PNTV: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman (#358)

You're listening to Optimize with Bryan Johnson. More wisdom in Less time.

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another episode of Philosopher's Notes. TV Today, another great book, the Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. The daily stoic subtitle 366 Meditations on Wisdom, perseverance and the art of living, featuring new translations of Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. So if you follow much of my work, you know that I am a big fan of Stoicism and of Ryan Holiday. Put the two together, you have a very winning combination. Partner that with Stephen Hanselman in his translations of Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius with Ryan Holiday riffing on it, and you have literally one of my favorite books ever. When I finished this book, I went downstairs and I said to Alexandra, that might be my favorite book ever, period. I think I currently put it in the tied for first position along with the tools by Phil Stutts and Barry Michaels and deep work by Cal Newport. And add the Daily Stoic. And I rarely say, I say a lot of books are great because I get so much out of all the different books we feature here. I rarely say I think this is a must read. I'm never really going to say it's an absolute must read. But if you're into optimizing your life, I think you should be by extension into Stoicism, which is way more influential than you may be aware of. Everyone from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Teddy Roosevelt were big students of Stoicism and practitioners of Stoicism to the modern cognitive behavioral therapy movement. Stoicism permeates our culture in ways a lot of us aren't really familiar with. But often we wonder, where do we start? Do I start with Aurelius Meditations or Seneca's Letters from a Stoic? Or on the Shortness of Life? What about Epictetus in his handbook or the Discourses? They're all awesome. But what Ryan does here is, is he synthesizes all of the best from each of those different books and he puts them into this 366 day daily stoic guide. One page for each day with the fresh translation and then his really great kind of kick in the butt riff on it. How do we apply that ancient wisdom to our life today? Style that I love. And you get a book and that is as close to a must read as it can get. So highly recommended if you haven't checked it out yet. And then the Daily Stoic, I think it's thedailystoic.com they've got a ton of other stuff that you might find interesting as well. With that long prelude, we have a philosopher's note bunch of my favorite big ideas, six page PDF, 20 minute MP3 to go with. We now have over 450 of those. We have maybe like 12 plus at least 10 a dozen plus notes on all the different Stoic books out there that I think you'll enjoy. And then of course, ancient wisdom, modern science, etc. But for now, we have our five big ideas. I'm excited to riff about, talk about in this brief time together. So Stoicism101, we actually have a class on that for our members called Stoicism101. My favorite 10 big ideas. January 1st of this 366 day long or you know, each day guide, what do we talk about? We talk about the most important thing in Stoicism. It's the distinction between that which is within our control and that which is outside of our control. Right. So the whole practice of Stoicism ultimately, or one aspect anyway, the central aspect, comes down to distinguishing between the things that are within our control and the things that are outside of our control. The wise Stoic philosopher is always running the math on that. Is this within my control or not? Guess what? The only things that are within our control are our thoughts and behaviors, our response to what's happening in the world. Right? So we can't change our past. We can't create with any 100% certainty the future. Right. And we can't do anything about what's happening right now. What we can do and what we can control is whether or not we choose to step forward with virtue. Whether we choose to do our best or moment to moment to moment to moment. That's the essence of Stoicism and it's reflected in the Serenity Prayer. Right? So the Serenity Prayer goes something like, God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. That's Stoicism in a very, very, very small nutshell. But you got to practice it moment to moment to moment to moment. These guys were not do it once in a while kind of thing. We're going to talk about it down here. They were warriors of the mind. They weren't librarians of the mind. The next episode, we're going to talk about the philosophy of cognitive behavioral therapy. The author of that book makes the point that ancient philosophers weren't cataloging these ideas, right? They weren't librarians of the mind like a lot of modern day academic philosophers are. They were warriors of the mind. They were striving to embody these ideas moment to moment to moment. No idea was more important than this. Knowing what's within our control, knowing what is not, and then choosing to respond optimally. Moment to moment to moment. Second, big idea. One of my favorite words we talked about this, I think it was in Ego is the enemy. We've done Ego is the enemy by Ryan. And the obstacle is the way as well. So check out those notes and episodes. But euthymia. So Seneca talks about a Greek word, euthymia, which directly translates as tranquility. Tranquility. So if you want to have a sense of tranquility. And I write every single morning, I write down my virtues I strive to embody. One of them is euthymia. And then I write down energized tranquility. So this idea of a grounded, calm