The Daily Stoic - This Predicts Everything | Show, Don't Tell

Episode Date: May 1, 2023

Who a person is determines what will happen and what they can do. It’s true in sports. It’s true in politics. It’s true in business. No matter how talented a person is, how great the incentives, how great the system around them—in the end, character is everything. It can’t be hidden. It can’t be compensated for. It comes out.This is an excerpt from Ryan Holiday’s latest book The Daily Dad.---And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt reading, Ryan examines the importance of letting new ideas like Stoic philosophy germinate in your mind for some time before committing to them after first glance.📙 If you enjoyed this passage, please consider preordering a signed and numbered first edition of The Daily Dad: 366 Meditations on Parenting, Love, and Raising Great Kids before the May 2 release.✉️ 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.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke Podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. Welcome to the Daily Stoke Podcast. Each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stokes, 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're happy to be doing. So let's get into it. This predicts everything. Who a person is determines what will happen and what they can do. It's true in sports, it's true in politics, it's true in business, no matter how talented a person is, how great the incentives, how great the system around them in the end Character is everything. It can't be hidden. It can't be compensated for it comes out

Your job as a parent as you seek to create a better world for your kids and raise them to be good in the world It's to value character to teach it to them to kids and raise them to be good in the world is to value character, to teach it to them, to model it for them, to reward it when you see it in them. Yes, you want them to be smart. Yes, you want them to be ambitious. Yes, you want them to be creative and hardworking. But these traits are worthless, if not yoked, behind good character. We are seeing the cost of ignoring that in every facet of life right now. We need to fix it and the fix starts at home. It's funny I talked to lots of people and a good chunk of those people haven't

been readers for a long time. They've just gotten back into it. And I always love hearing that and they tell me how they fall in love with reading. They're reading more than ever. And I go, let me guess, you listen audio books, don't you? And it's true. And almost invariably, they listen to them on Audible. That's because Audible offers an incredible selection of audio books across every genre from bestsellers and new releases to celebrity memoirs.

And of course, ancient philosophy, all my books are available on audio, read by me for the most part. Audible lets you enjoy all your audio entertainment in one app. You'll always find the best of what you love, or something new to discover, and as an Audible member, you get to choose one title a month to keep from their entire catalog, including the latest best sellers and new releases. You'll discover thousands of titles from popular favorites, exclusive new series, and exciting new voices in audio. You can check out Stillness is popular favorites, exclusive new series, and exciting new voices in audio. You can check out Stillness' The Key, The Daily Dad. I just recorded so that's up on Audible now.

Coming up on the 10-year anniversary of the obstacle is the way audio books, so all those are available. And new members can try Audible for free for 30 days. Visit audible.com slash daily stoke. A text daily stoke to 500-500. That's audible.com slash daily stoke. a text Daily Stoke to 500-500, that's audible.com slash Daily Stoke, a text Daily Stoke to 500-500. Show, don't tell.

This is this week's entry in the Daily Stoke Journal, 366 days of writing and reflection on the art of living. The art of living isn't a set of teachings or a formula we can memorize. It's a practice that requires constant work. Epic Titus was constantly reminding his students not to pair it back with they learned in lecture hall or read in books, but to put that work into practice. He knew that progress you could see was better than any proclaimed. Let your journaling and thinking this week exhibit what you have done and what you are doing, not what you plan to do

or think you are. Let it be a catalog of your actions, good actions. As Epictetus says, those who receive the bear theories immediately want to spew them as an upset stomach does with its food. First, digest your theories and you won't throw up. Otherwise, they will be raw, spoiled, and not nourishing. After you've digested them, show us the changes in your reasoned choices, like the shoulders of gymnasts who display their diet and training and the craft of artisans show what they have learned. That's Epictetus's Discourses 321. First, practice not letting people know who you are. Keep your philosophy to yourself for a bit.

In just the manner that fruit is produced, the seed is buried for a season hidden, growing gradually, so it may come to full maturity. But if the grain sprouts before the stock is fully developed, it will never ripen. That is the kind of plant you are displaying fruit too soon and the winter will kill you. You know, this is a theme the Stokes talk about quite a bit. The idea of conceit being the impediment to improvement that ego is the enemy. And you know, when I look back, you know, I first introduced the Stokes now like 15 or so years ago, I look back at some of my early writings and I'm doing

exactly what Epic did is is talking about. I'm just regurgitating things that I'd heard. I mean, that exercise itself was was educational, but I didn't even begin to comprehend what I was talking about. It took time, it took experience, as Plutarch says, it's not that words that give us the meaning of experiences, but experiences that give us the meaning of the words. And so I wish I'd taken a bit more time. Now, this is obviously what some of these social media and blogging platforms do. It's a way of thinking out loud, but I actually wish I'd taken more sort of quiet reflective time to myself. And I think we do this whenever we discover something,

we get some product we like or join them, movement or a cause we like. And suddenly we become this evangelist for it. And I think part of that is out of insecurity, right? We want other people to like it. We're not quite sure what we think of it ourselves. So by bringing other people on, we feel less insecure.

We go, see, I'm not crazy. Other people like it too. But let's just slow down a little bit. If you're listening to this podcast for the first time, if you're new to stoicism, let it stew a little bit. Think about it a little bit. Look at it critically.

Find out what's wrong. Go read more about it, right? Find people who love stoicism, people who hate stoicism, consume it in different mediums, but just explore it. You don't have to convert, you don't have to identify yet.

Just keep thinking, let it remain underground, let it germinate, let it let it solidify there. And then when it comes out, it'll be in better shape and in better form. And so as you work on your practice, you don't have to put on errors, epictetus talks about this. Don't put on errors about yourself improvement.

He says, be humble about it. I definitely wish there was things that I hadn't said that I thought about longer, that I took time to that I thought about longer, that I took time to think about privately more. And that's probably most of my regrets on any social media platform is I jumped, I leapt out with my opinion instead of sitting on it,

doing it, thinking, letting it germinate. And I think that process is just really valuable. So slow down, that's the advice of this week's meditation. Slow down, think, really mull it over, turn it over in your mind, and the plant will be stronger for it. You will be stronger for it, your wisdom will be better for it. That's what we're working on. Anyways, stay at it, keep listening, I'll talk to you again next week.

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 add free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts. Celebrity feuds are high stakes. You never know if you're just gonna end up on page six or Du Moir or in court. I'm Matt Bellesai. And I'm Sydney Battle, and we're the host of Wondery's new podcast, Disantel, where each episode we unpack a different iconic celebrity feud from the buildup why it happened and the repercussions what does our obsession with these feuds say about us the first season is packed with some pretty messy pop culture drama but none is drawn out in personal as Brittany and Jamie

Lynn Spears when Britney's fans form the free Britney movement dedicated to fraying her from the infamous conservatorship, Jamie Lynn's lack of public support, it angered some fans, a lot of them. It's a story of two young women who had their choices taken away from them by their controlling parents, but took their anger out on each other. And it's about a movement to save a superstar, which set its sights upon anyone who failed to fight for Brittany.

Follow Dissentel wherever you get your podcast. You can listen ad free on Amazon Music or The Wondery App.