The Daily Stoic - Today is a Day of Rebirth | A Day in the Life of a Stoic

Episode Date: April 4, 2021

On today’s special episode of the podcast, Ryan describes the universal message of redemption that can be found in the story of Jesus Christ’s execution. He also takes us through a typical day and what he does to keep balance and clarity as he goes through his day according to Stoic philosophy. This episode is brought to you by LMNT, the maker of electrolyte drink mixes that help you stay active at home, work, the gym, or anywhere else. Electrolytes are a key part of a happy, healthy body. Right now you can receive a free LMNT Sample Pack for only $5 for shipping. To claim this exclusive deal you must go to drinkLMNT.com/dailystoic. Get your FREE Sample Pack now. If you don’t love it, they will refund your $5 no questions asked.This episode is also brought to you by Literati Kids, a subscription book club that sends 5 beautiful children’s books to your door each month, handpicked by experts. Literati Kids has book clubs for children ages 0 to 12, and each club has age-appropriate selections tailored to what your child needs. Every Literati Kids book in your child’s box is hand-picked by experts and guaranteed to spark their curiosity, intellect, and spirit of discovery. Go to literati.com/stoic to get 25% off your first two orders and receive 5 incredible kids books, curated by experts, delivered to your door every month.***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 @DailyStoic: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 Stoic podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Stoic. Each weekday we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoic, something that can help you live up to those four Stoic virtues of courage, justice, wisdom, and temperance. And here, on the weekend, we take a deeper dive into those same topics. We interview stoic philosophers. We reflect. We prepare. We think deeply about the challenging issues of our time. And we work through this philosophy in a way that's more possible here when we're not rushing to work or to get the kids to school. When we have the time to think, to go for a walk, to sit with our journals, and to prepare

for what the future will bring. Today is a day of rebirth. In the year 33, a man was put to death in a way that expresses the full cruelty of imperial Rome. He was beaten. He was killed on full display after being forced to carry the weight of the tools of his annihilation to the site of his ultimate demise. No, not Cicero, whose head and hands in tongue

were put up in the forum by Mark Antony, or the stoic Gaius Ploutus, whose head was cut off and mocked by Nero, or Senaiko, whose poison had his wrists slit and smothered at the orders of the man he had tutored into adulthood, or even Justin Martyr, who during Marcus Aurelius' time was beaten, whipped until the skin was torn from his body, and then beheaded. This man referred to as Christus, and Tacitus' writing, was brutally crucified and intumed. And then, three days later, he rose again. Now, whether you consider the events of Jesus' death to be holy to you or not. There is nevertheless a powerful lesson in them. A man went bravely to his death.

A man with his last words said, forgive them father for they know not what they do. A man died willingly believing he would absolve mankind for its sins. And then from this loss, he and mankind were reborn. We should take this day, Easter Sunday, as a moment to reflect on the beauty of rebirth and redemption, especially this Easter,

as we begin to see the light at the end of the long dark tunnel that has been our collective journey through the COVID-19 pandemic. No matter what has happened, no matter what we've done, none of us are beyond redemption. Even in the brutality of Jesus' execution, there is evidence of this. Well known is the story of the Roman soldier who as Jesus was writhing on the cross offered him a sponge soaked in vinegar. This has

long been taken as an example of extreme cruelty. In fact, it is the opposite. The Roman legions drink vinegar wine to reduce their thirst. This was an act of mercy, quite possibly a great risk to the soldier. There is good in all of us, even those of us who have done bad things. There is hope for all of us. The future can be brighter as dark as the past year has been. Let today, regardless of your beliefs, mark a moment of rebirth, of rejuvenation, of re-emergence. Tell yourself, as Epic Tita said, that you are not going to wait any longer to demand the best of yourself. Don't, as Marcus Aurelius reminded himself choose to be good tomorrow, choose to be good today for it is a new day and it can be the beginning of a new you as well.

Happy Easter everyone. I hope this is a special day for you. I hope everyone is being safe and smart and I hope you keep trucking along and I'll talk to you soon. And I hope you keep trucking along, and I'll talk to you soon. 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. Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to another weekend episode,

the Daily Stoke Podcast. We've talked about, when it gets to realises routine, we've talked about, Sena Kazroutine, we've talked about habits, we've talked about all the practices and systems that Stokes had in the ancient world

to navigate the chaos and disorders and distractions of life. And one of the questions that I've gotten the most to get the most is what is my routine look like? What is a day in the life of someone trying to practice stoses? What does that actually look like? What are the habits or practices that we can take from the ancient world and adapt and apply in the modern world? Obviously it's a little different. I'm a writer, but in addition to being a writer, I'm a parent, I'm a business owner, I'm a citizen, I'm someone who tries to stay in shape and fancies myself a bit of an athlete. So all of those sort of needs and obligations and responsibilities,

the balance and the tension between all of them, and sort of coalesced into what I think of as like the ideal day for me. And so in today's episode, we're gonna walk through that. What does a day in the life of a stoic look like? You can feel free to take or reject as much of this as you like, apply or adapt as much of this as makes sense for you. You can hate it, you can love it, but this is the point of stoicism which is to take these ideas and incorporate them into not just your routine, but into the actions you take on

a daily basis. As Sena could say, a life is made up of days, so let's try to live each day, including today and tomorrow as well as we can. The ancients talk a lot about this idea of the good life, but they never really define it. So what is it? What is it? Santa could give us a clue. He says, one day is equal every day. I think he's saying that a life is made up of good days.

