You Do the Math

"At least 200,000 people are marked for death worldwide and they don’t even know it. They are the back half of 'the curve.' They are essentially walking dead. That is the cold, harsh reality of statistics. Of the numbers."Ryan describes why we can't let our guards down against COVID-19—and why we must use it as a reminder that we could leave life at any moment.***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: DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryanholidayInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanholiday/Facebook: http://facebook.com/ryanholidayYouTube: 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.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good 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 at dailystoic.com.

• 0:28Ryan Holiday?

  You do the math. Tens of thousands of people are marked for death. They don't even know it. They are essentially walking dead. That is the cold, harsh reality of statistics, of the numbers. Numbers don't have feelings. They don't care about individuals, about goals, about unfinished business, about anything. The numbers just are. And sometimes they sentence us to fates we'd rather not think about. Like, a certain number of people will be diagnosed with cancer each year. A certain percentage of people are admitted to Harvard. A certain number of planes will crash from the sky. Here's another number. Right now, the conservative forecast for deaths from COVID-19 is between 100,000 and

• 1:12Ryan Holiday?

  200,000. Worldwide, the cumulative total is much, much higher. Thus far, approximately 50,000 Americans have lost their lives. We're succeeding at flattening the curve, and still, thousands of people die every day with tubes down their throats, and their family prohibited from their bedsides. In moments like this, we would be wise not to look away from, but to earnestly engage with this sobering memento mori exercise, that tens of thousands remain marked to die, those walking dead, those poor folks who might not even be infected yet, or know their number has come up. They may well be you. Or they could be your partner, your spouse, your son or daughter, your mom or dad, your

• 1:57Ryan Holiday?

  grandmother, your neighbor, your employer, your mentor. It could be some or all of them. This idea that we are on the prescribed list, which in ancient Rome was the list of citizens marked for execution. It's not just theoretical, it is real. 647,000 Americans die from heart disease each year. 606,000 from cancer, 167,000 from accidents or unintentional injuries, 159,000 from respiratory diseases, 147,000 from stroke. Those are real deaths. You could be among them. You could be one of those. Eventually, it's guaranteed you will be guaranteed. Those are the numbers.

• 2:41Ryan Holiday?

  We have all been selected to die. The only hope is that we spend a long time on that list before a number gets pulled, that we spend our time on death row wisely. Marcus said, "You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think." And he wrote that during the plague. Today, let's add, "You have life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think. Let that make you brave also." As Seneca quoted many times, as he then faced himself, "All that a death sentence from a tyrant or a pandemic can do is take you more quickly somewhere you are already going." And he would know. Life is short, numbers are harsh. There's nothing we can do about that. But we can be brave and be present and live while we can.

• 3:26Ryan Holiday?

  And of course, hope each day to be spared for a little while longer.

• 3:32Ryan Holiday?

  For the last six months, Daily Stoic has been developing the Daily Stoic Habits Challenge. Habits for success, habits for happiness. We're inviting you to spend the next six weeks challenging yourself to change what you repeatedly do. And we are promising that if you can do that, you can achieve erite personally and professionally. If you want to do or be something, Epictetus said, "Make a habit of it." So let's make a habit of erite. And let's remember his most urgent and challenging question. How much longer are you going to wait to demand the best of yourself? How about not one second longer? Let's start today. If you want to join us in this challenge, I'll be doing it alongside you.

• 4:14Ryan Holiday?

  It's six weeks of really awesome, life-altering habits based on Stoic wisdom. You can check that out at dailystoic.com/habits. Dailystoic.com/habits. Can't wait to see you. Let's change and improve together.