The Daily Stoic - Your Possessions Are Not Your Identity

Episode Date: October 12, 2022

It’s very easy to associate our possessions and our positions with our identity. There’s even an expression to that effect: The clothes make the man. When we have a powerful job, we feel powerful. When the market is hot, we feel like we have a knack for investing. When we are number one in our space, in our industry, in sales, we’re very into checking and monitoring the rankings. When people are saying nice things about us, we revel in it, because of course it’s all true and deserved.📕 Ryan Holiday's new book "Discipline Is Destiny" is out now! We’ve extended the pre-order bonuses for the next week—among them is a signed and numbered page from the original manuscript of the book. You can learn more about those and how to receive them over at Dailystoic.com/preorder. ✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook See 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, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom every day life. 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 dailystowup.com. It's very easy to associate our possessions and our positions with our identity. There's even an expression to that effect. The clothes make the man. When we have a powerful job, we feel powerful.

The market is hot. We feel like we have a knack for investing. When we are number one in our space and our industry and sales, we're very into checking and monitoring the rankings. When people are saying nice things about us, we revel in it. Because of course, it's all true and deserved. If everything stays well, it's hard to see what the downside of this approach is, accepting the ego that can often creep in.

It's only when the screw turns that we realize how dangerous this has been because when you associate your identity with externals when things are good. It's impossible not to associate your identity when all those externals are showing you to be a loser or a fool or the object of other people's contempt. The Stokes would urge you to remember that things don't make the man, not now, not ever. Epic Titus reminds us that just because someone has more money than you doesn't make them superior, no only their bank balance is superior. If someone is an eloquent speaker, that doesn't make them better than you either. Just means they have better diction. You yourself, he says, are neither property nor diction. No, you're you.

And you're not measured or made by externals or anything that is outside your control. What matters is who you are on the inside. What matters is what you do with the choices and situations that are inside your control. What matters is how you ride out the highs and the lows. And ideally, are changed by neither of them. Being able to control your anger is a difficult but worthwhile goal.

We'll take time and effort, it won't be free, but by changing your perspective and developing techniques to control your temper, we'll ultimately be achievable in life-changing. So take the first step on the path to a calmer and more fulfilling future. Check out Taming Your Temper the 10-day Stoic Guide to controlling your anger. You can just go to 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 Fried 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, and 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. 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 build up, why it happened, and the repercussions. What does our obsession with these feuds say about us? The first season is packed with some pretty messy pop culture drama, but none is drawn out in personal as Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears. When Britney's fans form the free Britney 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. upon anyone who failed to fight for Brittany. Follow Disenthal wherever you get your podcast.

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