Practice Makes You Prepared

“In 2017, the New England Patriots were down 28-3 to the Atlanta Falcons in the third quarter of the Super Bowl. It had not been a good game. Fans had already begun to write the Patriots off. Announcers had serious doubts as to whether a comeback was possible. But somehow, against all odds, the Patriots would come back to win that game in one of the greatest victories in all of sports.”Ryan discusses the incredible feat accomplished by the Patriots in Super Bowl LI, and why we should be prepared for whatever fortune brings our way, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee 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.

• 0:05Ryan 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, dailystoic.com.

• 0:26Ryan Holiday?

  Practice makes you prepared. In 2018, the New England Patriots were down 28 to 3 to the Atlanta Falcons in the third quarter of the Super Bowl. It had not been a good game. Fans had already begun to write the Patriots off. Announcers had serious doubts as to whether a comeback was possible, but somehow, against all odds, the Patriots would come back to win that game in one of the greatest victories in all of sports. How was that possible? When we interviewed Martellus Bennett for the Daily Stoic Podcast a few weeks ago, he had one explanation for how his team had managed to pull off such an incredible upset. "New England," he said, "was never rattled. They had practiced for so many different scenarios

• 1:11Ryan Holiday?

  that being down that much didn't crack their self-confidence." In fact, he said that the team was so prepared for the Super Bowl that they had, in the weeks before, even practiced for the longer halftime. They had literally rehearsed what they would do with something as basic as 15 additional minutes waiting between the halves. It was actually easy to go back on the field and do what they needed to do to win. The team only had to revert back to their training. To the Stoic, this makes perfect sense. Remember, Seneca said that misfortune lands most heavily when it is not expected. The idea of practicing, envisioning, training for all the contingencies of life, of a game, of a trying situation,

• 1:54Ryan Holiday?

  this is how we ensure we're able to navigate it correctly. Winging it, that's for amateurs. Pros, the Patriots, they prepare. We need to follow this example. Premeditatio malorum is not about tempting fate. It's about being ready for any fate. Positive visualization without negative visualization is just dreaming. It's fantasy. Visualization without preparation, without work, it's worthless. You have to practice. You have to be ready for any of it, for whatever it is that your life may bring, or you're going to be crushed. You should definitely listen to our interview with Martellus Bennett. If you haven't, you can find it, just scroll back a couple of weeks and you'll see it. Martellus is one of my favorite people. He's a great author as well.

• 2:38Ryan Holiday?

  You can check out his kids' books. Strongly recommend them, and I think you'll like our interview. 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.