The Daily Stoic - There's Two Ways To Go | Doing The Right Thing Is Enough

Starting point is 00:00:00 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 another episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Thursdays we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation, but also reading a passage from the book The Daily Stoic, 366 meditations on wisdom, perseverance, and the art of living, which I wrote with my wonderful co-author and collaborator,

Starting point is 00:00:48 Stephen Hanselman. And so today we'll give you a quick meditation from one of the Stoics, from Epictetus Markis, really a Seneca, then some analysis for me. And then we send you out into the world to do your best to turn these words into works. There are two ways to go. As Caesar overwhelmed and destroyed the Roman Republic,

Starting point is 00:01:11 the Romans had a choice. Neither choice was good, but it was all they had. They could allow it to happen or they could fight. They could accept the bridal, as Plutarch put it, and with some humiliation keep their estates and their status and their life, accept the bridal, as Plutarch put it, and with some humiliation keep their estates and their status and their life, where they could fight desperately, hopelessly, against overwhelming odds.

Starting point is 00:01:31 It's like the lyrics to the Mountain Joy song. There's two ways it goes now, as our love comes crashing down. You could be the flame that burns out, or you could turn and burn it down. Cicero chose to go quietly along. Cato refused. Both were powerless, turns out, to affect much change at that moment. Caesar was too powerful. The Republican already fallen. But Cato chose to lay down his life to make the ultimate sacrifice and a statement of resistance. In so doing, he sealed Caesar's fate and made a statement about freedom and liberty loud enough that the founders

Starting point is 00:02:10 of America heard it 17 years later, informed a new nation around it. Asterisk doesn't always win, but they never go quietly along, keeping their stuff, keeping their fancy position at the cost of being a slave, or a sell-out, they'd rather be dead. They'd rather lose it all if there was a 1% chance of making a difference, not for themselves, than for future generations. Astolic fights, whether it's against a hedge fund looting the great company they've worked for for the last decade, or if it's against an illegitimate Vichy state. Asterok doesn't go quietly into the good night like Cicero, they rage like Kato,

Starting point is 00:02:51 they say what needs to be said, they don't let the light go out, they'd rather burn it down then give in. Because the Republic, literal, metaphorical, it matters. What you stand for, what you believe in, it's worth fighting for. Doing the right thing is enough. When you've done well and another is benefited by it, why like a fool do you look for a third thing on top? Credit for the Good deed or favor in return. Marcus Realius' Meditations, 773. The answer to the question, why did you do the right thing should always be because it was the right thing to do? After all, when you see, when you

Starting point is 00:03:33 hear or see another person do that, especially when they might have endured some hardship or difficulty as a consequence for doing the right thing, do you not think, well, that is a human being at their finest. So why on earth do you need thanks or recognition for having done the right thing? After all, you're only doing your job. This idea, Mark Shrewd, talks about the third thing, and I know I have another episode about this this week, but this idea of the third thing is the recognition, the credit, the gratitude, the reciprocation. But the Stokes would say, we don't control any of that. It's not a given.

Starting point is 00:04:08 It depends on other people. And to only do the right thing because you want to be rewarded for it, because you want to be recognized for it, is to put your heart out of your body on a platter for someone to stomp all over. The reality is, most things are not recognized. Good deeds go, rarely does a good deed go unpunished as the expression goes. So that can't be why we do it. We have to do the right thing because it's the right thing. There's a quote from Marcus, I love, he says, what is a kingship? It's to earn a bad reputation by good deeds, right? It doesn't matter how hard

Starting point is 00:04:47 you work, how many people you help, what you do. There's going to be people who just plain reject it, don't see it, get angry for you at it. I, like, every once in a while, I'll check like a YouTube video that we posted or someone will show me an Amazon review. And it's like, you know, objectively, overwhelmingly, this was good for people. They liked it. It was done from the right place. You provided real value and there'll be someone saying, you know, screw that guy.

Starting point is 00:05:15 I hate him. How dare you or whatever, right? But that, so if that's why you did it, you're gonna be disappointed. But if you did it because it was pleasurable to you, because you wanted to do it, you're going to be disappointed. But if you did it because it was pleasurable to you, because you wanted to do it, because you knew it needed to happen, and if you didn't do it, it might not have happened. Well, then who gives a crap? So I want you to get to a place where you do the right thing because it's the right thing, because you're trying to live up to the standards

Starting point is 00:05:40 you set for yourself. So you're trying to be an example for your kids. You're trying to make a difference. You're trying to write some wrongs you've done in the past. You've got to get there. I think about this, you know, in recovery, they talk about making amends, right? You have to go and apologize and, you know, try to make it right with someone. But that person can give you the middle finger. They don't have to accept your apology, right? They don't have to appreciate what you're going through. They don't have to help you. And so you have to get to a place too

Starting point is 00:06:14 where you're doing it because it's the right thing because it's part of your journey, for instance. But you have to come to terms with the fact that you don't control other people, your gestures not always gonna be received the way you want it to be received. You're not always going to make the progress you want to make. So you have to detach from the results, focus on the why, focus on the how, focus on the

Starting point is 00:06:35 what. Everything else is extra. Do the right thing because it's your job, do the right thing because it's the right thing. That's a human being at their finest. That's you at your finest, that's you being your best. That's what we gotta do today. Thanks so much for listening.

Starting point is 00:06:52 If you could leave a review for the podcast, we'd really appreciate it. Did the reviews make a difference? And of course, every nice review from a nice person helps balance out. The crazy people who get triggered and angry anytime we say something they disagree with. So if you could rate this podcast and leave a review on iTunes,

Starting point is 00:07:09 that would mean so much to us. And it would really help the show. We appreciate it. And I'll see you next episode. Hey, prime members. You can listen to the Daily Stokeic 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.

Starting point is 00:07:35 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.

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The Daily Stoic - There's Two Ways To Go | Doing The Right Thing Is Enough

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