The Daily Stoic - What Matters is the Response

Episode Date: December 24, 2020

“It was a dark day exactly 244 years ago. Christmas was here, at one of of the darkest times in the American Revolution. George Washington was planning to cross the Delaware, a desperate move necessitated by a string of setbacks and ebbing support for the revolution across his struggling country.”Learn about how George Washington applied Stoic principles to help guide the Continental Army to victory, and why we should focus on what we are going to do next, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast. We created the New Year, New You Challenge to help you create a better life, and a new you in 2021. Sign up for the challenge at https://dailystoic.com/challenge.***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. 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 alistair.com. It was almost 250 years ago, exactly. One of the darkest times in the American Revolution. Christmas was here. George Washington was planning to cross the Delaware at desperate move necessitated by a stream of setbacks in ebbing support for the revolution across the Delaware a desperate move necessitated by a stream of setbacks and ebbing support for the revolution across the struggling country. Whose fault was this disaster?

How had things gone so poorly? Washington wasn't interested in those questions. As he wrote in a letter to Robert Morris at his headquarters that day, it is vain to ruminate upon or even reflect upon the authors or causes of our present misfortunes. Instead of looking backwards, Washington said we should rather exert ourselves, meaning they should focus on how they were going to respond. His response was a daring attack on the Hessian troops in Trenton the next day, which may well have saved his army in the floundering nation. And this mindset is part and parcel

of the stoicism that Washington had known and followed all of his life. It was about looking at events in the calm light of mild philosophy, as he liked to quote from the stoic philosopher Cato, deciding not to be ruled by his impressions and instead focusing on what he do next. And that's what we should take a minute to think about this Christmas of all Christmases, whether we're busy working or whether we've managed to safely see our families or whether we're planning out how we're going to have a better 2021 because frankly, probably can't be worse than 2020. We can't focus on what caused our troubles, not who authored them, not how much blame they deserve, not how this could have been

avoided. Those questions are irrelevant distractions right now, answering them and exercised only in vain. What matters is how we plan to exert ourselves, how we plan to fix our situation, how we plan to respond to what life has thrown at us. Whether it's a passive, aggressive friend, an industry ravaged by the pandemic or a series of bad personal choices, we have the power to decide what we're going to do next. We can exert ourselves, we can still turn this around. All that matters is our response. I do invite you to join our new year, new year challenge that we're doing here at Daily Stoke.

I think it's our best one. I'm really excited about it. I hope you have a great Christmas. I hope you're taking some time to yourself, but I hope you're getting ready for what can be, what must be a better 2021. That's why we made these challenges. It's all based on the Stoweb philosophy.

It's designed to make you more resilient, to make you wiser, to make you stronger, to get you out of your comfort zone. That's why I'm calling it a challenge. I'm gonna be doing it there with you. I'd love to have you. You can sign up at dailystoke.com slash challenge, but seriously, just a couple days left. It stops on January 1st.

You cannot join after that. Actually, it stops at 11.59 on December 31st. So 2020, it's your last shot. Let's do it. I'll see you there at dailystoke.com slash challenge. see their dailystoke.com slash challenge. 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, 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 Brown-Oller, we will be your resident not-so- 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.