The Daily Stoic - Wisdom Is Wisdom | 7 Lessons From Famous Stoics (Matthew McConaughey, Camila Cabello, General Jim Mattis)

Episode Date: July 19, 2022

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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 Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we read a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you in your everyday life. On Tuesdays, we take a closer look at these stoic ideas, how we can apply them in our actual lives. Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wunderree'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. retired from politics and now dedicated to the study of wisdom. Let us go west now, stopping in Athens in the Garden of Epicurus, where men and women make revelry, discussing philosophy over a simple meal. Perhaps after we travel just up the road to listen to Xeno on the stoic poquile, speaking on the power of reason. We could go back to the east to India this time, in the

second century BC, listening to a reading of the Bhagavad-gita, an epic polo-mong par with the Odyssey or Gilgamesh. If we lingered there long enough, we might catch word of the Buddha, the prince turned spiritual leader. Or if we miss him and head to China, again, we might find that his teachings, Buddhism, have beat us there. Or we could stop at the turn of the millennia in the Roman Empire and witness the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, as well as Lucius and Aes, Seneca. In the Coppulus, a generation later, we could visit Epictetus's lecture hall and listen to this former slave explain the art of self-discipline and mental clarity into students until they are interrupted by Hadrian,

the emperor himself, asking a question. In 397, we might visit Augustine in North Africa and watch him write his famous confessions, trying to rid himself of the disturbances and impulses that cause him so much pain. Or we could travel east again and see the insights of Zen, the way of Buddha crossing over from China into Japan and influencing the art of samurai swordsmen and the archer and the flower master and the painter. And what do all these scenes have in common? In each we have human beings pursuing wisdom. Was there differences between the schools? Absolutely.

Was there overlap, too? Yes, of course. But in their own way, according to their own principles, each was chasing the same virtue of enlightenment, trying to cut through the noise, trying to get to the truth, trying to figure out the heart of living. And what's so beautiful about it is that there is one more scene to add to it. In this one, the character is you. You are listening to this email before it's sitting down with your journal in the morning,

experiencing a little stillness before the rush of the day, or you're listening to it on the train to work or you're discussing it with a spouse or a friend or your team. Whatever the form or the location you two are pursuing wisdom, trying to get better, trying to learn about yourself in the world, and it is a beautiful tradition, an honorable and ancient one that we're lucky to be part of. Please keep it going. You might not have recognized it, but this is actually adapted from an early draft of what was supposed to be the preface to stillness of the key.

The book ended up going in a very different direction and I opened with the story of San ika trying to tune out the noise in Rome, but I just liked this little passage and I didn't have the heart to throw it away. So I turned it into today's message. If you haven't checked out stillness is the key you can. It was a debut at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Get it an audiobook or ebook or physical. We have sign copies here in the Daily Stoke online store. Or you can come by the painted porch here in Basric, Texas and pick up a copy.

And I hope you check it out. I'm very proud of the book and I do wish you all the stillness in the world or what the Epicureans and the stills would call adoraxia, freedom from disturbances. I wish you that and as much wisdom as you can possibly pursue in this life. Usually in these episodes we dive into stories from me, but I think one of my favorite parts of my journey writing and talking about stoicism is all the interesting people that either I have found our fellow travelers on this path, or I feel privileged honored to have introduced to stoic philosophy and then have gotten the opportunity to talk

to discuss. And in some cases debate these ideas of stoic philosophy, which is itself a stoic practice. If you haven't seen the daily stoic journal, we have this quote on the back of it from Epic Titus, one of my favorite quotes. He says, every day and night, keep thoughts like these at hand, write them, read them aloud, talk to yourself, and others about them. And I feel like that's kind of what we do on the daily stoic podcast and have over the last several years. It's what I do on my talks. It's what I do when people come and visit me when I have lunches and such,

which is what cues up what we're going to talk about today. Stoicism has this incredibly wide-ranging, diverse audience. The NBA, college football, pop stars, actors, CEOs, head fund managers, artists, executives, entrepreneurs, holders of public office, just as this was true of Stoicism 2000 years ago. In today's episode, we're going to look at seven lessons from, it's called them famous or public Stoics and what they can teach us.

We're going to hear from Matthew McConaughey, Cam Cabejo, General James Mattis, Tim Ferris, Jocco Willink, and a couple of others. And I hope that they can give you some additional perspective on these still-at-concepts. So enjoy. There's this quote from Santa Coo, which I love. He says, if you don't know which port you're sailing to, no wind is favorable. So this idea of hitting the green lights,

obviously you want to hit the green lights, but if you're going in no wind is favorable. So this idea of hitting the green lights, obviously you wanna hit the green lights, but if you're going in the wrong direction, actually hitting the green lights is the worst possible gift you could get. So having a clear sense of what you want is essential. Intentional and deliberate choice to go that way. And then, I know for me, if I have, we have that. Then it's easy to dance and blow in the wind.

You know, create your weather, then blow in the wind. But I'm not for just saying, yeah, whatever, we're heading out. Well, wait a minute, I want to check the forecast, where I am right now, maybe 82 degrees, but where we're going is going to be negative 12. Yeah, if I head out without checking, I'm going to be cold where I'm going. So let's just check out some general things

and say what can we should be prepared for? What are the general rules of engagement that I'm heading into? And then be free to dance and go, yeah, I'm ready to do back flips with my eyes closed. To me, the definition of stoicism is that, you don't control what happens, you control how

you respond. And that's what you have to do as an athlete, that's what you have to do as a parent, that's what you have to do the last year in the pandemic, which is like, how do I figure out how to make the best of it? Because you can't quit. Uh, quitting is not an option. I, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that,

that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, like to say is that failure is not trying to be, not even trying, just saying, whatever excuse you give yourself not to try. Every thing you go after, you're going to take some lunch. You're going to take some punches. You're going to get knocked down. Understanding that, I understood after pretty much just coming up short and kind of having that pie in the face moment and knowing that I have to rebuild from that.

