The Daily Stoic - You Can Do This. You Can Do This.

Starting point is 00:00:00 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 Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom every day life.

Starting point is 00:00:38 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 alistair.com. You can do this, you can do this. Marcus Aurelius didn't believe he was suited to be emperor. In fact, when he received the news of Hadrian's plans to have Antoninus Pius adopt him and place him in turn in line for the throne, Marcus broke down in tears. There was no one he revered more than Antoninus.

Starting point is 00:01:11 How could he possibly live up to the task of following in these footsteps? Today you would say that Marcus was struggling with what we call imposter syndrome. It's a very real thing that many of us wrestle with. Am I good enough? Can I do this? Are the people going to find out that I don't have what it takes? Neil Gaiman talks about this in his famous commencement speech that any moment now they will discover you. It holds so many people back. It was so much time as if anyone is thinking about discovering you.

Starting point is 00:01:42 No, they're thinking about themselves. This came up on an episode of the Daily Stoic podcast that we did with Stephen Pressfield, the author of one of my favorite books, The War of Art and Turning Pro. He said, I don't think there really is such a thing as being an imposter. You're just on the spectrum of getting better and getting better. But I do think that we're sort of led to a calling or something that we do. The trick to me is self-belief. It's just believing you're not an imposter. Who says you're an imposter? That's the voice of resistance in your head trying to sabotage you. You're being called in some sort of way like a dream. And you wouldn't be called to that if you weren't capable somehow of enacting it.

Starting point is 00:02:25 The night of his adoption after his breakdown about whether he was ready, Marcus Aurelius supposedly had a dream. In the dream he found that his shoulders were made of ivory. It was a sign. He was not an imposter. He was not weak. He could do it. And guess what? He did do it better than anyone in history. Well, your shoulders are made of ivory too. As Stephen said, you wouldn't be called to do what you're doing if you weren't ready. You can do this. You're not an imposter.

Starting point is 00:02:55 Do not be afraid. Do the work. Show us what you're capable of. What makes Marcus great are his teachers and the early influences in his life. Rousticus and Tanninus Pius. I mean, the whole opening section of meditations is him really acknowledging the people who were formative and helping him become a man that philosophy wanted him to become.

Starting point is 00:03:17 And that's the story I tell in my new book The Boy Who Would Be King. It's an illustrated fable about the early years of Marcus Aurelis, how this little boy was selected from obscurity and ruled the world and did so without being corrupted by it. He really did become the man that philosophy wanted him to be. And that book is now out, it's available everywhere. I've been working on this book for the last year. It came out of the pandemic for me.

Starting point is 00:03:43 Something I've wanted to do for a really long time. You can check it out, go to dailystoke.com slash king, or you can pick up the boy who would be king anywhere, books are sold, including on Amazon. But if you buy it from us at dailystoke.com slash king, you get the audio book for free, which has me reading it and a bunch of other cool people. So check it out, the boy who would be king, and we should learn to lead like markets are really, so we should try to not just make stoicism proud, but we should try to make the example of Marcus Aurelius proud. 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

Starting point is 00:04:24 plus in Apple podcasts. the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.

The Daily Stoic - You Can Do This. You Can Do This.

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