Where Does The Good Go? | The Sphere of Choice

We are right to be disappointed and frustrated with the state of the world. At the same time, we never need to despair about good in the world because we have it within us.📓 Pick up a signed edition of The Daily Stoic Journal: 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on The Art of Living: https://store.dailystoic.com/🎙️ Follow The Daily Stoic Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoicpodcast🎥 Watch top moments from The Daily Stoic Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dailystoicpodcast✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee 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.

• 0:02Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. Each day, we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics, illustrated with stories from history, current events, and literature to help you be better at what you do. And at the beginning of the week, we try to do a deeper dive, setting a kind of Stoic intention for the week, something to meditate on, something to think on, something to leave you with, to journal about, whatever it is you happen to be doing. So let's get into it.

• 0:42Ryan Holiday?

  Where does the good go? There have always been dark and depressing moments, for as long as there have been moments. As Marcus Aurelius writes in Meditations, "People have always been doing the same things: lying, fighting over money, scapegoating immigrants, cheating to get ahead, blaming everyone but themselves." And it's enough to make you ask, where does the good go? Where has it gone? But for all the darkness that Marcus Aurelius observed and lamented, he also knew there was an inexhaustible supply of goodness out there. Actually, he knew it wasn't out there at all. It was within himself. "Dig deep," he writes, "the water goodness is down there.

• 1:24Ryan Holiday?

  And as long as you keep digging, it will keep bubbling up." We are right to be disappointed and frustrated with the state of the world. The moral inversion that has consumed our current political and cultural landscape, as we recently said, it is inexcusable. We should fight against it, fight to reform it. At the same time, we never need to despair about good in the world because we have it within us. We can always go back to that well, starting today.

• 2:03Ryan Holiday?

  The Sphere of Choice. And this is from this week's entry in the Daily Stoic Journal, "366 Days of Writing and Reflection on the Art of Living", by yours truly and my co-writer and translator, Stephen Hanselman. I actually do this journal every single day. There's a question in the morning, a question in the afternoon, then there's these sort of weekly meditations. As Epictetus says, "Every day and night, we keep thoughts like this at hand. Write them, read them aloud, and talk to yourself and others about them." You can check out the Daily Stoic Journal anywhere books are sold. You can also get a signed personalized copy from me in the Daily Stoic store at store.dailystoic.com. If the first step is to discern what is or isn't in our control, the second step in Stoic philosophy is to focus the energy

• 2:47Ryan Holiday?

  on the things we have a choice about. The Stoics viewed the soul as a sphere that, when well tuned, well directed, was an invincible fortress against any trial or circumstance. Protected by our reason, this sphere of choice was like a sacred temple, and it is the only thing we truly possess in this life. We are the product of our choices, so it is essential that we choose well. This week, consider and reflect on the choices you have about your emotions, your actions, your beliefs, and your priorities. Keep this thought at the ready at daybreak and through the day and night. There is only one path to happiness, and that is in giving up all

• 3:29Ryan Holiday?

  that is outside your sphere of choice, regarding nothing else is your possession, surrendering all else to God and fortune. Epictetus, Discourses 4:4. Who then is invincible, the one who cannot be upset by anything outside their reasoned choice? Epictetus, Discourses 1:18. The soul is a sphere true to itself. It neither projects itself towards any external thing, nor does it collapse on itself, but instead radiates a light which it shows itself the truth of all things and truth in and of itself. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11:12.

• 4:09Ryan Holiday?

