The Daily Stoic - You’ve Just Got To Keep Going Back | Ask DS

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

It’s impossible not to read Marcus Aurelius or Seneca and sense that they were always working. Not that they were literally always at the office–as we said, they believed in a kind of work life balance–but on themselves.They were studying. They were reflecting. They were asking questions. Late at night after his wife went to sleep, Seneca would pull out his journals and evaluate the day, going over what he’d done well, where he didn’t live up to his standards. Marcus, most famously, was seen as an old man, picking up his tablets and heading off to attend a lecture by Sextus, a wise teacher.---And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan speaks with members of the Minnesota Twins organization about how Stoicism can be applied to make their business better. The lessons that Ryan covers include how her re-centers when he finds himself straying from his Stoic path, the "ah-ha" moment that got him hooked on the teachings of Stoicism, and why Stoicism is a philosophy for all of life.✉️ 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.

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designed to help you in your everyday life. Well on Thursdays, we not only read the daily meditation, but we answer some questions from listeners and fellow stoics, we're trying to apply this philosophy just as you are. Some of these come from my talks. Some of these come from Zoom sessions that we do with daily stoic life members or as part of the challenges. Some of them are from interactions I have on the street

when there happen to be someone there recording. Thank you for listening. And we hope this is of use to you. You've just got to keep going back. It would be wonderful if the world was naturally just if people were automatically good always doing the right thing. But of course they don't.

It's one of the most heartbreaking and frustrating things of that life. Not only do people often not do the right thing, they will continue in air or evil even after they've been challenged, even after you've made every argument or followed all the procedures. Nothing illustrates this more than the fight to end segregation in America, which was more than just marches. It was a series of endless court cases, cases that took years to get picked up, years to get their day in court, years to get the right verdict, and once passed were then often ignored by southern politicians and law enforcement officers. But the reason the cause eventually prevailed was encapsulated by the legal philosophy of John Doerr, who served as assistant attorney general

for civil rights during the 1960s. You've just got to keep going back, he would explain. The Southern strategy was one of holding out, of being so difficult, being so painful to deal with, the hope being that the North would do what they'd done during reconstruction. They'd eventually be disheartened, and they would give up and leave. In the case of John Meredith, the black man who integrated the University of Mississippi door filed hundreds of motions sat before multiple judges appealed and appealed and appealed. He never lost heart, he never gave up, and neither did Meredith.

It should be said, even after he was shot in the head, you've just got to keep going back. He said, Justice, the most essential of the Stoic virtues is not just about being right. It's not just having the moral high ground. You have to fight for it. You have to seize and command that high ground. Kato knew this. He was dogged in his determination to keep Rome a Republican. He wore himself down fighting over every example of corruption, every attempt to bend the rules, every effort by Caesar to take over.

Kato didn't succeed, but his example inspired the founding fathers many centuries later, just as the words of those founders were taken up by people like John Doar and Martin Luther King Jr. and Diane Nash and made real. Things weren't perfect. There was incredible resistance. It took longer than it should have, but it wouldn't have happened at all had they not kept going back? Had they not made it happen? Hey, it's Ryan. Welcome to another Thursday episode of the podcast. Back a couple months ago, I gave a talk in Minneapolis to the Minnesota twins. Well, not the players of the team,

exactly it was put on by the Minnesota twins for a bunch of advertisers and brand partners. So we sort of talked some sports stuff and we talked stoicism, how we sort of apply these lessons of the Stoics to whatever we happen to be doing. And as usual, I do the Q&A after it. It was a short Q&A after they told me afterwards. Everyone was a little shy.

I didn't want to ask too many questions. But I kept my mic on after and a bunch of folks came up to me. So here is my Q&A there on stage and off stage. I hope these questions are valuable to you. And I bleep out all the names where I try to, just because I don't know if anyone wants to necessarily be included. But I'll take you on that ride with me in today's episode. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm on the bottom of my first page. Sure. So, my assumption is that you probably read the book. It's a good one. It's a really good book. Yeah, I'm sorry. I got to think that there's some moments and days where all the ladies you talk about here

come to the book where it doesn't go perfect. Is it a way that you find a sense of yourself again? Yes. I mean, I have the same thoughts. Yeah. I wanted to put that there in the conclusion for a reason. Marcus is saying, look, you fall off the path. You get back on the path, right?

