The Daily Stoic - This Is Not For The Weak | Stake Your Own Claim

Episode Date: December 22, 2023

In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius says that what you throw on top of a fire is fuel for the fire. But anyone who has had a little campfire going knows how easily you can snuff out the flames with a poorly placed log or even a few sticks. Marcus is speaking metaphorically of obstacles, not of an actual campfire…but that metaphor only works with a few assumptions.-And with today's meditation on the day's Daily Journal excerpt, Ryan reminds us stake our own claim with actions.For the last five years, we have been doing what we call the Daily Stoic New Year New You Challenge—a set of 21 actionable challenges, presented one per day, built around the best, most timeless wisdom in Stoic philosophy. 21 challenges designed to set you up to be able to say, whatever happens in 2024 and beyond, this is precisely what I trained for.. Demand more of yourself in 2024. Prepare for whatever is ahead. Head over todailystoic.com/challengeand sign up NOW!✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcasts. On Friday, we do double-duty, not just reading our daily meditation, but also reading a passage from the Daily Stoic. My book, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance in the Art of Living, which I wrote with my wonderful collaborator, translator, and literary agent, Stephen Hanselman. So today, we'll give you a quick meditation from the Stokes with some analysis from me, and then we'll send you out into the world to turn these words into works. In meditations, Marcus really says that what we throw on top of a fire is fuel for the fire.

But anyone who has ever had a little campfire going knows how easily you can snuff out flames with a poorly placed log or even a few sticks. Marcus is speaking metaphorically of obstacles not an actual campfire, but the metaphor only works with a few assumptions. For one, he's assuming that everything is flammable. Is that really true? Not exactly. But even if we grant that everything will incinerate at some temperature, we're still admitting that things can burn at a wide range of temperatures. So perhaps what Marcus really means is that your fire has

to be really hot. It has to be really roaring. If you want to be able to turn what is thrown into it, as he says, into flames and brightness. If we look at the metaphor Marcus uses right before this fire, one, his message is clear, a strong stomach digests what it eats, he says. So then a small weak fire is not going to be able to handle a big dry log. So just as a weak stomach isn't going to be able to digest what you put in it. A small weak fire is not going to be able to handle a big dry log, let alone something harder. And it's definitely not going to be able to melt steel or glass.

And so it goes for us with obstacles. If we want to be the metaphorical fire that turns everything into fuel, we must be quite strong. We must have real momentum. We must be operating at a high and heated level by the very materials that others are able to make use of. I told this story before, but the first Airbnb I stayed in was 15 years ago. I was looking for places to live when I wanted to be a writer and we stayed at this house, I think outside Phoenix. And then when I bought my first house here in Austin, I would rent it out when South by Southwest

or F-1 or all these events. My wife and I would go out of town and we'd rent it and it helped pay for the mortgage and it supported me while I was a writer. You've probably had the same experience. You stayed in an Airbnb and thought, this is doable. Maybe I could rent my place on Airbnb.

And it's really that simple. You can start with a spare room or you can rent your whole place when you're away. You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. Maybe you set up a home office during the pandemic and now you don't need it because you're back at work. Maybe you're traveling to see friends and family for the holidays.

While your way, your home could be an Airbnb. Whether you could use extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun, your home could be an Airbnb. Whether you could use extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun, your home could be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host. Give yourself the gift of coho and take some of the sting out of your holiday spending this season.

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Stake, your own claim. This is the December 22nd entry in the daily Stoic. Now, quote today comes to us from Seneca Moral Letters 33. For it's disgraceful for an old person or one in sight of old age to have only the knowledge carried in their notebooks, Zeno said this, but what do you say? Clienthe said this, what do you say? How long will you be compelled by the claims of another? Take charge and stake your own claim. Something posterity will carry in its notebook.

I'm using in his own notebook about the topic of immortality. Emerson complained about how writers dance around a difficult topic by relying on quotes. I hate quotation, he wrote, tell me what you know. I'm going to tell you a little backstory about that in a second. Santaica was throwing down the same gauntlet some 20 centuries before. It's easier to quote to rely on the wise words of others, especially when people you're deferring to are such towering figures.

