So, How Did You Do?

“It’s been a year, as unbelievable as that is to write. Time has dragged. It has flown by. On March 14, 2020, almost exactly one year ago, we sent out an email about the rising threat of COVID-19 and its relation to the timeless dictum of Stoicism: We weren’t going to be able to control what had happened, but we could control how we responded.”Ryan discusses the past year and asks you to reflect on how you handled it, 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 Daily Stoic: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. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:04Ryan Holiday?

  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 in everyday 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, dailystoic.com.

• 0:27Ryan Holiday?

  So, how did you do? It's been a year, as unbelievable as that is to write. On March 14, 2020, we sent out an email and did a podcast about the rising threat of COVID-19 and its relation to the timeless dictum of Stoicism. We weren't going to be able to control what had happened, but we would control how we responded. So, how did you do? 12 months, countless obstacles, countless difficulties, countless dilemmas and stresses, but also countless opportunities to practice this philosophy, to be civic and justice-minded.

• 1:11Ryan Holiday?

  Marcus Aurelius, writing during the Antonine Plague, talked about how a pandemic could take your life as well as destroy your character. Well, how did yours do? Did you fall prey to conspiracy theories? Did you take your frustrations out on your family? Did you throw your self-discipline to the wind? Remember that the core Stoic practice of Stoicism is journaling, and journaling is really just reflection. It's putting you and your actions up for review. Take a minute to do that today, or more than a minute, and don't lie to yourself. Look at your successes and be proud of them. That you're still standing is no small feat. Be grateful for that. And sadly, too many of our fellow humans did not make it.

• 1:57Ryan Holiday?

  But look at your failures too. Where did you waste time and energy? Where did you fall short? What stupid things did you do? Where were you part of the problem rather than the solution? And what can you do now? So let us learn from these successes and failures so that next time, and there always is a next time, there is always a tomorrow, we can be better, better citizens, better people, and better Stoics. I think, look, if this year has taught us anything, and nobody thought it was going to be a year when it started, it's that every moment is valuable. Imagine the people were just waiting for this to be over. You can't let time go to waste. In late March, early April,

• 2:41Ryan Holiday?

  we did the Daily Stoic Alive Time Challenge. It was two weeks, because that's what they were saying. It was two weeks, that's how long quarantine, a quarantine after an exposure was supposed to last. We created the Daily Stoic Alive Time Challenge. 14 days of challenges that were designed to help you get the most of every moment you have and prepare for that specific challenge, but really any challenge. Well, it's still there. Thousands of people all over the world, for COVID reasons and non-COVID reasons, have taken it. I think you'll like it. It's inspired by this great piece of advice I got from Robert Greene, the idea of a live time versus dead time. Who knows what the rest of 2021 will bring? But the idea is that every moment should be alive, every moment we should seize and take advantage of.

• 3:25Ryan Holiday?

  And so I do hope you check out the Daily Stoic Alive Time Challenge. Five bucks from every challenge goes to food bank charities. So we've provided thousands and thousands and thousands of meals to people negatively affected by the pandemic. Of course, you also get it for free if you sign up for Daily Stoic Life. So check that out. Go to dailystoic.com/alive or go to dailystoiclife.com.