit, but I'm trying to tell myself, this is one day among many. Is making me stronger. I'm getting better for it. I'm crossing off stuff. My listening and focus on what I really need to be doing. I'm gonna try to grab the good handle today. So should you. Talk soon. I'm going to try to grab the good handle today. So should you. Talk soon. That line from Truman is actually the inspiration for our Read to Lead course.

Again, not all readers are leaders, but to be a leader. You have to be a reader. Look, I love that you're listening to the podcast, but reading is just an essential practice. You've got to make time for it. I don't care if it's audio books or physical books, but you have to read and you have to have a reading practice. And that's what we built the Read to Lead Challenge around. You can check that out at dailystoke.com slash reading.

It's just one of the best things we've done. It's all sorts of stoic inspired wisdom, plus great stories from folks like Harry Truman. And then really practical, applicable prompts and exercises that will help you become a better reader over the next few weeks. It's awesome. We're heading into a new year here. It's a great year to invest in reading, to invest in becoming a better leader. So check it out dailystoke.com slash reading. 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.

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