The Daily Stoic - When Things Are Tough, Remember This

Episode Date: March 27, 2020

Most languages have some expression to the effect of “When it rains, it pours.” For instance, in Latin malis mala succedunt means troubles are followed by troubles. In Japanese, they say, “when crying, stung by bee.” The point of these expressions is to capture an unfortunate reality of life: that what can go wrong will… and often all at the same time. Obviously to the Stoics, the idea of premeditatio malorum is a kind of hedge against this. If you’re only prepared for a few, isolated and tiny things to go wrong, you’re going to be rudely surprised by how often difficulties come in pairs or triplets or entire litters. If you think life is going to be one lucky break after another, you’re going to be rudely surprised when, to quote Seneca, fortune decides to behave exactly as she pleases. The real lesson from the Stoics on adversity comes from Epictetus, however, who believed that while we don’t control whether it’s pouring, we do control how we respond. We control whether we can find something productive to do inside, while it’s raining. We control whether we put on a jacket. We control whether we’ve been smart enough to build a roof while the sun was shining. And Epictetus would have also liked the quip from the Canadian astronaut Chris Hadwick, who reminds us that in space, “there is no problem so bad you can’t make it worse.” So if you’ve been feeling some raindrops lately, first off, be prepared for things to really start coming down. Get ready for the bee sting on top of the stubbed toe. Get ready for your delayed flight to also have turbulence. But most importantly, don’t make it worse by overreacting, by taking it personally or doing something stupid. Whatever it is, know that perhaps the first step to making things better is just not making them worse. See 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 Stood 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 the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's

greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystowach.com. When things are tough, remember this. Most languages have some expression to the effect of when it rains, it pours. For instance, in Latin, mollus, molla, succident means troubles are followed by troubles. In Japanese, they say when crying stung by B, the point of these expressions is to capture an unfortunate reality of life

that what can go wrong will, and often all at the same time. Obviously, to the Stoics, the idea of pre-meditashio-malorum is a kind of hedge against this. If you're only prepared for a few isolated and tiny things to go wrong, you're going to be rudely surprised by how often difficulties come in pairs, or triplets, or entire litters. If you think life is going to be one lucky break after another, you're going to be rudely surprised when, to quote Sennaka, fortune decides to behave exactly as she pleases.

The real lesson from the Stoics on adversity comes from epictetus, however, who believe that while we don't control whether it's pouring, we do control how we respond. We control whether we go find something productive to do inside while it's raining. We control whether we put on a jacket. We control whether we've been smart enough

to build a roof while the sun was shining. And Epic Titus would have also liked the quip from the Canadian astronaut Chris Hadwick, who reminds us that in space, there is no problem so bad that you can't make it worse. So if you've been feeling some raindrops lately, first off, be prepared for things to really start coming down. Get ready for the beasting on top of the stub to toe. Get ready for your delayed flight to also have turbulence. But most importantly, don't make it worse by overreacting, by taking it personally or by doing something stupid. Whatever it is, know that perhaps the first step to making things better is just not making them worse.

Hey there, if you're wondering how to get the most out of this time, you have stuck at home. Maybe you're working only part time or you're working from home. You've got a childcare situation. None of this is what we would choose, but the stoic say we don't choose what happens, we choose how we respond.

And so that's why we've been scrambling here at Daily Stoke to put together what we're calling the Daily Stoke a live time challenge. It's 14 days of inspired stoic wisdom that will help you get the most out of this moment that will help you seize this moment rise to the occasion. We're going to challenge you. It's not going to be easy, but I think you will emerge from it better. And that will be some small good that's come out of this experience.

So you can check that out right now at dailystoke.com slash a live time. We're going to be doing it all as a group starting March 30th. Of course, you can sign up after. But if you want to do this daily stoke a live time challenge with me, sign up right now at dailystoke.com slash a live time. 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 ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts. Hey there listeners, while we take a little break here, I want to tell you about another

podcast that I think you'll like. It's called How I Built This, where host Guy Razz talks to founders behind some of the world's biggest and most innovative companies, to learn how they built them from the ground up. Guy has sat down with hundreds of founders behind well-known companies like Headspace, Manduke Yoga Mats, Soul Cycle, and Kodopaxi, as well as entrepreneurs working to solve some of the biggest problems of our time, like developing technology that pulls energy from the ground to heat in cool homes, or even figuring out

how to make drinking water from air and sunlight. Together they discussed their entire journey from day one, and all the skills they had to learn along the way, like confronting big challenges, and how to lead through uncertainty. So if you want to get inspired and learn how to think like an entrepreneur, check out how I built this, wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and add free on the Amazon or Wonder yet. or wonder yet.