The Biggest Lie In The World | Toxic Habits The Stoics Want You To Stop Doing

You may well have said it yesterday, or overheard someone else saying it, “Oh, I’ll do it in the morning…I’ll do it after I wake up…I’ll get to it later…I just need to do this other thing first.”It’s one of the oldest, most insidious lies in the world. Yet it’s so common that we don’t even notice it. We don’t even realize that it is a vicious untruth that deprives us and the world of potential, of awareness, of understanding.---And in today's Daily Stoic video excerpt, Ryan shares what habits did the Stoics say we ought to cease, what vices should we avoid?.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, 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, where each day we read a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you in your everyday life. On Tuesdays, we take a closer look at these Stoic ideas, how we can apply them in our actual lives. Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  The biggest lie in the world. You may well have said it yesterday or overheard someone else saying it. "Oh, I'll do it in the morning. I'll do it after I wake up. I'll get to it later. I just need to do this other thing first." It's one of the oldest, most insidious lies in the world, and yet it's so common that we don't even notice it. We don't even realize that it's a vicious untruth that deprives us and the world of potential, of awareness, of understanding. As Marcus Aurelius observed 2,000 years ago, "It's the lie that will be good tomorrow." It's what Seneca said, "All fools and all of us are fools." It's what we all have in common, that we're getting ready to start. You won't get to it tomorrow. You're deceiving yourself. And even if you somehow weren't,

• 1:13Ryan Holiday?

  if you were truly sincere, who is to say that you are guaranteed to have tomorrow? Procrastination is not just dishonest, it's arrogant. It's an old and it's a timeless and terrible vice. You must crush it. Not tomorrow, but today. Now. Maybe you've said, "Hey, I heard 'Discipline is Destiny' is good. I'm gonna get around to reading it." Well, if that's true, maybe you should, you know, get off your ass and actually get it. Or you've got it sitting on the nightstand. Maybe now's the time you can actually read it. If you want a signed copy, you can go to stewart.dailystoic.com or come grab them here at the Painted Porch in Bastrop, Texas. In any case, Discipline is Destiny is all about the power of self-control, battling procrastination,

• 1:57Ryan Holiday?

  winning against that lower self that wants to put it off till later. Stop being a fool. Don't do it later. Do it now. Talk soon.

• 2:09Ryan Holiday?

  One of the keys to the good life Epictetus says is to decide what you want to be and then do that work. But it's not just what you do, it's also what you stop doing. So here are some toxic habits you must stop doing right now. Some things the Stoics say you should not do, that you should never do. One, don't be overheard complaining even to yourself. That's Marcus Aurelius. Two, don't put on airs about your self-improvement. That's Epictetus. He says, "Don't talk about it, be about it." Don't overindulge in eating or drinking. Moderation is key. That's Musonius Rufus. And Zeno says, "Two ears, one mouth for a reason. Don't speak more than you listen." Don't do those things and you'll have a good life. I don't know who needs to hear this, but Marcus Aurelius's reminder is a life-changing

• 2:54Ryan Holiday?

  one. He says, "You don't need to have an opinion about this. You always have the power of having no opinion." If it's pointless gossip, if it's trivia, if it's something that doesn't concern you, if it's something you have zero control or influence over, just let it be. Don't have an opinion. You don't have to say it's positive or negative. Epictetus says, "It's not things that upset us, it's our opinions about those things. It's our judgment about those things." So we have the power to not think about it, to tune it out, to focus on what really matters, to try to put our energy and our intention on where we can make a difference, on where we do have control. And if other people want to be concerned with them, if other people want to be riled up or have opinions about them, if it's their job to do it, leave it to them. Meanwhile, you let it float on by like the clouds and you stick with what's up to you.

• 3:37Ryan Holiday?

