The Daily Stoic - You Must Play It Like A Game | Protect Your Own Good

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

Life may have big challenges in store for us. What’s more certain, as we talked about recently, is the ‘petty hazards of the day.’ We may find ourselves thrust in some crisis–a big political moment or some emergency that unfolds in front of us on the street. We will definitely experience traffic and obnoxious people and temptation and burnout.It’s important we understand that whether the moment is big or small, the Stoic is supposed to respond the same way. That is to say: Calmly. Courageously. With the common good in mind.---And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt, Ryan reflects what the Stoics teach about the innate goodness that all human beings are born with, and what we can do on a daily basis to better align ourselves with that goodness.✉️ 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, including The Obstacle Is The Way.📱 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.

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. 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're happy to be doing. So let's get into it. You must play it like a game.

Life may have big challenges in store for us. What's more certain though, as we talked about recently, is the petty hazards of the day. We may find ourselves thrust in some crisis of big political moment or some emergency that unfolds in front of us on the street. We will definitely experience traffic and obnoxious people, and temptation, and burnout. It's important that we understand that whether the moment is big or small, Aesthoic is supposed to respond the same way, that is to say calmly, courageously, with the common good in mind. In the email we mentioned earlier,

we drew on the work of the novelist Jean Webster, who remarked that it may well have been easier to respond to crisis or tragedy than it is to respond to the ordinary or the mundane, because we know what's expected of us, because people are watching, because we understand the stakes. But again, Stoicism isn't just about being great in the big moments, but also great in the little moments. And perhaps one way to do that is remove the idea of stakes entirely to see all of these situations as equal opportunities for you to practice what you preach, no matter who is or isn't watching. I'm going to pretend that all of life is just a game which I must play as skillfully and fairly as I can, Webster has her character say, if I lose, I'm going to shrug my shoulders and

laugh. Also, she says, if I win. Epic Titus himself once said that a philosopher was like a skilled ball player. They knew how to play the game. And no one was better than this than Socrates, he said, who treated life's little moments and its big ones just the same. He was one with his philosophy, whether he was facing a frustrating person on the street or a potential death sentence. He took it all very seriously, and yet not too seriously at all. He wasn't playing to win, but to get the best out of himself always. That is the stoic way. And that's what I mean when I say the obstacle is the way, the idea that we treat all these things as opportunities to practice virtue, to rise to the occasion.

And if you haven't checked out the book yet, you can. We've got signed copies here in the Daily Stoke store and at the painted porch. And we make a cool pendant and a medallion. If you want to carry that reminder with you, I myself have a tattooed on my arm, not that it makes me perfect at it, but it does catch me in moments when I'm not inclined to shrug and laugh and not inclined to see that moment as the opportunity that it is. And I hope that helps. Life can get you down. I'm no stranger to that. When I find things that are piling up, I'm struggling to deal with something.

Obviously, I use my journal, obviously I turn to stosism, but I also turn to my therapist, which I've had for a long time, and has helped me through a bunch of stuff. And because I'm so busy and I live out in the country, I do therapy remote, so I don't have to drive somewhere. And that's where today's sponsor comes in. Toxbase makes it easy to find a therapist that you like. It's convenient. It's affordable.

By doing everything online, Toxbase makes getting the help you want easy and affordable. So why wait? And Toxbase can help with any specific challenge you might be facing. That's why it's the number one online therapy platform with license therapists and over 40 specialties. It's secure and private and in network with most major insurers. As a listener of this podcast, you can get 80 bucks off your first month with talk space when you go to talkspace.com slash stoic to match with a license therapist today. Go to talkspace.com slash sto dough to get 80 bucks off your first month and show your support for the daily use dough. That's ToxPace.com slash Stoic.

Protect your own good. Musoneus Rufus, one of Epicetitus' teachers, taught that human beings are all born with an innate goodness, whereas he put it with an inclination to virtue. It's our choices that decide whether that goodness comes out or not. We're not bad people, essentially, though we might sometimes do bad things. The purpose of stoicism then is to remind us of that goodness and to help us work hard to protect it. So spend some time this week writing about the choices

you can make, the actions you can take to do just that. And this is from the Daily Stoke Journal, 366 days of writing and reflection on the art of living which I use by self every morning. I love the little prompts. Here is Epictetus's discourses who, as you know, Epictetus was misogynist, Rufus's student. Protect your own good and all that you do.

And as concerns, everything else, take what is given as far as you can make reasoned use of it. If you don't, you'll be unlucky, prone to failure, hindered, and stymied. That's discourses for three. And then Marx realizes meditations, Marx then influenced by epictetus. So Misonius teaches stoicism to Epictetus, whose writings then survive and make their way to Mark's Relias. Mark's Relias, as it happens, is introduced to Stoicism

through Juni's rusticus, who loans him his copy of Epictetus. Dig deep within yourself, Marcus writes in Meditation 759, for there is a fountain of goodness ever ready to flow, you will keep digging. I guess what the Stokes are doing here is really pushing back on this notion of original sin that we're toxic, broken, horrible people, that human nature is something to be feared.

There is a darkness in us, but there's also incredible good. And I think the Stokes are talking about what side of you are you gonna nurture nurture? What side is going to come out? What side are you going to look for? What side are you going to reveal? And Musonius and Epictetus and Marcus are all tested in incredible ways. Musonius is exiled three times, perhaps four. epictetus, you know, experiences the incredible injustice of slavery. Marcus Aurelius is given absolute power. And as they say, power reveals, but I think also adversity reveals. And in both Musoneus and epictetus's case, adversity revealed a goodness, case, adversity revealed, a goodness, an unbreakable goodness, a commitment, a tenacity, a perseverance,

an unswerving belief in these principles that we're talking about now. And in Marcus, to really us, we wasn't challenged the same way, the life did challenge him with loss and grief and pain and sickness, but it also challenged him with a great bounty of good fortune. And that too tested his character, it tested whether there really was goodness inside of him, and what side of him he was going to reveal. So as you go out into the world this week, think about who you really are underneath. Think about what kind of character you've been cultivating. And let's show people who we are and who we can be and what we actually believe, as Marcus says, let's not waste time arguing what a good man should be.

Let's be one. Let's be the best we can for ourselves, for our family, for our world. And I'll talk to you soon. 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 add free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts. Celebrity feuds are high stakes.

You never know if you're just gonna end up on Page Six or Du Moir or in court. I'm Matt Bellesai. And I'm Sydney Battle, and we're the host of Wondery's new podcast, Disantel, where each episode we unpack a different iconic celebrity feud from the buildup, why and Tell, where each episode we unpack a different iconic celebrity feud from the buildup, why it happened,

and the repercussions. What does our obsession with these feud say about us? The first season is packed with some pretty messy pop culture drama, but none is drawn out in personal as Brittany and Jamie Lynn Spears. When Brittany's fans form the free Brittany movement dedicated to fraying her from the infamous conservatorship, Jamie Lynn's lack of public support. It angered some fans. A lot of them. It's a story of two young women who had their choices taken away from them by

their controlling parents, but took their anger out on each other. And it's about a movement to save a superstar, which set its sights upon anyone who failed to fight for Britney. Follow dis and tell wherever you get your podcast. You can It's said to upon anyone who failed to fight for Brittany.