The goodness is the Stokes tells us a lot about good days. I tried to build my own life around good days. I tried to build my life around the teachings of the Stokes. So I thought I'd give you a day in the life of a Stoke, a day in the life of Ryan Holiday. I get up early, I get up at 6am, maybe 7am. You have to. Marcus really talks about struggling to get out of bed in the morning. He says, struggling at dawn when you awake, Says, you have to tell yourself, I'm going to do the work of a human being. He didn't say it was easy, but he said you have to do it. I remember writing that quote down and putting it on my wall in my college dorm room

because I didn't want to get up early, but it was an important thing for me to remind myself to do. Under the blankets is no way to fame. That's what Dante says. I'm not trying to get famous, but I do want to be great, and the mornings are too important to waste.

So I get up early, and my first rule is no phone. I don't use the phone in the morning for a minimum of one hour that I'm awake, no touching the phone. And it's because I don't want to be an item on somebody's to-do list. I don't want my email to decide how my day is going to go. I don't want random social media alerts to determine whether I'm going to be happier upset or angry or distracted. So what

I do instead is I go for a long walk. I put on a wait vest. I grab my two kids, put a minister or we go for a walk. It's much as three miles every morning. It's a mile and a half from my house to the end of our road where our mailboxes are and back. We watch the sun come up. We look for animals. We pick up trash if we see it by the side of the road.

We play, we sing songs, it's the best. And by the time I'm home, I'm in such an amazing headspace. And that's the perfect place to go into the next part By the time I'm home, I'm in such an amazing headspace. And that's the perfect place to go into the next part of my day, which is I sit with a journal, one of them that daily stoke journals. And this journaling is just for me. The stokes were about reviewing, the stokes were about examining, asking yourself questions. My journaling is a conversation with myself.

And Frank says, you know, paper is more patient than people. I love that. There's really no way to separate stoicism and journaling. They're the same thing. You know, Mark's realises, Meditations is to himself. It's his journal to himself. So, the journal helps me clear my mind.

It helps me get centered. It helps me remember. It helps me work on myself. Seneca talks about putting each day up for review, and that's so important. You can't get better if you don't look honestly and with self-awareness at who you've been over the last 24 hours. So I wanna see what I can improve, where I fell short.

And the pages in my journal, they're just for me, I never will show me. I never will show anyone. I don't even often look at them myself, but it's the process of writing them down that helps me get better. Then I get to my office, which I love. You know, it's this old building. And I just love walking into it. I love thinking about the people who've been here before me. I love thinking of the things they've endured, this pandemic. I mean, the people that came into this building, they worked through the Spanish flu, World War One,

World War Two, the Cold War, 68, 9, 11, all of it. And it just, it centers me. You know, I find that really like humbling, but also inspiring. And I think about that history as I'm putting my stuff in the fridge and walking up to my desk. For me though, as soon as I get here, it's right into the deep work.

That's what I want to start my day with. I want to do it early before stuff can intervene. I want to do it while I'm still fresh. Marcus really says, we have to concentrate like a Roman. He says, do this thing in front of you as if it is the last thing you are doing in your life. So I do my writing in two, three hours. That's it. And that probably doesn't seem like a lot.

But the still looks new that good work is realized by small steps. It's not a small thing, but good work is created in small steps. Like, ten books. How is I able to write ten books? A couple hours a day for ten years. There's no real secret. That's just it. Steady day after day work.

And so by the time I'm done with my writing for the day, it's usually 10, 11, and then it's time for me to break my intermittent fast. I think intermittent fasting is a great stoic practice. It's about enforcing some discipline on yourself. I used to think about food all the time. Now I have this small eating window. Like I only eat from basically 10, 11 to like 5 p.m.

So I stop eating a little after 5 in the evening. I don't eat until 10 or 11. So that it's only in that middle of the day window that I even think about food. I think that's really important. I don't want to think about or crave food at any other time. Got a quick message from one of our sponsors and then we'll get right back to the show. Stay tuned.

Raising kids can be one of the greatest rewards of a parent's life. But come on, someday, parenting is unbearable. I love my kid, but is a new parenting podcast from Wondry that shares a refreshingly honest and insightful take on parenting. Hosted by myself, Megan Galey, Chris Garcia, and Kurt Brownleur, we will be your resident not-so-expert experts. Each week we'll share a parenting story that'll have you laughing, nodding, and thinking. Oh yeah, I have absolutely been there. We'll talk about what went right and wrong. What would we do differently?