  Well, here we are. We were talking about this last week. You know, you only have so many energy points. You only have so much, so many resources. How are you going to spend them? Are you going to spend them on what's up to you? Or are you going to spend them on what's not up to you? Are you going to emote about things and pretend that that makes a difference? Or are you going to spend your energy trying to do something about this thing that you found so upsetting? Right? So I think people think that Stoicism is about resignation. It's not. It's about allocation, right? It's resigned to the things that make no difference, where you can make no difference. But it's very focused, intensely focused

• 4:52Ryan Holiday?

  on the areas that you can make a difference, right? So you could despair about the larger, you know, political trends in your country because you're one person and you're, you know, at odds with the majority. But maybe you can't make a difference with your family, with your community. You could run for school board or mayor or something like that, right? What can you do as the individual? That's not to say the Stoics aren't interested in collective action. I'm just saying, I'm going to focus my energy where it's going to make a difference. And as a Stoic, say, be indifferent to the things where I can make no difference. Right? Where can you make a difference, right? You know, it gets tempting as a writer, right? Because our job as writers is to have opinions about things.

• 5:36Ryan Holiday?

  But that's a really dangerous way to go through your life, thinking that the world gives a shit about your opinion, right? And that having the opinion is the thing that matters. And it doesn't matter, right? What matters is what you do. What are the actions, right? We ended the year with the idea from the Stoics about turning words into works. Well, what are you providing? Where are you putting your resources? And are you putting them towards where they have input? Where they have efficacy, right?

• 6:04Ryan Holiday?

  So a stoic is resigned in some sense to, look, I'm not going to get involved in that nonsense. I'm not going to waste time regretting the past either. What I'm going to try to do is move forward. What I'm going to try to do is move ahead. What I'm going to try to do is make some change where I can make some change. And, and yeah, I'm going to be indifferent to the, the things where that's not true. And that's what we're talking about here, right? That's what the sphere of choice is about. And it's an easy thing to forget. And that's why Epictetus is saying, keep it ready in the morning. Think about it throughout the day and think about it at night. Saying there's one path to happiness. It's giving up the things that are outside your sphere of choice. Focusing on what else is in your possession, surrendering everything.

• 6:46Ryan Holiday?

  So it's being zen about the things that are not up to you. But there's a kind of invincibility in that zen, right? Because if I didn't make the call, I didn't do it. If it wasn't something that was up to me, I'm not going to, I'm not going to get upset by it. Remember Marcus saying, you don't have to have an opinion about this. You don't have to get upset. But you should be upset about your own choices. Why did I do that? Why didn't I do that? Why did I, you know, why did I make this mistake? Why did I do this thing again that I told myself I was going to stop doing? Focus on you, focus on your choices, make good choices. That's how you exert control over the world. Something I, you know, I remind myself, you see what's going on in the world and you can despair.

• 7:29Ryan Holiday?

  You can feel sad or you can go, look, I've got two little kids in my house who I'm responsible for. The biggest multi-generational impact I can have is in raising them well. And then I go, and this is something Seneca failed. It's like Seneca spent all these years beating his head against the wall, trying to change Nero. He's affected far more people, had far more impact in his writing, where, which he did control. So I go, okay, and look, I, I'm not going to, you know, yell at some, some person I know on social media for being, for being silly and have the impact on one person. But I, I am going to sit down and write about this or talk about this on the podcast in a way that, that can reach a lot of people, right? Let's stay in our lanes. Let's do what we can do. Let's try to make a difference where we can.

• 8:14Ryan Holiday?

  And if we all do that cumulatively, that is collective action and that does have a big impact. So this is a short lesson today. It's a straightforward one, but it's so hard. And that's why Seneca is saying, you've got to remind yourself constantly throughout the day, I'm going to focus on what's in my sphere of choice. That's where I have impact. I'm going to focus on allocating my energy properly, not going to waste it on regret, not going to waste it on bitterness, on resentment, on anger, on fear, on worry, on hope. I'm going to focus on what I control. I'm going to make a difference there. That's what Stoic does.

• 8:53Ryan Holiday?

  Hey, it's Ryan. Thank you for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. I just wanted to say, we so appreciate it. We love serving you. It's amazing to us that over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in the couple of years we've been doing it. It's an honor. Please spread the word. Tell people about it. And this isn't to sell anything. I just wanted to say, thank you.