The Daily Stoic - Will You Receive This Gift? | Turn Words Into Works

Episode Date: December 25, 2023

This is the story of Jesus, who people all over the world celebrate today on Christmas. But just as well, this is the story of Seneca. Remarkably, Seneca and Jesus lived nearly parallel lives. Not only that, but they were also born—according to many sources—in the same year. No one can confirm for certain the exact birth date for either, but it is indisputable that two of history’s greatest philosophers walked the earth at the same time.More incredible is just how much their teachings overlap. And it’s worth taking some time this Christmas morning to consider those similarities.You have to seek out challenges. You have to find ways to keep growing. You can’t stay the same. You can’t betray your potential. You can’t wait any longer to demand the best for yourself. Demand more of yourself in 2024. Sign up and join us in the Daily Stoic New Year New You Challenge TODAY!---And in today's Daily Stoic journal reading, Ryan reminds us that the art of living will never be found anywhere but in our own efforts to be good people, to get active in our rescue, and starting the year off by holding ourselves accountable.✉️ 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.

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, 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. Will you receive this gift?

Over 2,000 years ago, one of the world's greatest philosophers was born. He came of age under the Roman Empire and spread a message of kindness and mercy and doing one's duty. He taught millions how to live and how to die over the course of his life and his legacy, how to better themselves and treat their neighbors too. But eventually, this wisdom grew controversial, a threat to the state, and his death came at the hands of the sentience they sent for him. And yet even during the very public agony and humiliation of his death, he asked his

loved ones and followers to stay strong, to forgive the excesses of an emperor who did not know what he was doing. In those brave, final moments, he immortalized himself forever. This is the story of Jesus, who people all over the world celebrate today on Christmas. But just as well, this is the story of Seneca. Remarkably, Seneca and Jesus lived merely parallel lives. Not only that, but they were born according to many sources in the same year. No one can confirm for certain the exact birthday for either, but it is indisputable that two

of history's greatest philosophers walked the earth at the same time. War in credible is just how much their teachings overlap, and it's worth taking some time on this Christmas morning to consider those similarities. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. That's Jesus. Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness. That's Seneca. If someone strikes you on the right cheek then turn to him the other also. That's Jesus. It is a petty and sorry person who will bite back when he has bitten that's Seneca. We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials for we know that they help us develop endurance

and endurance develops strength of character. That's Jesus. Constant misfortune brings this one blessing to whom it always assails that eventually fortifies. That's Seneca. And why do you look at the spec in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? That's Jesus.

You look at the pimples of others when you yourself are covered with a mass of sores. That's Seneca. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. That's Jesus. Two elements must therefore be rooted out once and for all. The fear of future suffering in the recollection of past suffering since the latter no longer concerns me in the

former concerns me not yet. That's Seneca. Ultimately, both these men lived on far beyond their deaths, according to Scripture, Jesus he would rise from the dead after three days. In Seneca, through his writings, feels as alive to us as he would have to many Romans. So on this Christmas day, we can simply marvel at this near miracle that two wise men were alive at the same time

and through their sufferings and teachings, a great legacy has been passed down to us. Which one of them we choose to rely on most heavily as an individual decision, but that we should do something with their teachings. That's a gift we would all be wise to receive this Christmas. Anyways, Merry Christmas, everyone. I love putting this together.

These Christmas messages every year. It's been my privilege and honor to do this now, every Christmas since 2016. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for giving me the you for giving me the opportunity, giving me the platform for making me better by allowing me to write this to you. I hope to see you all in the Daily Stoke and New Year's New Challenge,

which is gonna start in just a few days. I mean, 20, 24 is gonna be here before we know it. You can join there at dailystoke.com slash challenge. And now I'm gonna go be with my family and I hope you do the thing. I told this story before, but the first Airbnb I stayed in was 15 years ago. I was looking for places to live when I wanted to be a writer and we stayed at this house, I think outside Phoenix.

And then when I bought my first house here in Austin, I would rent it out when South by Southwest or F-1 or all these events. My wife and I would go out of town and we'd rent it and it helped pay for the mortgage and it supported me while I was a writer. You've probably had the same experience. You stayed in an Airbnb and thought,

this is doable, maybe I could rent my place on Airbnb. And it's really that simple. You can start with a spare room or you can rent your whole place when you're away. You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. Maybe you set up a home office during the pandemic and now you don't need it because you're back at work. Maybe you're traveling to see friends and family

for the holidays. While your way, your home could be an Airbnb. Whether you could use extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun, your home could be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. Give yourself the gift of Coho and take some of the sting out of your holiday spending this season.

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Download the Coho app today or visit www.coho.ca for more details. Hey, it's Ryan. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoke Podcast. This is the last of these entries of the year. The last as we pull from the Daily Stoke Journal 366 meditations of writing and reflection on the art of living. I think ultimately it's about turning words into works. Marcus Eurelius spent a great deal of time on his journals, yet within these pages we find him admonishing himself to throw them away, to never read them. Why?