And the next time you step on yet another stray Lego in the middle of the night, you'll feel less alone. So if you like to laugh with us as we talk about the hardest job in the world, listen to, I love my kid, but wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. And then while I'm eating lunch, that's one of the times that I read during the day. I'm always reading one book at a time. I'm always using physical books. I'm taking notes.

Like, how do I manage to read with two kids? It's because I squeeze it in and times like this. It's not really about the raw time you spend reading. It's about what you read and how you read the stoic say. EpicTitus says, I gotta know what you're reading to know if you're getting better, not that you're reading. So it's important that I spend this time with the books, a mind that isn't given over to real accession will break like it's that simple. And after this, it's back to email, phone calls, meetings,

whatever like the administrative stuff I have to do in the day. I have to do that stuff, but I'm not gonna build my day around it. I try to have a limited calendar. It's not filled with stuff, but I want to do it after I've done the important stuff for the day. It's in the afternoon that I record stuff like this after I've done my important stuff. What I don't want to do is try to push my important work

to later in the afternoon and then stuff intervenes. In the late afternoon, you know, it's usually in the afternoons I go home. I go home pretty early like three, four o'clock and then it's time in the pool with my kids. The stills don't talk about joy enough and I think that's a shame. I know they enjoyed doing things. I said I could talk about, you know, kids playing with sandcastles in the beach. There's this story of this Spartan king who's caught by one of his men. He's riding a stick horse around the house

with his kids and the king looks at him and he says, don't tell anyone about this and don't you dare judge me until you have kids yourself. The time I spend with my kids, the crazy stuff we do, the things I do to make them laugh. This is the stuff that makes life worth living. This is the fun stuff. You know, there's nothing better than that plan,

being ridiculous. Like, I could probably make more money if I worked longer. I could probably write more books if I stayed at the office longer, but what am I doing this for if not for them? And if I don't have time to do that stuff, I don't see my day or my life as a success. Dinner with the family comes next.

I haven't missed a dinner with the family in seven months. It's been a huge gift to the pandemic. We eat and then we go for a second walk as a family. We usually do the second walk around our property. We look at stuff. It's wonderful to see like our property through our kids' eyes. It makes me appreciate things. It makes me feel grateful.

You know, again, it's that joy thing. When Sena is talking about that kid making a sandcastle to beach, I want to get to that place. I want to make sure every single day has some of that. When we get home, you know, that it's farm chores, feeding the cows, checking on the donkeys, get them hay if they need to. It's extra work to live on a farm. Like, no question, it's not easy, but it's good work, you know. I talk about this in stillness. It's like connecting to live on a farm like no question. It's not easy, but it's good work You know, I talk about this in stillness. It's like connecting with the land being outside doing something like doing manual labor It's really important. I really get a lot out of it. I know Marcus really is love nature talks about walking through a field and seeing the grain bending low under It's weight talks about the flex of foam on the borers, checking on the olive trees. I go out in the back field, I hear the

cow's yelling and I watch the sun come down. I'm like totally at peace. Let's back home, put the kids to bed, we read poetry together, we read books, we have a snack, I put them in the bath. Epic Titus talks about, he says, as you tuck your kid into bed at night, you have to tell yourself that they might not make it to a morning. That's like, maybe the hardest thing to do in the whole world that goes against every fiber of my being, but I actually do that exercise.

Obviously, I didn't understand it before I had kids, but I do that exercise and it slows me down. Why am I rushing through this? Why am I saying no, we can't read one more book. So I know, check fucking email, who cares, right? So I can go watch Netflix, Matt. I want to actually soak this in because like, who knows how many bed times you get with your kids?

After they sleep, that's when I work out, I run, I swim, I bike, whatever. You have to get active. The stoics call this hardwinter's training. You're preparing for the endurance, that life's gonna demand of you. And if you're not, if you haven't built that endurance moment, how do you put up with something like this pandemic,

something that drags on for months and months and months? The secret for me is I get like all my best ideas running. I usually come back and I'm scribbling a bunch of notes. I'm then gonna use when I do my writing in the morning. So it's physically and mentally rewarding for me. Then I'm back, I watch TV with my wife, we talk, we read, clean up the house, spend, that's our alone time together, we wind down, really.

You've got to wind down. In bed, I read a little, sometimes I have a copy of my original copy of Marcus Realis and my bedside table, I go through it, I read whatever book I'm into, then it's bed, important rule, no phone in the room. go through it, I read whatever book I'm into, and it's bad. Important rule, no phone in the room. I do not want to be interrupted while I'm sleeping.

I do not want to be tempted by the phone. And when I fall asleep, I just, I go, man, that was a good day. I did everything I could, I lived. And then, when I wake up, if I wake up, because who knows, but if I wake up, I get to feel a centric of feels, which is that lucky. He says, the man who goes to sleep thinking I have lived wakes up the next day to a bonus. And I've already had a good life, right? Now I get to do it for one more day, at least.

And that's what the life of Aesthoic is. It's a good life. It's a gift. And I want you to come try it with me. Thanks so much for listening. 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, 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

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