It’s Strange How Cowardly We Sometimes Are | We Are A Product of Our Habits

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

• 0:05Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a Stoic-inspired meditation, designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life. Each one of these episodes is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women, help you learn from them, to follow in their example, and to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom. For more, visit DailyStoic.com.

• 0:56Ryan Holiday?

  It's strange how cowardly we sometimes are. They knew it was going to end in disaster. They knew he was terribly unqualified and profoundly unstable. They knew he did not care for one minute about anyone or anything but himself. Yet what did most of Rome's senators do? They did nothing. They were not like Thrasia, defying and challenging, insisting on the truth, refusing to obey. No, they went along to get along. They rubber-stamped his policies. They indulged his fantasies, accepted his lies. Even though they were supposed to represent the people, even though they were supposed to protect and preserve the empire's institutions, even though they were entrusted with considerable means and influence, they declined to assert their prerogatives.

• 1:40Ryan Holiday?

  They obeyed instead of led. What an unbelievably strange life, the journalist Ezra Klein would recently observe of the American Senate, to rise as far as they have in politics, to wield as much power as they could, and to be as afraid as they are. It is a shame. It will end again in disaster. But you know what? As we've said here many times, the problem is not limited to politics. We all have more power and influence than we choose to wield, whether we're talking about getting involved in our homeowners association, or standing up to our boss, or using hard-won leverage in a business negotiation. Too often, we are just far too cowardly.

• 2:23Ryan Holiday?

  Courage calls us, and what do we do? We ignore it. We let it ring. We leave it for later. And it's a shame. And it's also very strange. I talk about this, obviously, a lot in Courage is Calling, but also in Right Thing Right Now. These are, I think, two interrelated Stoic virtues that are more timely and in shorter supply than ever. You can grab both those books wherever books are sold. And if you want me to sign your copy, just go to stewart.dailystoic.com.

• 3:01Ryan Holiday?

  We are a product of our habits. This comes from this week's entry in the Daily Stoic Journal, 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on the Art of Living. Journaling, of course, is a critical exercise to the Stoics. It's really hard to separate journaling from Stoicism. Meditations is Marcus Aurelius journaling and talking to himself. And so today's entry comes from the prompt and the sort of meditative part of the Daily Stoic Journal for this week's, and it's all about habits. The Roman Stoics put a heavy emphasis on dealing with habitual behavior in order to make progress in the art of living. The great Roman Stoic educator

• 3:43Ryan Holiday?

  Musonius Rufus, he's Epictetus's teacher, held that all the theories in the world couldn't trump good habits, and they couldn't overcome bad habits either. Epictetus followed Musonius in this focus on habit with an eye on not reinforcing bad habits, such as anger, and finding a way to replace them with better ones. We all recognize bad habits when they see them in others, but it's harder to See them in ourselves. So this week, meditate on the habits and recurring behaviors that are holding you back and even ask others around you for their view. And the first quote comes to us from Epictetus. He says, "Every habit and capability is confirmed and grows in its corresponding actions, walking by walking and running by running.

• 4:27Ryan Holiday?

  Therefore, if you want to do something, make a habit of it. If you don't want to do that, don't, but make a habit of something else instead. The same principle is at work in our state of mind. When you get angry, you have not only experienced an evil, but you've also reinforced a bad habit, adding fuel to the fire." It's Epictetus's Discourses 218. Then he also says, "If you don't wish to be a hothead, don't feed your habit. Try, as a first step, to remain calm and count the days you haven't been angry. I used to be angry every day, and now every other day, then every third and fourth. And if you make it as far as 30 days, thank God. For a habit is first weakened and then obliterated. When you can say, 'I didn't lose my temper today,' or the next day, or for three or four months,

• 5:11Ryan Holiday?

  but I kept my cool under provocation, then you are in better health." That's again Epictetus's Discourses 218. And then this is the funny one. He says, "What assistance can we find in the fight against habit? Try the opposite." The point is, the Stoics thought a lot about habits. They had to, right? It's not just enough to think philosophical thoughts to to sort of have high principles or standards, but how do you make them real in your life? How do you turn them into muscle memory, right? An athlete can watch videos, can be coached, can can review painstakingly their swing or their shot or their throw. And then they're going to get tweaks and thoughts, but then that has to become habit. That has to become part of the routine.

• 5:56Ryan Holiday?

  That's why they sit in the gym and take 1,000 free throws or 1,000 jump shots. That's why they practice doing this or that. So that under immense amounts of pressure, under the stresses of life and the game, they can revert back to that training. They can do what they need to do. And I love this little expression from Seneca about how bad habits, the old way of doing it, First, we weaken it, then we obliterate it. You don't just magically do the new thing. You weaken it. And he's saying one way to weaken it is to try the opposite. You know, it's like you have a piece of paper with a crease in it or a bend in it. You can fold it the opposite way and it kind of flattens it out. I just think that's an interesting way of thinking about it. But look, habits make the man, right?

• 6:37Ryan Holiday?

  The habits that you do, the things you habitually do day in and day out, that's who you are. Who you say you are, who you want to be, who cares, right? The habits you habitually do, the choices you regularly make, that's what make you who you are. That's what make you beautiful. As we also talk about from Epictetus, we are a product of our choices, our routines, our habits. As a writer, how does it work? You create a routine, you create a structure, you follow it every day. Work comes out the other side of that. It's not about fits of inspiration. It's not about genius. And I think this is true for all crafts that one seeks out to master. It's about habit. But I've also found even as a parent, if you want to do good, if you want to manage this or that,

• 7:21Ryan Holiday?

  you create habits, you create routines, you create structures, and then you stick to it. That's the key. Habits will make you happier. They will give you a better life. I'm not saying they're easy. They're very difficult, but habit is everything. It's also the hardest thing, but let's keep working on our habits.

• 7:44Ryan Holiday?

  Hey, it's Ryan. Thank you for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. I just wanted to say we so appreciate it. We love serving you. It's amazing to us that over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in the couple of years we've been doing it. It's an honor. Please spread the word, tell people about it. And this isn't to sell anything. I just wanted to say thank you.