The Things You Own…Can’t Own You | The Wake Up

To the Stoics, there wasn’t anything wrong with having money. Marcus Aurelius came from money. So did Cato. Seneca came from money and also made a lot of it. In fact, pretty much all the Stoics except for Cleanthes and Epictetus were incredibly rich. Money, nice stuff, living the comfortable life…this was not necessarily the problem.🎧 For a limited time, you can purchase The Daily Stoic ebook for only $1.99 on Kindle✉️ 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 Premium Leather Edition of the Daily Stoic Journal.📱 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.

• 0:38Ryan Holiday?

  The Things You Own Can't Own You. To the Stoics, there wasn't anything wrong with having money. Marx's realist came from money, so did Cato. Seneca came from money and also made a lot of it. In fact, pretty much all of the Stoics, except for Cleanthes and Epictetus, were incredibly rich. Money, nice stuff, living the comfortable life, this was not necessarily the problem. The problem was the dependence it engendered. The problem was the insatiable ability that seemed to come along with it. The problem was the fear and the jealousy it encouraged, the fear of losing it all, the lust to have more than someone else. It didn't make you freer, as we've talked about,

• 1:20Ryan Holiday?

  but less free, less risk averse, less connected to other people. "Slavery," Seneca would write, "lurks beneath marble and gold. The things we own end up owning us, because now we can't live without them. Now we identify with them. Now we're worried someone will take them from us." For the Stoics, money, success, and power had to be viewed with a kind of detachment. It was fine if life had given it to you, but you had to understand that life could also take it back, as it did for Zeno. You had to understand that it didn't say anything about you as a person, that it didn't make you better or worse than anyone else. In fact, it might make it harder for you to be a good person because now you have temptation and corruption. "We must not be owned by our possessions.

• 2:04Ryan Holiday?

  We must not be enslaved by our success. We must remain indifferent to them, our eyes locked on the only thing that matters: virtue."

• 2:19Ryan Holiday?

  The Wake Up.

• 2:23Ryan Holiday?

  Each morning, when you sit with a journal and think about Stoicism, you are following in the footsteps of Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and all the other great Stoics. The Stoics did not face each day on a whim, but instead with preparation and discipline. They spent real time thinking and anticipating what was to come over the course of a day, of a week, and of a year. Each morning activity, including journaling, including listening to this podcast, anything you do in the morning for the Stoic is designed to make you ready to face the day. And as you work, and you can be ready for the day as well. Ask yourself the following first thing in the morning. What am I lacking in attaining freedom from passion? What for tranquility?

• 3:07Ryan Holiday?

  What am I, a mere body, a stateholder, a reputation? None of these things. What then? A rational being. What then is demanded of me? Meditate on your actions. How did I steer away from serenity? What did I do that was unfriendly, unsocial, and uncaring? What did I fail to do in all these things? That's from Epictetus's Discourses 4.6. On those mornings when you struggle with getting up, keep this thought in mind. I am awakening to the work of a human being. Why then am I annoyed that I was going to do what I am made for? For the very things for which I was put into this world. Was I made for this, to snuggle under the covers and keep warm? It's so pleasurable. What then? Were you made for pleasure?

• 3:50Ryan Holiday?

  In short, to be coddled or to exert yourself? That's from Marcus Aurelius's Meditations 5:1. I think maybe my, maybe the first passage that really hit me in Meditations. Anyway, this idea of owning the morning, starting the day off right, is really so important. There's that expression, "What is well begun is half done." And I think... You know, I don't know when you're listening to this, obviously. I hope it's in the morning. Maybe it's on your commute. Maybe it's as you brushing your teeth or you've got it on a Sonos player or something. You're walking around your house. The point is, how you start the day is really important. For me, as I've said before, that my number one rule in the morning is I don't check my phone. I don't sleep with my phone in the room. I sleep with it in

• 4:31Ryan Holiday?

  the kitchen, plugged in. So, you know, when I go to bed like 10, 11, and then when I wake up, you know, six or seven, that's a good chunk of time without the phone, first and foremost. And then our new routine is my wife wakes up before she goes upstairs, she works, I get up with the kids, I give them the snack, put on their jackets because it's been cold in Austin, and then we go for our walk out on the road by our house. We go for this walk. Depending on how light or foggy it is, it might change the route. I said, I don't want to get hit by a car. But we usually do about three miles, and then we come back, give them their breakfast. My wife is showering or on the Peloton, or maybe she's cooked

• 5:13Ryan Holiday?

  breakfast for them, whatever. I go back into the bedroom. I sit down with my journals, including the Daily Stoic Journal, which the passage I just read is from. And then I do my sort of thinking. So, the Daily Stoic Journal is supposed to be, you do a morning reflection and evening reflection. Just because I've been busy lately, I typically I'll do the evening reflection in the morning. So I'll reflect on how I did with the thing I was thinking about yesterday. And then I sort of set my intention for the day as well. And so, what I like about the journal is just the questions, right? So, I'm reading this. I do these a little bit before. But so, let's see what today's question was. "If I relaxed my tight grip on life, what would happen?" So I'm taking a minute, I'm just

• 5:57Ryan Holiday?

  thinking about, you know, what am I trying to control too hard? What am I trying to force? What can I let go of? And then yesterday's was about what wisdom will I create? So I was sort of reflecting on what I'm learning, what I'm pushing myself on, what I'm thinking about. So it's just, you know, it's just a wonderful little part of the morning. And it's been an integral part of my day. Epictetus says, "Every day and night, keep thoughts like these at hand. Write them." Read them aloud, talk to yourself and others about them. That's what Stoicism is, this sort of interplay, this engaging with the material and re-engaging it. Epictetus, I love all the questions he's asking himself. What am I lacking? What's disrupting my tranquility? What am I? Like, who am I? What's demanded of me?

• 6:42Ryan Holiday?

  He's reminding himself to meditate on his actions. He's looking at how he steered away from serenity. What did he do wrong? Where did he fall short? Where did he fail? And so if you can start your morning with some of this reflection, it's really important. And I'm glad you're listening to this, but as we sort of wrapped up the year, it's not that one-way conversation. It's not the Stoics talking to you. It's not my writing talking to you. It's not the self-improvement books you're reading. It's not the podcast you're listening to. It should also be, what are you putting out there? What are you asking yourself? What are you thinking about? That's how we improve. That's how we grow. And I think that's a great habit for the year. So if you're not journaling, you should. If you are journaling, I would push you to sort of ask yourself these questions.

• 7:24Ryan Holiday?

  But then I'd also just make sure you have some of that time for that sort of stillness and reflection and contemplation in the morning. And make sure you're asking yourself questions in the morning. I think even the walk that I'm doing, I'm thinking about stuff. My mind is engaged. And that's what helps me kick off a great day. And as we said, what's well begun is half-done. So let's get out there. I wish you a great morning, whatever time zone you're in. And looking forward to connecting with you over the next 12 months and making this a great year.