The Daily Stoic - You Must Challenge Yourself

Episode Date: August 25, 2020

"After returning from particularly notable campaigns, the commanders of Roman legions would distribute small coins to their men as rewards for their service and mementos of their time in those campaigns. These coins were the originators of a now-ancient tradition—the challenge coin—that continues all these centuries later, with generals like Washington, Grant, and Mattis handing out small, specially designed coins to their men the same way generals like Fabius and Scipio did."Ryan discusses the history of challenge coins and their deeper meaning on today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee 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 Wondery'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. 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 good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's

greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystowach.com. You must challenge yourself. After returning from particularly notable campaigns, the commanders of Roman legions would distribute small coins to their men as rewards for their service and momentos of their time in those campaigns. These coins were originators of a now ancient tradition, the challenge coin that continues all the centuries later with generals like Washington, Grant, and Mattis handing out small, specially designed coins for their men, the same way that generals like Fabius

and CPO did. What is so telling about the power and purpose of this tradition is that other communities have picked up on it as well. Twelve-step groups hand them out to mark stretches of sobriety. Government agencies give them to mark service in a presidential administration, and so on. We even have challenge coins here at Daily Stoic to immortalize the most important Stic concepts, Momentumori and Morphati, Sympathia, the four virtues and more.

What binds these disparate groups in their attraction and connection to the challenge coin is the way that word challenge can be taken and turned and applied to the lives of the people in those groups. In one sense, it can be taken to mean that if you've been given a coin for, say, serving on a campaign, you can be challenged by a compatriot from the campaign, and if you're not carrying it drinks are for you. In another sense, these coins represent and memorialize the actual challenges that their holders have been through or are currently dealing with. In this way, one would not expect to find a set

of challenge coins commemorating a family's annual spring break vacation, whereas marking 10 years of recovery or memorializing membership to the hallowed ranks of 9-11 first responders makes perfect sense for a challenge coin. The idea fits hand and glove with stoic philosophy. To the stoic's life was all about challenge.

Those who have never been tested should be pitted, because they don't know what they're capable of. To Marcus, philosophy was all about challenging yourself. It was about settling on words and reminders, epithets, you called them, to live up to, particularly in difficult situations. We must always be challenging ourselves, seeking to be part of important moments in history, not running away from the call to serve or to help others. A challenge coin is a way to memorialize that kind of challenging idea and the standards required to live up to it. It's

something we can carry with us, something we can touch, something to remind us of all that we have done and all that we must do. So the question is, are you up to the challenge? And of course, as always, you can check out the challenge coins in the Daily Stoke store. Just go to store.dailystoke.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. Ah, the Bahamas. What if you could live in a penthouse above the crystal clear ocean working during the

day and partying at night with your best friends, and have it be 100% paid for. FTX Founder's Sam Bankman Freed lived that dream life, but it was all funded with other people's money, but he allegedly stole. Many thought Sam Bankman Freed was changing the game as he graced the pages of Forbes and Vanity Fair. Some involved in crypto saw him as a breath of fresh air, from the usual Wall Street buffs with his casual dress and ability to play League of Legends during boardroom meetings. But in less than a year, his exchange would collapse.

An SPF would find himself in a jail cell, with tens of thousands of investors blaming him for their crypto losses. From Bloomberg and Wondering comes Spellcaster, a new six-part docu-series about the meteoric rise and spectacular fall of FTX and its founder, Sam Beckman-Freed. Follow Spellcaster wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to episodes Add Free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.