You make mistakes. You relapse. you get distracted, you have some bad habits. How do you come back to what you know is important, what you know gets the best out of yourself, right? How do you center yourself? Athletes know this, right? It doesn't matter how you did it on the last step at,

the bat before that, the last 20 at bats, you've got this fresh opportunity in front of you. And the quicker you can clear your mind and just be in the moment that you're in and try to apply what you know, what served you well, what you have trained for, what you've done more than anyone else on the planet, that's what allows you to do that thing. There's an expression in writing that your last foot

won't write your next one, right? So I try to remind myself, hey, staring at a blank page and starting over, that's good and scary at the same time. And then I also try to think about that. Yeah, if I've had a couple bad weeks, I've been eating poorly, I've been sleeping for, I'm not doing or being a person that I know that I want to be, right? That's not ideal, but I have the opportunity

in this moment right now to make different choices to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. And so, you know, we watch badders, they have their routine that sort of, a part of that, I think, is really about wiping the slate clean, starting fresh getting in the right head space. And I think cultivating that in your personal and professional life is a great thing we can take from sports, for sure.

We're the 10 last of the same vehicle fish. Any other questions? Right back here. I think it's a long time to be here today. Of course. Please, Jim. It's interesting that I've read your book and passed it. I'm actually going to look for you in the morning of the course. It's interesting to have a great book and pass it. I'm actually going to look for some of my new years of

music. Oh, amazing. We're actually talking about music and music. And one clear moment is starting with another one. So, thank you, Pat. What was your own problem that really came to you into pursuing the path of socialism in the work of your day? Yeah, I fell in love with Blasphian,

who was maybe 19 or 20 years old, and I'm reading this book, it's 2000 years old, and you're like, there's a passage in book five of meditations where Marcus talks about struggling to get out of bed in the morning. It says, at dawn when you awake, you have trouble getting out of bed. I'm reading that as a college student.

I'm like, what? 2000 years ago, at dawn, when you awake, you have trouble getting out of bed. I'm reading that as a college student. I'm like, what? 2000 years ago, this person whose life should be incomprehensible to me is going through the exact same thing. I don't want to go to this 7am class. But he says something like, is this what you are put here to do to huddle under the blankets and be warm, right? He says go and do what you're put here to do. It says people who love what they do,

wear themselves down doing it. So that was just one passage of many, the obstacle is the way. Being another, you're reading with stuff and you go, wait, I thought this was a long time ago. I thought everything was different. And you find out it wasn't. It's exactly the same.

That more things have stayed the same than have changed about human beings. And it just helped me so much that it got me really excited about creating that same sort of aha moment in other people. So that's sort of what really keeps me going. But I remember when I had my marketing business, my employee came to me with this thing. They'd screwed something up and I was First reaction, so I get frustrated, she's the oldest person, she's an effectiveness person go and then I Thought you know what this is actually an opportunity. I'm gonna teach this person how they shouldn't do stuff like that before

And then we're gonna fix a set of processing We're gonna fix all the things that led up to that being possible here. And then we're going to be better for them having made this mistake. And then I was like, wait, that's what's in the book. So realizing, again, that's the sort of insight or process that leaders have been going through for as long as there has been philosophy, as long as there's been leaders. sort of what gets me going and what I try to do. So, great

question. Anybody else? Yes, thank you so much for being here. I was a pleasure. Yeah, I read the episode, the way shortly after email. Really? I'm excited to revisit. I was taking curious notes.

That's awesome. And then I have your new book from my brother, Because He's an Dad. Oh, the Daily Dad? That's awesome. So excited to get him into it. Very cool. Yeah. Like, there's something about like just starting with like just one thing to look at every day. Yeah. I really also want to appreciate how how all lessons you incorporate your family for a juicy. Because it's like, it's not just worst things in the world. Yeah, totally. Well, and also, if you're brushing at work, but you suck at home, are you really brushing it?

And then, conversely, I feel like when I'm doing the stuff well at home, it carries, you know what? Like, you get your house in order. you can do better at the other stuff. The other way around is not true. You can be, you see this in sports too, you're great at what you do, what you suck at. Exactly. You don't have to knock off. Yes, yes. So you didn't ask the question. How is class was working for the people in your life.

Oh, that's true. Yeah, sir. Because it's very easy to make it all about you. It's like sort of centered around the wrong things. And then like, is that really success? Exactly. Yeah, that's great. It's good about that.

That's a good test. It's good. Yes. Well, I can tell, like, not working on a book or I am working on a book, things are different at home. Because, like, just that you know, and you, yeah. And you realize that when you're carrying around, you're not actually carrying around, you're radiating it out, and people are picking up on it. It's funny because I thought to myself, I'm a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, a writer, writer, a writer, writer, a writer, a writer, writer, a writer, a writer, a writer. I'm going to be a writer. I'm going to be a writer. I'm going to be a writer. I'm going to be a writer. I'm going to be a writer. I'm going to be a writer.

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Appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. 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. We can't see tomorrow, but we can hear it. can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.