The Daily Stoic - These Are Habits to Avoid

Episode Date: November 18, 2020

"Because of how Stoicism survives to us—mostly in the form of scraps and fragments and letters—we don’t exactly have a list of dos and don’ts. There are no Ten Commandments of Stoicism. No definitive book of what they believed or didn’t. But in those scraps and fragments, we do get plenty."Ryan explains what we know about how the Stoics felt about habits on 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 Daily Stoic: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 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. These are habits to avoid. Because of how stoicism survives to us mostly in the form of scraps and fragments and letters, we don't exactly have a list of do's and don'ts. There are no ten commandments of stoicism, no definitive book of what they believed or didn't. But in those scraps and fragments, we do get plenty. We know what Sennaka tried to do every night as he closed the day. We know what Marcus tried to think about in the morning. We

know what epictetus and Musonius Rufus said we ought to avoid doing. And it's that latter category that's worth thinking about today. What habits did the Stoic say we ought to cease? What vices should we avoid? Don't be overheard complaining even to yourself. That's Marcus. Don't put on airs about your self improvement. That's epictetus.

Don't overindulge in eating or drinking. Musoneus, don't speak more than you listen. Zeno, don't avoid difficulty. Seneca, don't tie your identity to the clothes you wear or the things you own. Kato, don't conceal what you truly believe. That's ariest didimus. Don't go along to get along.

That's a grippiness. Don't be all about business. Marcus, don't put off to tomorrow what can be finished today, Senika. Don't shun people you disagree with, Senika. Don't sleep the day away, Marcus. Don't neglect your friendships, Senika.

Don't waste time thinking you're going to live forever. That's all of them. We could list more, but really the most important thing to the Stoics, as far as forming good habits and kicking bad ones goes, it's awareness. Musoneus, Rufus believed that in too many circumstances, we do not deal with our affairs in accordance with correct assumptions, but rather we follow thoughtless habit. And Marcus said that we should learn to ask of all actions, why are you doing that? And he said, you must start with your own.

I really want to tell you about the Daily Stoke Habits course that we have. We're calling it Daily Stoke Habits for Success, Habits for Happiness. It helps you do what the Stokes are talking about, which is how to avoid bad habits, how to form better new habits. I think it's one of the best things we've done. It's six weeks of habit formation, thinking about philosophy, applying it to your everyday life. These are habits I try to apply in my life that Marcus and Seneca and Epictetus and Musoneus and all the stokes we've talked about tried to apply in theirs. It's great stuff based on philosophy, psychology, research, history and I think you're really

going to get a lot out of it. You can check that out at dailystoke.com slash habits or if you join daily stoic life, which you can join at dailystokelife.com, you get that course and all our other ones for free. So check both those out daily stoic life and daily stoic habits for success, habits for happiness. 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. Raising kids can be one of the greatest rewards of a parent's life. But come on, some days, parenting is unbearable.

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