confidence, energized tranquility. Ryan riffs on Seneca's wisdom about how we achieve a state of tranquility. There are two things. One, you need to have a sense of clarity. You need to know who you are, what's important to you. And then you need to have the courage to live it right. That's actually the essence of it. And then there are two things that could get in the way. One, you second guessing yourself all the time so you could have clarity. Look, this is my path. This is who I am. This is what I'm here to do. But then you second guess yourself. Well, guess what? Your tranquility is gone. You're not tranquil. You're anxious. Or you can constantly compare yourself to other people. So you can say, this is my path. But wait, so and so is doing that, and this person's doing that. Why aren't. How come I'm not doing that? I'm not keeping up with them. Right? And Ryan goes off on this. But we want to ignore what other people are doing. Don't second guess ourselves every five seconds. Stay on our path. Of course it will evolve. But have that confidence that the clarity and the courage and the confidence to step forward. That's the essence of tranquility. So think about who you are, what your gifts are, how you are committed to giving them to the world. Commit to that. Do the work to get clarity. Move forward, adjust as necessary, but don't second guess yourself all the time. And definitely don't compare yourself endlessly. That is euthymia, which leads us to our third big idea, which is one of my favorites ever. Ryan quotes Epictetus. I think it was Epictetus in this context, who basically says, you know what? You don't need to know everything about everything. The philosopher's main thing was their mind and their consciousness and whether or not they were living with virtue, that first idea that got their best attention, Right? So the modern stoic philosopher would not be blowing up their consciousness following every single push notification and news article that comes out and living in that echo chamber of that. And they wouldn't care whether or not they knew about every single thing that was going on in pop culture or what celebrity was doing what, what new TV show was released, Must See tv. And Ryan brings all that home. He says, look, you gotta be willing to say, I don't know. Someone asks you, hey, what's going on with this? Or did you see that show? And it's like, I don't even know who that character is. I love saying that. I have no idea who that character is. Is that something I should know? And he says, the more provocative thing to say is, not only do I not know, I don't care. I don't care what's going on in that show. I've got more important things that I'm committed to doing, Euthymia style, so I can give my gifts in service to the world, which is another big part of stoicism. Aurelius talks about this all the time. Do your best with others in mind and how you can give back to others in mind, moment to moment to moment. Anyway, I don't know, I don't care. It's a really, really fun practice. I did this to an extent before this book and after this book, I just went all in on it. So I have fun with. I didn't even know who was in the World Series. And I'd make it an opportunity, you know, to chat with someone at the park who's wearing a Dodgers hat. How the Dodgers doing? Oh, they're in the World Series. Awesome. That's fantastic. A little love 2.0 opportunity, right? Micro moment of positivity resonance. But think about what you might be blowing up your mind with and whether or not you might benefit from some, I don't know, I don't care sauce splashed on that. And Ryan makes the point. And I've experienced this, and it's pretty straightforward when you think about it. The amount of energy you get back when you're not dissipating in all that and your unconscious mind isn't chewing on all that stuff, from the nonsense pop culture to tv, must watch shows, whatever, to the news and the echo chamber of fear that's created in the world. When you separate yourself at a healthy level and of course you choose to engage, you're a good citizen and a good participant in society, but you draw some bright line boundaries around it. You get so much energy back. That's astonishing. And one of the things you may want to care a lot less about is the social comparison side of what other people are doing. Maybe a little less Twitter, a little less Instagram, and a little more of what you're here to do would be a good idea. I don't know. I don't care. Fourth big idea is another good one, lifeboxing. So Ryan shares an Epictetus quote here as well. And Epictetus was an old school intense teacher. He was a former slave who then became freed. And then he became a prominent Stoic philosopher. So he had a school where a lot of the young kind of nobility came to train. And he was a super intense guy. Check out this book for more on on his wisdom. And he was the greatest influence on Marcus Aurelius. So what's interesting is that a Roman emperor philosopher learned from a former Roman slave the philosophy that he practiced unbelievably, diligently. Right. Then we have Seneca, the third Stoic, who was the era's greatest playwright. And he was a power broker, one of the wealthiest people in Rome. Fascinating trio. Right? Anyway, so they used metaphors around fighting, wrestling and boxing were their big metaphors. Kind of like how we use basketball and football as metaphors for our life. And their sport of choice was something called pankration, which literally means all strength. It was kind of a more pure form of the ufc, right? The mixed martial arts of today, pankration, full strength. And Epictetus would counsel his young nobleman and he would say, look, what