Always Keep A Role Model In Mind

"It’s key then, if you want to be good and do good, that you have a kind of North Star in your life that keeps you centered. A role model who draws you back on course when the events of life or the drift of inertia subtly misdirect you."Learn more about the importance of role models in 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: 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.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  Always keep a role model in mind. It's easy to get busy and pulled off course by life. The emails come in and you get distracted. You're in the middle of a big, long project and other parts of your routine suffer. The mood and actions of the crowd can seduce and tempt us. We are all influenced by the tempo of our time. So it's key, then, if you want to be good and do good, that you have to have a kind of north star in your life that keeps you centered, a role model who draws you back on course when the events of life or the drift of inertia subtly misdirects you. As Seneca wrote to a friend who'd asked for advice, "Choose someone whose way of life, as well as words, and whose very face is

• 1:11Ryan Holiday?

  mirroring the character that lies behind it. Have one year approval. Be always pointing him out to yourself, either as your guardian or as your model. There is a need, in my view, for someone as a standard against which our characters can measure themselves. Without a ruler to do it against, you won't make crooked straight." Who is your north star? Who is the ruler for you to measure yourself against? This is an urgent question that must be answered. And when you have a name, the next question is how are you reminding yourself of their example? How are you keeping their memory and inspiration alive to you on a daily basis? Because it should be something, a tattoo,

• 1:54Ryan Holiday?

  a photo, a statue displayed on your desk, whatever. You must always be pointing them out to yourself, as Seneca said. You must always be asking yourself how they would behave, what they would expect of you. You must strive and struggle to live up to their standard. It won't be easier. But it's better and safer than drifting. The stakes are too high to wing it. And actually, as I read this to you, I'm looking at a statue I have on my desk of Marcus Aurelius. I've had this next to me on all the books that I write. I look at it constantly. He's the sort of Cato or the model that I choose to model myself against. And maybe if you're looking for a statue like this, you can check out the one we have in the Daily Stoic store.

• 2:34Ryan Holiday?

  It's a beautiful, custom, limited edition statue we had made of Marcus. We've talked about it here before, but you can check that out at dailystoic.com/store.