You Must Play It Like A Game | Protect Your Own Good

Life may have big challenges in store for us. What’s more certain, as we talked about recently, is the ‘petty hazards of the day.’ We may find ourselves thrust in some crisis–a big political moment or some emergency that unfolds in front of us on the street. We will definitely experience traffic and obnoxious people and temptation and burnout. It’s important we understand that whether the moment is big or small, the Stoic is supposed to respond the same way. That is to say: Calmly. Courageously. With the common good in mind.---And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt, Ryan reflects what the Stoics teach about the innate goodness that all human beings are born with, and what we can do on a daily basis to better align ourselves with that goodness.✉️ 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, including The Obstacle Is The Way.📱 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. 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?

  You must play it like a game. Life may have big challenges in store for us. What's more certain, though, as we talked about recently, is the petty hazards of the day. We may find ourselves thrust in some crisis, a big political moment, or some emergency that unfolds in front of us on the street. We will definitely experience traffic, and obnoxious people, and temptation, and burnout. It's important that we understand that whether the moment is big or small, a Stoic is supposed to respond the same way. That is to say, calmly, courageously, with the common good in mind. In the email we mentioned earlier, we drew on the work of the novelist Gene Webster, who remarked that "it may well have been easier to respond to crisis or tragedy than

• 1:26Ryan Holiday?

  it is to respond to the ordinary or the mundane," because we know what's expected of us, because people are watching, because we understand the stakes. But again, Stoicism isn't just about being great in the big moments, but also great in the little moments. And perhaps one way to do that is remove the idea of stakes entirely, to see all of these situations as equal opportunities for you to practice what you preach, no matter who is or isn't watching.

• 1:55Ryan Holiday?

  "I'm going to pretend that all of life is just a game which I must play as skillfully and fairly as I can," Webster has her character say. "If I lose, I'm going to shrug my shoulders and laugh." Also, she says, "If I win." Epictetus himself once said that a philosopher was like a skilled ballplayer. They knew how to play the game. "And no one was better than this than Socrates," he said, "who treated life's little moments and its big ones just the same. He was one with his philosophy, whether he was facing a frustrating person on the street or a potential death sentence. He took it all very seriously, and yet not too seriously at all. He wasn't

• 2:33Ryan Holiday?

  playing to win, but to get the best out of himself, always. That is the Stoic way." And that's what I mean when I say the obstacle is the way, the idea that we treat all these things as opportunities to practice virtue, to rise to the occasion. And if you haven't checked out the book yet, you can. We've got signed copies here in the Daily Stoic store and at the Painted Porch. And we make a cool pendant and a medallion if you want to carry that reminder with you. I, myself, have it tattooed on my arm, not that it makes me perfect at it, but it does catch me in moments when I'm not inclined to shrug and laugh, and not inclined to see that moment as the opportunity that it is. And I hope that helps.

• 3:26Ryan Holiday?

  Protect your own good. Musonius Rufus, one of Epictetus's teachers, taught that human beings are all born with an innate goodness, or as he put it, "with an inclination to virtue." It's our choices that decide whether that goodness comes out or not. We're not bad people, essentially, though we might sometimes do bad things. The purpose of Stoicism, then, is to remind us of that goodness and to help us work hard to protect it. So spend some time this week writing about the choices you can make, the actions you can take to do just that. And this is from the Daily Stoic Journal, 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on the Art of Living, which I use myself every morning. I love the little prompts.

• 4:10Ryan Holiday?

  Here is Epictetus's Discourses, who, as you know, Epictetus was Musonius Rufus's student. Protect your own good in all that you do, and as concerns everything else, take what is given as far as you can make reasoned use of it. If you don't, you'll be unlucky, prone to failure, hindered, and stymied. That's Discourses four, three. And then Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. Marcus, then influenced by Epictetus. So Musonius teaches Stoicism to Epictetus, whose writings then survive and make their way to Marcus Aurelius. Marcus Aurelius, as it happens, is introduced to Stoicism through Junius Rusticus, who loans him his copy of Epictetus. Dig deep within yourself, Marcus writes in Meditation 759.

• 4:55Ryan Holiday?

  For there is a fountain of goodness ever ready to flow. You will keep digging. I guess what the Stoics are doing here is really pushing back on this notion of original sin, that we're toxic, broken, horrible people, that human nature is something to be feared. You know, there is a darkness in us, but there's also incredible good. And I think the Stoics are talking about what side of you are you gonna nurture? What side is gonna come out? What side are you gonna look for? What side are you gonna reveal? And Musonius and Epictetus and Marcus are all tested in incredible ways. Musonius is exiled three times, perhaps four. Epictetus, you know, experiences the incredible injustice of slavery.

• 5:39Ryan Holiday?

  Marcus Aurelius is given absolute power. And as they say, power reveals. But I think also adversity reveals. And in both Musonius and Epictetus's case, adversity revealed a goodness, an unbreakable goodness, a commitment, a tenacity, a perseverance, an unswerving belief in these principles that we're talking about now. And in Marcus Aurelius, you know, he wasn't challenged the same way, although life did challenge him with loss and grief and pain and sickness, but it also challenged him with a great bounty of good fortune. And that too tested his character.

• 6:23Ryan Holiday?

  It tested whether there really was goodness inside of him and what side of him he was going to reveal. So as you go out into the world this week, think about who you really are underneath.

• 6:36Ryan Holiday?

  Think about what kind of character you've been cultivating.

• 6:41Ryan Holiday?

  And let's show people who we are and who we can be and what we actually believe. As Marcus says, let's not waste time arguing what a good man should be. Let's be one. Let's be the best we can for ourselves, for our family, for our world. And I'll talk to you soon.