  Ramit Sethi talks about this. He says, "People are always talking about how they want to get their finances in order. They want to get better at money." And he goes, "Okay, have you read a book about money? Have you read a single book on this topic?" And they're like, "No, I was going to," or "I bought it." If you've watched Knocked Up, the reason Katherine Heigl's character gets so mad at Seth Rogen, "Why didn't you read the baby book? This is this life-changing, important thing and you can't even read a book about it." The Stoics say, "Acta non verba, deeds not words." But sometimes the act of picking up a book is a deed. The first step, the first little bit of commitment to learning something, to growing, to changing. That's why I wrote The Daily Dad. I wanted one page a day of parenting wisdom. So it's not even a book that you read once. It is a book that you

• 4:20Ryan Holiday?

  are reading in ongoing process. But the point is, if you want to get better at something, if you have these goals, what statement have you made? What evidence is there that you're actually serious about it? And that often can start with a book.

• 4:35Ryan Holiday?

  We think that being really rich, being really powerful, having an important job, that this is gonna free up our lives. We even call it financial freedom. But it's important the Stoics would say that we look at the actual lives of the people that we're aspiring to be like. There's this haunting scene, I tell it in Lives of the Stoics. Posidonia, one of the great Stoics, is there for the death of Marius. Marius being one of the richest and most powerful of the Roman generals. And he watches this man who commanded these great legions. But as Seneca said, those legions commanded him. He wasn't in control of his life, he wasn't in control of himself, and it was a miserable, lonely way to go. And so it's important that you study the lives of the rich and famous, as they say, not because celebrity gossip is interesting, but because you get a glimpse of what it's actually like to be those people, to have those things.

• 5:19Ryan Holiday?

  And it's not as empowering as you think it is. Ernest Renan said of Marcus that Marcus was probably the least free of all men. That's why Marcus didn't love being emperor. He didn't have control over his schedule, over his life, what people said about him. His private life is gone, wrecks his family in many ways. So it's really important that we study. We ask ourselves, is getting this thing actually going to give me what I want? Or am I fooling myself that someday in the future by having it, it's not how it's gonna work?

• 5:45Ryan Holiday?

  Being a Stoic does not mean you have no emotions. In fact, at the beginning of Meditations, Marcus Aurelius writes, "The key is to be free of the passions, but to be full of love." Instead of anger, or jealousy, or hatred, or fear, or resentment, try to transform those emotions into empathy, into compassion, into understanding, into affection for other people. Now, this is super hard to do, and I struggle with it, I fall short of it all the time. But the idea is not that emotions are bad, but that there are negative emotions, and that love, on the other hand, passion, understanding, forgiveness, patience, these are better emotions, better traits, that we try to replace those negative emotions with. Don't be overheard complaining, Marcus Aurelius writes in Meditations. Not even to yourself. I love that distinction. It's not only not like whining publicly,

• 6:30Ryan Holiday?

  but not whining to yourself, not pitying yourself. It never makes a difference. It's funny, when I've talked about this before, people go, "What about protests? What about lawsuits?" Taking an action is not a complaint. Complaining is when you think that emoting about, simply speaking about, letting your displeasure be known, when you confuse that with actually doing something about your problem.

• 6:51Ryan Holiday?

  You can't trust appearances. Epictetus says that what studying philosophy gives you, he says, "It makes you like a money changer, who can know from the way they bang a coin on the table, whether it's counterfeit or not." Stoicism is about putting every impression to the test. As you try to make money in life, as you try to invest in life, it's not just finding the good investments, finding the good vehicles. It's about avoiding being scammed. It's about avoiding fads. It's about avoiding false promises. Marcus Verilla says you can't fall for every smooth talker. That's what Epictetus is saying. You put the impression to the test. You can trust, but you have to verify. If it seems too good to be true, whether it's an emotion or an investment, it probably is.

• 7:34Ryan Holiday?

  Poverty isn't having too little. It's wanting more. That's what Seneca was saying. And he, of course, wasn't speaking about people who are literally impoverished or starving, can't make ends meet. That is a form of poverty that's awful and unfair. He was talking about people like him, to whom all the abundance, all the luxury, all the wealth, all the success they have, doesn't feel like enough, so they always want and need more. This form of poverty is the most solvable. It's also the most pathetic and most sad. You have so much. You have more than you thought you would ever have. You have more than you need. You have more than some people will ever see in their lifetime. But you're not thinking about that. You've taken all of that for granted. That's become the baseline. What you're after is more. The problem is more becomes more becomes more,

• 8:18Ryan Holiday?

  and thus is never enough.