You May Have To Do This

Ryan explains the resistance that you are likely to face during your life. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/emailFollow 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.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:04Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom in everyday 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.

• 0:28Ryan Holiday?

  You may have to do this. On at least two occasions, Seneca lost everything he'd worked so hard for. First, his legal career was derailed by illness, and it took him 10 full years, prime years, to recuperate. Then, just as he was getting things back on track, he ran afoul of the emperor and was banished from Rome for nearly as long as he was previously infirm. Musonius Rufus was exiled twice, just like Seneca, and then, two more times. Zeno had to rebuild his life after a shipwreck. Rutilius Rufus, after a political persecution. These Stoics, like countless other people through history and through their resilience, joined Kipling's club, the one where one learns to watch the things you gave your life to

• 1:11Ryan Holiday?

  broken and stoop and build them up with worn-out tools. It wasn't their fault, for the most part. Just as this pandemic wasn't your fault, just as that bankruptcy was a bad break, just as the divorce would have never been something you chose, but here you are, facing it. That's life. Stuff happens. As Kipling says, "We make bets, sometimes big ones. They don't always work." Then what? Well, you can whine about it. We can blame shift. We can become bitter or disillusioned. But why? What good is in that? Better to lose and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss. Keep going. Dig your way out. Learn from this. Build back better.

• 1:56Ryan Holiday?

  Give no time, no interest, no quarter to complaining or whining or blaming. That's how a Stoic handles adversity. That's how a Stoic builds resiliency. And that is just what you are going to do. Thanks so much for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. Again, if you don't know this, you can get these delivered to you via email every day. So check it out at DailyStoic.com/email.