And hopefully, hopefully get back to that level the next year, but accept whatever consequence comes. It's scary. It can feel scary to be with your thoughts and feelings. Honestly, stoicism and meditation have helped me the most in the past year. Like, both of those, I feel like stoicism is kind of like the cognitive reframing of stuff, which is so important because the tools that I get from mindfulness

is the awareness of what my thought processes are. And I'm like, no wonder I have fucking anxiety because look how I'm thinking about this situation. And then, soicism gives me the tools to be like, well, there's no use in thinking and obsessing about that because I can't control what's going to happen in the future. I can't control what's giving me more and more peace and more like authenticity when I do my work and when I write and when I do go to work on my craft is like that mental training.

There is a tension between life is short, memento more you could go at any moment and the best piece of advice you give people, which is you've got so much time. So much. So what's the tension? How do you balance out? Easy.

Life is short, you've got time. If you think life is long, it helps you in so many ways. If you happen to die suddenly, you wouldn't have known anyway. OK. Sure. It's the end of your problems. Right, people are like, no, Gary, life's a sure, I'm like, good news. It's over anyway.

Yeah. Like, if a tree falls on my head when I walk out of here, I'm not going to know. Right. You know, maybe I'll be up in heaven, be like, mother, I should have never went to Ryan's store. I was so stupid, we could have done it on Zoom on the last Tuesday, we're not 40 more years. Well, the chance of her win a Super Bowl without me, you know, that would be what was going on in heaven, we're not 40 more years. Well, the chance everyone is super well without me.

That would be what was going on in the heaven, right? My concept is practical. Life is long and you believe it, you get more patient, more thoughtful, happier, and life is good. If you're right, that life is short, well, when you die out of nowhere, you're not gonna know anyway,

so the fuck are we talking about? I think if there was one book that I would read, it would be Marcus Aurelius Meditations. You know, especially in Washington, D.C. with all the political heave and ho that I try to keep Department of Defense out of, there can be a sense at times my fine young cadet, it's the first time anyone dealt with something like X, Y, or Z. And certainly in combat the reason I kept a catered copy in my rough sack to pull out at times was it allowed me to look at things with a little distance.

And so Marcus Aurelius had a very tough life. He's the emperor of Rome. He's got everything going wrong in his home life, his wife and his son. We're not people that you would want to spend much time with. He spends almost all of his time up on the fringes of the empire, trying to protect the thing. And the one time he leaves the German forest seems to be to go kill one of his friends,

he's revolted against him in another place. I mean, it was a tough life. And yet the humility and the dignity with which he conducted his life, the commitment to his country, to his troops, really comes through and you read those pages. And while the name of the book is Meditations, if you were to get the real translation,

it would be to himself. He's writing these chapters to himself because he knows he faces nothing new under the sun. One of my favorite Marcus Relius quotes, and I think it ties into your message. And it's weird to think he was writing during the Antonin plague, a plague that lasts for 15 years, and ultimately, he ends up succumbing to the message. And it's weird to think he was writing during the Antenine play, a play that lasts for 15 years. And ultimately, he ends up succumbing to it

at the end of his reign. But he writes, he's like, no, it's unfortunate that this happened. And then he says, no, no, no, wait. It's fortunate that it happens to me because not everyone would have basically what I have. And he talks about sort of that strength is the ability to look at whatever happens and say, sort of, this is exactly what I was looking for.

So like, how do you tell companies to go like, look, yeah, I know you just had to close 50% of your locations or you've had to lay this amount of staff off or, you know, you're not going to be doing live events for the next year and a half. How do they find in that what they're looking for? I've had this very conversation with a bunch of different clients, and that is, well, you know, folks, here's what we can do.

We can curl up in a ball and get under the covers on the couch and hide, or we can go on the attack. So what do you want to do? Do you want to go on the attacker? Do you want to curl up in a ball and let the world fall apart around you? I say we go on the attack. And that's pretty much what everyone realizes they have to do.

You have to say, okay, this is the new reality. This is what I'm dealing with. And this is how we're going to go forward. Senuka has this thing that it's really popular when we post it on Daily Stoke, but I still struggle with what it means. He says we suffer more in imagination than reality. It makes me think of my meditation.

When I'm meditating, I become extremely aware that thinking is almost a form of a disease. Thoughts pop up about, I've got to do this phone call, or, oh, I forgot to email that person, or, damn, this interview's coming up, but I don't want to do it, or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So much of the thoughts are anxieties that you're anticipating, right?

What's going to happen, right? If you can just control that, if you can just see that that is the source of your problem, and that the world is indifferent to you, and that the circumstances are totally neutral, and that newspaper article that comes out, you can't control it, and maybe the bad stuff will actually in the end rebound to you, favor, or it'll make you tougher, it'll make you realize certain things. If you can just see them as facts, as opposed to these horrible things

inside your head, these fantausmos, whatever the Latin word is, you know, then you've got the power. You know, the Stoics in real life met at what was called, the Stoa, the Stoa, Pocula, the painted porch in ancient Athens. Obviously, we can't all get together in one place because this community is like hundreds of thousands of people and we couldn't fit in one space.

But we have made a special digital version of the Stoa. We're calling it Daily Stoic Life. It's an awesome community. You can talk about like today's episode. You can talk about the emails, episode you talked about the emails ask questions That's one of my favorite parts is interacting with all these people who are using stoicism to be better in their actual Real lives you get more daily stoke meditations over the weekend Just for the daily stoke life members

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