It's harder and more intimidating to venture out on your own to express your own thoughts. But how do you think those wise and true quotes from those towering figures were created in the first place? Your own experiences have value. You have accumulated your own wisdom too. Stake your claim, put something down for the ages in words and also an example.

So I was maybe like 20, 21 years old, I was writing for the college newspaper and I'd written this review and I published it and did okay. And then I actually heard from the person I was reviewing in it. And they were like, I said, they gave me some feedback and I said, hey, could we really get on the phone? I would really, I just want to grow as a writer,

can you give me some feedback? And they're going through it and he was pointing out all the quotes in it. And he gave me that Emerson quotation for the first time in a way. He said Emerson said something like, I hate quotation, tell me what do you know. And that lesson has stuck with me in all of my writings. Yes, I talk about the Stokes. My writing is influenced and is in many ways an attempt to introduce the Stokes people. But one of the passes that I do on my own books as I go through them, after I've written it, I write them just, what do I want to say?

What's my, you know, what's my supporting arguments? Like, how do I want to illustrate it? And then I go through and I go, where am I over relying on quotes here? Where can I get rid of them? Where can I, Where am I over arguing things or not telling you what I know but telling you what someone else knows? Speak of quotes. There's a rule I heard from Nisim Teleb where he actually said, you should only quote people when you disagree with them. The point is make

your own arguments on your own merits. But I think this is a really important part of the stoic practice. If you think about what meditations was for Marcus, right, it's not him arguing stoicism to the public. It's him arguing the stoics to himself. So he does use quotes from time to time, but he's not really having to think that much about attribution. And he's not really trying to think about publication or the audience at all. He's just thinking about what does he need to hear, what does he know to be true and what needs to be said,

what does he need to be reminded of. And I think it's important that we understand that stoicism, the study of stoicism is not a one way street. It's not just downloading the information from the originals, from me, from other people, it's also putting their own spin on it. It's disagreeing with them. It's adding your own view. Stoicism should be better, different, added to as a result of you having studied and learned

about it. That doesn't mean you're all going to publish bestselling books or articles or videos. It's all going to be well known. But make your own contributions, put your own spin on it, feel free to disagree, feel free to argue, feel free to push back, feel free to add. I feel like one of my contributions to soicism was the connection between stoicism and Nietzsche, the idea of a Morphati. I brought that in. I'm also with the help of RoboGreem, but I brought that together, and that's a practice

of stoicism that did not exist before, or an explicit connection that did not fully exist before. In lives of the Stoics, I put all the Stoics, their biographies in one place, in the daily Stoic itself, I combined the Stoics in a way that they'd never been combined before. And I made arguments that some people disagree with. I made statements that are, I think are true, but not, again, not everyone agrees with, but they didn't exist before. I put my own spin and I put my own stamp on it, which is what you and everyone listening

needs to do, not just with words. In fact, with words least of all, most of all with our actions, with what we do, with who we are. So that's today's message from the Daily Stoic. I hope you enjoy it. Just a reminder, we're getting close to the end of the year. The Daily Stoic New Year, New U Challenge is almost ready to start. Don't wait till the last minute.

Don't procrastinate. I'd love for you to sign up now, dailystoke.com slash challenge. I'm gonna be in there, thousands of stokes from all over the world are gonna be in there. I think this is our best one yet. We've done it for five years now, this is our fifth one. It's gonna be awesome.

I'd love to see you in there, sign up dailystoke.com slash challenge. Remember also, if you sign up for daily stoke, life at dailystokelife.com, you get this challenge and all the challenges totally for free. So I'll see you on Jan 1 when we get rolling into this thing. Thanks so much for listening. If you could rate this podcast and leave a review on iTunes, 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 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. Hi, it's me, the Grand Poova of Bahambad, the OG Green Grump, the Grinch from Wondery. Tis the Grinch Holiday talk show is a pathetic attempt by the people of Ruvil to use my situation as a teachable moment. So, join me, the Grinch, along with Cindy Luhu.

Hello, everyone. And of course, my dog Max, every week for this complete waste of time. Listen, as I launch a campaign against Christmas cheer, grilling celebrity guests, like chestnuts on an open fire. Now try to get my heart to grow a few sizes, but it's not gonna work, honey. Your family will love the show! As you know, I'm famously great with kids. Follow Tiz the Grinch Holiday Talk Show on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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