There Is Only One Person to Listen To

"Like any person in power, any person in the public spotlight, any person striving to be great, Marcus struggled with caring too much about what other people thought of him. Good or bad—as animals, we are designed to think this matters, lest our evolutionary ancestors risk being driven from the tribe. So Marcus worked to remind himself that praise and criticism were really the same thing: a clacking of tongues. Throw away the recognition, throw away the gossip, throw away all grousing from your haters, he said—it’s worthless."Learn more about tuning out the clacking of tongues in todays' 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?

  There is only one person to listen to. Like any person in power, any person in the public spotlight, any person striving to be great, Marcus Aurelius struggled with caring too much about what other people thought of him, good or bad, as animals were designed to think that this matters, lest our evolutionary ancestors risk being driven from the tribe. So Marcus worked to remind himself that praise and criticism were really the same thing, "a clacking of tongues. Throw away the recognition, throw away the gossip, throw away all grousing from your haters," he said, "it's worthless." What Marcus was reminding himself of is exactly what Nita Strauss, one of the best guitar

• 1:12Ryan Holiday?

  players in the world, told us when we asked her about dealing with all the noise inherent in an industry defined both by media criticism and adoring fans. "One thing you quickly realize as a female in the music industry," she said, "is that everyone has a strong opinion about you. It's been my challenge to isolate my view of myself from anything people say about me, the good or the bad. At the end of the day, none of the criticism or the accolades changes anything in my life. About two years ago, I stopped reading comments on news articles about me altogether. I used to love the feeling of proving people wrong, of walking out in front of the audience who expected very little of me and changing their

• 1:52Ryan Holiday?

  minds. Now," she said, "I find myself focused less on proving people wrong and more about improving myself and my performance." That's what comes from this tuning out, from ignoring the clacking of tongues and hands, more time to focus on yourself, more time To listen to the voice inside you, the one that knows what you actually believe and who you actually want to be, and most importantly, peace and stillness. What we want is what Marcus Aurelius wanted, the tranquility that comes when you stop caring what they say, he said, or think, or do, only what you do. You deserve that. You deserve that today.

• 2:33Ryan Holiday?

  The only person you have to impress is yourself. The only person to listen to is yourself, because you already know what matters, what good and bad are or sound like, and you already know what is right. So, listen.

• 2:48Ryan Holiday?

  Hey, just wanted to remind you, if you want to take your practice of Stoicism to the next level, if you want some physical reminders of the ideas we talk about here, check out the Daily Stoic store. You can go to dailystoic.com/store. These products are what help us keep the lights on here at Daily Stoic. They help grow the business, let us spread the message to more and more people. So, if you want to support us, check that out. Go to dailystoic.com/store.