The Daily Stoic - You Are Strong. You Just Haven’t Been Tested. | Only Fools Rush In

Episode Date: August 18, 2023

In August of 1967, Lieutenant Dave Carey was shot out of his A-4 Skyhawk over Vietnam. Soon enough, he found himself a prisoner in Hanoi, where he would subsequently be beaten, tortured and placed into solitary confinement. For six years, he languished there, kept going only by the comrades around him and an occasional pick me up from the Stoics.As Carey explained on an incredible episode of the Daily Stoic podcast, fellow prisoners would tap, “Stockdale wants you to remember what Epictetus said,” through from an adjoining cell. Carey came to understand this to mean focus on what you control, focus on the choices you can make.---And with today's Daily Stoic excerpt reading, Ryan explains why Marcus and the Stoics said time and time again that the ultimate key to success is being yourself no matter what.✉️ 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. On Friday, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation, but also reading a passage from the Daily Stoic. My book, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance in the Art of Living, which I wrote with my wonderful collaborator, translator, and literary agent, Stephen Hanselman. So today, it will give you a quick meditation from the Stokes with some analysis from me, and then we'll send you out into the world to turn these words into works. You are strong. You just haven't been tested. In August of 1967, Lieutenant Dave Kerry

was shot out of his A4 skyhawk over Vietnam. Soon enough, he found himself a prisoner in Hanhoye, where he would be subsequently beaten and tortured and placed into solitary confinement. For six years, he languished there, kept going only by the comrades around him and the occasional pick me up from the Stoics. As Kerry explained in an incredible episode of the Daily Stoic podcast, fellow prisoners would tap Stockdale

wants you to remember what Epictetus said. And through his adjoining cell, Kerry came to understand that this meant to focus on what you control, focus on the choices you can make. And that's what he did, surviving and enduring and eventually making it through. How did he do it? Kerry said that almost every single day since he returned home, someone had asked him where he found the strength, wondering whether he was superhuman. He most definitely is not.

He explained on the podcast. And in fact, he wants everyone to know you have the same kind of strength that he does. You have the same capacity and courage and endurance that he does. People just don't know this because they haven't been tested. The world is a tough place. Things will go wrong. We will suffer and deal with adversity. We should not be afraid of that though, Kerry says.

In fact, that fear and that doubt, that's the thing that will hold you back. Know that you've got the stuff. Know that you are capable. Know that you could make the same choices that he did, that stock dilded, that epictetus did. When we think of sports stories, we tend to think of tales of epic on the field glory. But the new podcast Sports Explains the World brings you some of the wildest and most surprising sports stories you've never heard.

Like the teenager who wrote a fake Wikipedia page for a young athlete and then watched as a real team fell for his prank. Diving into his Wikipedia page we turned three career goals into eleven, added twenty new assists for good measure. Figures that nobody would should have believed. And the mysterious secret of a US Olympic superstar killed at the peak of his career. Was it an accident? Did the police screw up the investigation?

It was also nebulous. Each week, Sports Explains the World goes beyond leagues and stats to share stories that will redefine your understanding of sports. And their impact on the world. Listen to Sports Explains the World, on the Wondery app, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to sports explains the world early and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Only fools rush in. This is today's entry in the Daily Stoic. A good person is invincible. Epic teathe says in discourses, three, six,

for they don't rush into contests in which they aren't the strongest. If you want their property, take it. Take also their staff, profession, and body. But you will never compel what they set out for nor trap them in what they should avoid. For the only contest, the good person enters, is that of their own reasoned choice.

How can such a person not be invincible? And then the entry is, one of the most fundamental principles of martial arts is that strength should not go against strength. That is, don't try to beat your opponent where they are strongest. But for some reason, that's exactly what we try to do when we undertake some impossible task we haven't bothered to think through or we let someone put us on the spot or we

say yes to whatever comes our way. Some people think that choosing your battles is weak or calculating. But how could reducing the amount of times we fail or minimizing our needless injuries inflicted on us be weak? How's that a bad thing? As the saying goes, discretion is the better part of valor. Stokes call it reasoned choice. That means be reasonable.

Sincard before choosing and make yourself unbeatable. A book I've recommended many, many times I sell it here at the Painted Ports is zero to one by Peter Teal. Peter Teal says, the whole point of business in life is to find where you have a monopoly, where you're the only one doing that thing. There's another book that I rave about that we carry here in the store called Blue Ocean Strategy.

There's another one called Blue Ocean Shift that I actually did the marketing for, but the idea is red oceans is where there's lots of competition. That means being like everyone else, wanting the things that everyone wants, focusing on what's out of your control like everyone else wanting the things that everyone wants focusing on what's out of your control like everyone else. It's a far better thing to focus on what is in your control, on being you and your unique self. And the stokes actually have a lot about this, right? Agrippinus, we talk about in lives of the stokes, he says, I want to be the red thread in the sweater, not like the other threads, I want to stand up. And that's the idea. Epictetus says, walk alone, right? Look around you, be who you are. To me, what he's saying

is that when you try to be like someone else, you lose. When you want the things that other people want, you lose. When you enter something things that other people want, you lose. When you enter something where you are trying to be like someone or something that you're not supposed to be, you lose. But when you are yourself, when you stand for what you stand for, when you do what you know is right, that's when you win. Even if you quote unquote, lose, there's an interview I was reading with the architect Frank Gary recently and he would he would say when he was talking to architects who were just starting out, he would he'd get them to all get out of piece of paper and he would say,

write your signature on this paper and then he'd spread them out and have this the whole class looking up and it's a they all look different that's you that's you so stay with that forever and I think that's what epictetus is saying here you are a unique person you have a totally unique set of DNA and experiences and values and you are that red thread. So don't make yourself like the others. Don't sell out, right? When you stick to who you are, when you're true to that, you win no matter what. You have a monopoly on you. Don't give that monopoly away. Don't forfeit it. Don't lose it. Another rendering of that epictetus quote, he says, you can always win if you only enter competitions where winning is up to you When you're focused as Mark Surreal says I'm what other people say or do you on getting approval on

Having certain gatekeepers except you or open things up to you Well, that's when you have set yourself up to be defeated and And even if you, when you've still lost in that some sense that you've given up something that was uniquely you and uniquely yours. I think that's a shame. And so that's what I want to leave you there. Stick with who you are. And go where you have that monopoly.

Competition is for losers, as Peter Tiel said. So go where you're a winner. 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 on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.