The Daily Stoic - What If This Made You Stronger? | The Sphere of Choice

Episode Date: January 11, 2021

“It wouldn’t be wonderful if it weren’t true. But it is: “Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way,” the philosopher and Nobel Prize winner Albert Schweitzer said, “but must accept his lot calmly if they even roll a few more upon it.”Ryan explains the timeless art of turning trials into triumph, and reads this week's meditation from The Daily Stoic Journal, 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 Stoke 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. on music or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. Each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics, 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 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 happen to be doing. So let's get into it. What if this made you stronger? It would be wonderful if it weren't true, but it is. It would be wonderful if it weren't true, but it is. Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way. The philosopher and Nobel Prize winner Albert Schweitzer once said, but they must accept their lot calmly if they even roll a few more stones upon it. Not only did people have to march for civil rights,

they had to fend off attack dogs and mobs and policemen's batons. Great works of art not only struggled to find publishers or galleries, but they were actively discouraged by the supposed experts and critics. Sure, successful entrepreneurs are handsomely rewarded for their success, but think of all the endless headaches they had to endure to get there. Daughters, regulations, ungrateful customers, bad luck right now. People in the private and public sector are struggling to produce a life-saving vaccine and encountering all this and more to truly make it in this life. It's not just enough to endure these difficulties.

It requires something deeper, something more profound. Switzer said we need to cultivate a strength which becomes clearer and stronger through the experience of such obstacles and that this is the only strength that can conquer the difficulties of life. In other words, we must become like the image of fire that Marcus Aurelius invokes, the one that makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it. Because life and other people will roll and throw so much at us. Criticism doubts, competition, difficulties, deceit, obstacles, take many forms, but inevitably they always appear sometimes

in isolation, sometimes in a landslide, sometimes in a landslide in a pandemic. Our only option is to take energy from this, to be made better for it. We must learn from the obstacles. We must take consolation in them. If it were easy, then anyone could do it, and the goal wouldn't be worth pursuing. We must gather strength and muscle from each experience. We have to remember the obstacle is the way, or rather the obstacles are the way. The sphere of choice. If the first step is to discern what is or isn't in our control, the second step in Stoke philosophy is to focus the energy on the things we have a choice about.

The Stokes viewed the soul as a sphere that when well-tuned, well-directed was an invincible fortress against any trial or circumstance. Protected by our reason, this sphere of choice was like a sacred temple, and it is the only thing we truly possess in this life. We are the product of our choices, so it is essential that we choose well. This week, consider and reflect on the choices you have about your emotions, your actions, your beliefs, and your priorities. Keep this thought at the ready at daybreak, and through the day and night,

there is only one path to happiness, and that is in giving up all that is outside your sphere of choice, regarding nothing else is your possession, surrendering all else to God. Unfortunately, Epic Titus discourses 4-4. Who then is invincible, the one who cannot be upset by anything outside their reasoned choice? Epic Titus discourses 118. The soul is a sphere true to itself, and neither projects itself towards any external

thing, nor does it collapse on itself, but instead radiates a light which it shows itself, the truth of all things and truth in and of itself, Marcus Aurelius meditations 11, 12. Well, here we are. We were talking about this last week, you know, you only have so many energy points. You only have so much, so many resources. How are you going to spend them? Are you going to spend them on what's up to you? Are you going to spend them on what's not up to you? Are you going to emote about things and pretend

that that makes a difference? Or are you going to spend your energy trying to do something about this thing that you found so upsetting? Right? So I think people think that that stoicism is about resignation. It's not. It's about allocation. It's resigned to the things that make no difference, where you can make no difference. But it's very focused, intensely focused on the areas that you can make a difference. So you could despair about the larger,

you know, political trends in your country because you're one person and you're, you know, at odds with the majority, but maybe you can make a difference with your family, with your community, you could run for school board or mayor or something like that, right? What can you do as the individual? That's not to say the stokes aren't interested in collective action.

I'm just saying, I'm going to focus my energy where it's going to make a difference. And as a stokes, they be indifferent to the things where I can make no difference, right? Where can you make a difference? Right? You know, it's tempting as a writer, right? Because our jobs are writers that have opinions about things. But that's a really dangerous way to go through your life thinking that the world gives a shit about your opinion, right? And that having the opinion is the thing that matters

and that it doesn't matter, right? What matters is what you do, what are the actions, right? We ended the year with the idea from the Stokes about turning words into works. Well, what are you providing? Where are you putting your resources? And are you putting them towards where they have input, where they have efficacy? Right? So Estok is resigned in some sense to, look, I'm not going to get involved in that nonsense.

I'm not going to waste time regretting the past either. What I'm going to try to do is move forward. What I'm going to try to do is move ahead. When I'm going to try to do, let's move ahead. When I'm going to try to do to make some change where I can make some change. And yeah, I'm going to be indifferent to the things where that's not true. And that's what we're talking about here, right? That's what the sphere of choice is about. And it's an easy thing to forget. And that's why Epipetetus is saying, keep it ready in the morning, think about it throughout the day, and think about it at night, saying there's one path to happiness. It's giving up the things that are outside your sphere of choice, focusing on what else is in your possession, surrendering everything off. So it's being zen about the things that are

not up to you. But there's a kind of invincibility in that zen, right? Because if it wasn't, if I didn't make the call, I didn't do it. If it wasn't something that was up to me, I'm not going to get upset by it. Remember, Mark, you don't have to have an opinion about this. You don't have to get upset. But you should be upset about your own choices. Why did I do that? Why didn't I do that? Why did I make this mistake? Why did I do this thing again that I told myself I was going to stop doing focus on you, focus on your choices, make good choices. That's how you exert control over the world.

Something I, you know, I remind myself, you see what's going on in the world and you can despair, you can feel sad or you can go, look, I've got two little kids in my house who I'm responsible for The biggest multi-generational impact I can have is in raising them well And then I go and this is something Seneca fail It's like Seneca spent all these years beating his head against the wall trying to change Nero He's affected far more people had far more impact in his right it, which he did control. So I go, okay, and look, I'm not going to yell at some person I know on social media for being silly and have the impact on one person. But I am going to sit down and write about this or talk about this on the podcast in a way that can reach a lot of people.

Right? Let's stay in our lanes. Let's do what we can do. Let's try to make a difference where we can. And if we all do that, humanively, that is collective action, and that does have a big impact. So this is a short lesson today. It's a straightforward one, but it's so hard, and that's why Sena Kassange got a reminder. So constantly throughout the day, I'm going to focus on what's in my sphere of choice. That's where I have impact. I'm going to focus on what's in my sphere of choice

That's where I have impact. I'm going to focus on allocating my energy properly Not going to waste it on regret not going to waste it on bitterness on resentment on anger on fear on worry on hope I'm going to focus on what I control. I'm going to make a difference there. That's what stout does Thanks for listening to another episode of The Daily Stowe. It's mind blowing to me now that we are well over 30 million downloads at this show. I mean, so much to me to have all of you listen. If you want to help spread the word about the show, please leave a review on iTunes or whatever your favorite podcasting platform is. It helps a lot.

And then of course, click subscribe. That's how we know how many people are listening and that that makes sure you get the episodes as they come in. So thanks again for listening to the Daily Stoke podcast. 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. 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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