You Need to Have a Vision

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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?

  You have to have a vision. The class of 2020 has had it rough. Just look at the last few months here in the United States. Only the fourth impeachment in the nation's history, a near war with Iran, then a global pandemic, and now the highest unemployment ever recorded. Not exactly an encouraging time to go out into the world, make it on your own. Arnold Schwarzenegger faced a number of obstacles when he came into the world. Europe had been ravaged by the Second World War. There were few opportunities in his home country of Austria. He arrived in America with so little money that he got by by laying bricks. He lost his brother and his father by the time he was 25. He had what many would

• 1:12Ryan Holiday?

  have described as a crippling accent, and yet somehow, he made it. How? How did he overcome the innumerable obstacles and difficulties? As you've told the class of 2020 in a wonderful commencement address, which quotes Marcus Aurelius's line about how the impediment to action advances action, it's about vision. You can't be reactive. You have to have a sense of where you're going, because if you don't know, how can you know how to respond to the troubles that pop up along the way? Marcus Aurelius knew that he wanted to be a great emperor. He knew the philosophy he was trying to live up to. He knew the example he was trying to set for history. So when difficulties arose, from ill health to pandemics

• 1:54Ryan Holiday?

  to palace coups, he had a framework to rely on. He had something to persevere for. Same with Stockdale. His vision was making it out, in turning his ordeal into the kind of life-changing event that in the end, he would not trade for. That was his vision, and it got him through unimaginable difficulty.

• 2:14Ryan Holiday?

  Whether you're graduating or the parent of a graduate, it doesn't matter. This advice holds true. You have to have a vision. You have to know where you are going. You have to know what you're moving towards. Otherwise, you will not make it there. The impediment to action advances action, but only if you know where you're trying to advance and the kind of person you want to be when you get there. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcast app. And if you don't get the Daily Stoic email, go to dailystoic.com/email.