What Matters is the Response

“It was a dark day exactly 244 years ago. Christmas was here, at one of of the darkest times in the American Revolution. George Washington was planning to cross the Delaware, a desperate move necessitated by a string of setbacks and ebbing support for the revolution across his struggling country.”Learn about how George Washington applied Stoic principles to help guide the Continental Army to victory, and why we should focus on what we are going to do next, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast. We created the New Year, New You Challenge to help you create a better life, and a new you in 2021. Sign up for the challenge at https://dailystoic.com/challenge.***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.

• 0:04Speaker 00

  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.

• 0:26Ryan Holiday?

  It was almost 250 years ago exactly, one of the darkest times in the American Revolution. Christmas was here. George Washington was planning to cross the Delaware, a desperate move necessitated by a string of setbacks and ebbing support for the revolution across the struggling country. Whose fault was this disaster? How had things gone so poorly? Washington wasn't interested in those questions. As he wrote in a letter to Robert Morris at his headquarters that day, "It is vain to ruminate upon or even reflect upon the authors or causes of our present misfortunes." Instead of looking backwards, Washington said, "We should rather exert ourselves," meaning they should focus on how they were

• 1:07Ryan Holiday?

  going to respond. His response was a daring attack on the Hessian troops in Trenton the next day, which may well have saved his army and the floundering nation. And this mindset is part and parcel of the Stoicism that Washington had known and followed all of his life. It was about looking at events in the calm light of mild philosophy, as he liked to quote from the Stoic philosopher Cato, "deciding not to be ruled by his impressions and instead focusing on what he'd do next." And that's what we should take a minute to think about this Christmas of all Christmases, whether we're busy working, or whether we've managed to safely see our families, or whether we're planning out how we're going to have

• 1:47Ryan Holiday?

  a better 2021, because frankly, it probably can't be worse than 2020. We can't focus on what caused our troubles, not who authored them, not how much blame they deserve, not how this could have been avoided. Those questions are irrelevant distractions right now. Answering them is an exercise done only in vain. What matters is how we plan to exert ourselves, how we plan to fix our situation, how we plan to respond to what life has thrown at us. Whether it's a passive-aggressive friend, an industry ravaged by the pandemic, or a series of bad personal choices, we have the power to decide what we're going to do next. We can exert ourselves. We can still turn this around. All that matters is our response.

• 2:32Ryan Holiday?

  I do invite you to join our New Year, New You Challenge that we're doing here at Daily Stoic. I think it's our best one. I'm really excited about it. I hope you have a great Christmas. I hope you're taking some time to yourself, but I hope you're getting ready for what can be, what must be, a better 2021. And that's why we made these challenges. It's all based on the Stoic philosophy. It's designed to make you more resilient, to make you wiser, to make you stronger, to get you out of your comfort zone. That's why we call it a challenge. I'm going to be doing it there with you. I'd love to have you. You can sign up at dailystoic.com/challenge. But seriously, just a couple of days left. It stops on January 1st. You cannot join after that. Actually, it stops at 11:59 on December 31st.

• 3:13Ryan Holiday?

  So 2020, it's your last shot. Let's do it. I'll see you there, dailystoic.com/challenge.