Because he didn't want it to be an excuse from the essential tasks and hand. The art of living will never be found anywhere, but in our own efforts to be a good person. Never forget that that is the aim of stoicism and of your own journals. It's not to fill up pages with pretty thoughts, but inspire you to take action to turn the words, as Seneca said, into works. And in that, we have the perfect

place to end the year with the ultimate stoic prompt, get active in your own rescue. And we have two quotes this week from Marcus Aurelius' Meditations and then one from Seneca's Moral Letters. Stop wandering about, Marcus says, you aren't likely to read your own notebooks or ancient histories or anthologies You've collected to enjoy in your old age get busy with life's purpose toss aside empty hopes get active in your own rescue If you care for yourself at all do it while you can that's Marcus Aurelius 314 You have proof in the extent of your wanderings that you never found the art of living anywhere,

not in logic, nor in wealth, nor in fame, or in any indulgence, nowhere. Where is it then? In doing what human nature demands, and how is a person to do this? By having principles be the source of desire and action. What principles? Those to do with good and evil, indeed in the belief that there is no good for a human

being except what creates justice, self-control, courage, and freedom. And nothing evil except what destroys these things. That's Marcus Aurelius' Meditations 8.1. And then ultimately, Seneca in moral letters 108, he says, all study of philosophy and reading should be for the purpose of living a happy life. We should seek precepts to help us noble and courageous words that can become facts.

We should learn them in a way that the words become works. And ultimately look, that's the journey for me. Ironically, as a writer, is that I write them. That's my job. But if I don't listen to them, if I don't get better at it, then I'm, what am I? I'm nothing but a softist, right? And what are you, if you read about stoses,

and if you listen to this podcast, if you follow the quotes on Instagram or watch the videos, but you're not actually getting better day to day. You're not getting better at those virtues. Courage, self-control, justice, wisdom. You're not focused on applying the ideas. Ultimately, that's what matters. As Mark said, he really says, we should waste no more time arguing what a good person is. Ultimately, that's what matters. As Mark said, he really says, we should waste no more time arguing what a good person is. Be one, as Epic Titus talks about, embody the ideas. Am I as good at that as I want to be? Are you? Right? All this stuff is pretty straight

forward, pretty simple. You find yourself nodding your head to it. But then when you're tired, then when you're frustrated, then when you're frustrated, then when you're trying to do something that's really important to you when things are really going sideways, it's hard to actually stick with them. It's hard to actually apply them. But that's the whole point. That's the whole point of the philosophy. Look, I take some solace in the fact that clearly, Marcus are really just struggling with that, right? He's saying that even as an old man, right, he's telling himself you got to stop wandering about. He's saying you still haven't figured it out. You got to get active in your rescue now before it's too late. So I

take some solace in the fact that one of the greatest stills to ever live is still struggling with that, you know, many decades older than I am. But that time is ticking away. And those opportunities are passing this by. And so the purpose of the Daily Stoke, journal, the purpose of the Daily Stoke podcast, the purpose of all this content. Obviously, yes, it's compelling to me as a writer.

I feel a duty to bring the ideas to other people. But ultimately, what I'm really trying to work on is just be a little bit better at them day-to-day my own life. How would I grade myself on that? I don't know. Not as high as I'd like, but higher than before. Right? Higher than if the intervention had never happened, which is ultimately, right, how we judge a medicine, how we judge anything scientifically. We compare it against a control group, we compare it against a placebo, and I know how I was before. I know what I'm capable of if I don't try, if I just sort of go the path of least resistance,

if I think about what I could get away with. That's not enough. We have to be better than that. We have to push ourselves. So that's ultimately the whole purpose of stoicism. That's the thought I want to leave you here with at the end of the year. It's about turning the words into words. What do you have to show for it? It's not about pretending, it's not about imitating, it's about action. It's about putting up the numbers, putting up the results, trying to get a little bit better every single day. I don't expect magical transformation for myself or for you. That's not possible.

This isn't about epiphany, but it is about repetition and practice holding yourself accountable. And with that, I bid you a due to the end of this year. I hope you can look back, reflect here as the year is winding up and see where you could have done better. I hope you can set aside some plans, some goals for the next year. I hope you can build on the successes that you did have. That's what I'm gonna try to do. And we'll be right back at this again, because we don't stop, talk soon.

If you're ready to do a clean break, well, let's do the 2024 Daily Stoic New Year. New Year challenge together. It's beginning Monday, January 1st, so you don't have much time to do that at dailystoic.com slash challenge or dailystoiclife.com. 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.

We can't see tomorrow, but we can hear it. And it sounds like a renewable natural gas bus replacing conventional fleets. We're bridging to a sustainable energy future, working today to ensure tomorrow is on. Endridge. Life takes energy. We're bridging to a sustainable energy future. Working today to ensure tomorrow is on. And bridge, life takes energy.