kind of boxer are you if you're in the ring, you get hit in the face and then you just walk out of the ring. He says, what kind of boxer are you if you do that? That's crazy. Of course you're going to get hit. That's the whole point of competing in that type of sport. It's an opportunity to show up with your full strength. And if you walk out of the ring, that actually doesn't have any consequence. But if you get hit in life, which is inevitable, the same way you're going to get hit if you're in a boxing ring and you walk out of life and you give up, then what kind of boxer are you? Right? And he says, most importantly, what are you training for? The whole point of your training, if you're a boxer or a wrestler or whatever, or a human being, is to be able to deal with really strong opponent. That's the whole point. You want the best opponent you can get. You want life to challenge you. You set big, aggressive, exciting goals that are challenging, yet doable and meaningful, knowing you're going to have challenges, knowing it's going to force you to rise to your absolute best. So when you get hit, what kind of boxer are you to walk out? The whole point of these philosopher's notes and the optimal living classes and all the other work you do to optimize your life to be able to deal with life's challenges. We've got to remember that, right? This is why you train. That's what you want to say when you face a challenge, rub your hands together and say, what's the tool and the weapon I need to bring to this battle right now? Remember, this is about being a warrior of the mind, not a librarian. Be a good life boxer. And then the fifth big idea is acquiescence. So the Stoics had a couple of practices. We'll talk more about what they call the reserve clause in the next episode. We're going to do two more episodes in a row on Stoicism. The next one, we'll talk about the reserve clause, which is basically before a Stoic does anything, they say, yeah, I want to do this. That's my target, and I'll do it unless something else intervenes. They always know that the outcome is not within their control. They call that the reserve clause. Yes. Epictetus or Socrates would say, let's use Epictetus or Zeno, the founder of. Of Stoicism, who actually arrived in Athens via a shipwreck. Yeah, I'll do that. I'll sail from here to there. Unless the ship crashes, unless a storm takes us off track, there's a reserve clause involved, Right? So they're never attached to it, then. The second thing is what they call the art of acquiescence. They acquiesce to reality. They don't fight reality. So if a storm arises while they're at sea or where they get hit in the face when they're in the boxing ring, they don't moan about that and say, oh, why is that happening? They acquiesce to it. They roll with it. And although it was, I don't know how many, 15, 1600 years, later or whatever. It was 17, 1800 years later when Nietzsche wrote amor fati. Love of one's fate. Right? That's what Nietzsche said. He says not only should you accept what happens to you via acquiescence, as the Stoics would say, you should love it, you should love your fate. Act as if you wanted that to happen, basically, right? Like you scripted this negative thing so you can rise up to it. Amor fatih, Nietzsche said, and anytime you try to get rid of something in your life, you just got rid of all of your power. So the art of acquiescence is again remembering rule number one, which is the only thing you have control over is your response to the situation. So you want to love what is, as Byron Katie would say, and make the most of what is right. Art of acquiescence. So think about anything in your life that you might be fighting and think about. If you can look at the lesson in that, use it to get a little bit stronger. Ryan wrote a whole book on that called the Obstacle Is the Way and quit fighting reality and find a way to acquiesce. Love it and make the most of it as you become an even more skilled life boxer. The last episode we did was on Darren Hardy's entrepreneurial roller coaster. That one was all about knocked down. Well, of course you're going to get knocked down doing anything, but see how quickly you can get back up. He used to get knocked down for two weeks, then he could get back up in two days, then he can get back up in two hours, then 20 minutes, then two minutes. Right? That's what we want to do, become better and better, rub our hands together at challenges rather than run out of the ring, train ourselves to say I don't know. And you know what, I don't care about everything that's going on in the world. I'll stay reasonably connected. But I'm so focused on doing what I'm here to do that I'm going to unplug and disconnect, unsubscribe from a lot of the nonsense. And in the process I'm going to have a lot more euthymia tranquility. I'm clear on what I'm here to do. I'm not second guessing myself, I'm not constantly comparing myself to other people. And I have as a result, tranquility, unbelievably beautiful virtue, energized, grounded tranquility. And then finally stoicism. 101, January 1st of this 366 day manual on the art of living with more wisdom and perseverance, etc. Is to know what's within your control and what's not. Some things you can change, other things you can't. We want to get really wise in knowing the difference and practicing living with virtue, doing our best, influencing our thoughts and our behaviors to the greatest extent, and letting the rest flow as it will. That is a quick look. The Daily Stoic. As I said, absolutely love it. I think you will too. Hope you enjoyed and I hope you have another awesome day. See ya.

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