BONUS | Not Everything Has To Be Productive (with Chris Guillebeau)

Heading into the weekend, here’s a reminder that not everything you do has to be useful, efficient, or productive. In this bonus episode, Ryan and Chris Guillebeau https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHyEgbTg-BA talk about making space for fun, following strange impulses, and doing the small things that make you feel more alive. Watch the full episode with Chris Guillebeau https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHyEgbTg-BA here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHyEgbTg-BA Chris Guillebeau https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHyEgbTg-BA is the New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup https://www.thepaintedporch.com/products/rhmoo15?_pos=2&_sid=75ad6c0c8&_ss=r, Side Hustle, and The Happiness of Pursuit, which have sold over one million copies worldwide. During a lifetime of self-employment that included a four-year commitment as a volunteer executive in West Africa, he visited every country in the world (193 in total) before his thirty-fifth birthday. His latest book, Time Anxiety: The Illusion of Urgency and a Better Way to Live https://www.amazon.com/Time-Anxiety-Illusion-Urgency-Better/dp/0593799550, Chris offers a bold path for redefining our relationship with the clock. Check out Chris’ new book Time Anxiety: The Illusion of Urgency and a Better Way to Live https://www.amazon.com/Time-Anxiety-Illusion-Urgency-Better/dp/0593799550 and grab copies of The $100 Startup https://www.thepaintedporch.com/search?type=product&q=chris+guillebeau*, Gonzo Capitalism https://www.thepaintedporch.com/search?type=product&q=chris+guillebeau*, The Art of Non-Confirmity https://www.thepaintedporch.com/search?type=product&q=chris+guillebeau*, 100 Side Hustles https://www.thepaintedporch.com/products/100-side-hustles-unexpected-ideas-for-making-extra-money-without-quitting-your-day-job?_pos=1&_sid=b858f7624&_ss=r at The Painted Porch:https://www.thepaintedporch.com https://www.thepaintedporch.com/search?type=product&q=chris+guillebeau* Follow Chris on Instagram @193Countries https://www.instagram.com/193countries/reels/ and on X @chrisguillebeau. https://x.com/chrisguillebeau?lang=en 🎟️DAILY STOIC LIVE https://www.dailystoiclive.com/| Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you https://www.dailystoiclive.com/! Grab tickets here https://www.dailystoiclive.com/ | https://www.dailystoiclive.com/ 🎙️AD-FREE https://dailystoic.supercast.com/| Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing toThe Daily Stoic Premium https://dailystoic.supercast.com/ - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content:https://dailystoic.supercast.com/ 🎥 VIDEO EPISODES https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos| Watch the video episodes onThe Daily Stoic YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos:https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos ✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email athttps://dailystoic.com/dailyemail See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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

• 0:00Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world.

• 0:15Speaker 01

  You have to think about how to be of service and also how to have fun and enjoy life yourself, which is also something that I don't historically do a good job of like, I want to have fun. I'm going to do, you know, I actually wrote about it. There's like, like, how do I practice having fun, right? There's a whole chapter about this. And I like, I have the story of this guy in the Netherlands named Jan, who for like 30 years, every Wednesday, he would go to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and book a flight somewhere within Europe, wherever was cheapest. He'd fly to Stockholm or Barcelona or somewhere. And he would just kind of hang out and he would like walk around the terminal and he'd fly back. And he-

• 0:48Ryan Holiday?

  Never leave the airport?

• 0:48Speaker 01

  Never leave the airport.

• 0:49Ryan Holiday?

  Okay.

• 0:49Speaker 01

  It's so interesting. This is what he liked to do. He just like, he found it really peaceful, enjoyable, relaxing, and so on. So it's, it's so easy to criticize that, you know, be like, well, he never, he traveled so much and never traveled at all, right? But it's a small thing that made him happy.

• 1:03Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah.

• 1:03Speaker 01

  You know? And I think, you know, if we can all find like small things that make us happy, even if they seem weird to other people or strange or like, why would you do that? Then our lives are going to be better. And I was thinking about his story one day when I went for a walk. I found this restaurant I wanted to go to. It was like 17 miles from my house. I thought about it for maybe like a few days in advance, but not, not too long. And I was like, I should walk there. You know, I was like, I should walk to this, you know? And so one day I was like, okay, what do I have this afternoon? Not that much, nothing that I can't do later. And so, so I did, I got it like, right after lunch, I left and I walked like six or seven hours. And it's funny because I thought, well, I'm going to try to get some stuff done on the walk. You know, like make some phone calls or whatever, but then your phone battery dies, you know, because you're on GPS the whole time, like tracking. And I was like, oh, this is not going to actually be a very productive experience.

• 1:48Speaker 01

  But of course, it was actually very meditative and kind of fun and, you know, also silly. But like, it's like, this is a thing I'm just doing for myself. And I'm not even going to like blog about this. I'm not like, hey, everybody, I'm out on a walk for six hour, you know? I'm just doing this thing. And I, so I went to the restaurant and, and then like went home. And then like for days afterwards, I'm like, what a cool thing. You know, what a fun thing that I did. It's a weird core memory.

• 2:10Ryan Holiday?

  Area alive.

• 2:10Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly.

• 2:11Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah.

• 2:11Speaker 01

  Exactly. And so there are things you can do to feel more alive.

• 2:15Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah.

• 2:15Speaker 01

  And I have been trying to lean into that myself, and I hope that other people will as well.

• 2:18Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah, instead of going, hey, I got to cross these 15 restaurants off a list.

• 2:23Speaker 01

  Right.

• 2:23Ryan Holiday?

  I gotta do this. You, I'm sure you're not just, you probably felt alive because you were present.

• 2:28Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 2:28Ryan Holiday?

  You were only doing that thing, however silly and inexplicable that thing was.

• 2:35Speaker 01

  That was the attraction.

• 2:36Ryan Holiday?

  Yes.

• 2:36Speaker 01

  Right? That was, that was the thing, you know?

• 2:38Ryan Holiday?

  Did you walk back?

• 2:39Speaker 01

  No, I took an Uber back and then the whole way.

• 2:41Ryan Holiday?

  15 minutes.

• 2:42Speaker 01

  Exactly. That's what's funny. I was like, this is, but I'm passing all the way, all the places that I'd walked, you know? And I was like, oh, that's just fun. So that was.

• 2:49Ryan Holiday?

  And you probably, when you pass by those places now.

• 2:53Speaker 01

  Mm hmm. Yeah, exactly.

• 2:54Ryan Holiday?

  Into that feeling for even just a fleeting second.

• 2:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. And this is two years ago, and I still remember this weird memory and it wasn't, it wasn't that hard of a choice to make. Uh, and it's not like, I was like, every Wednesday from now on, I'm going to walk 17 miles. I don't have to, to do that.

• 3:09Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah.

• 3:09Speaker 01

  I can just be like, what are things like that that I can respond to, uh, and, and say yes to?

• 3:14Ryan Holiday?

  How was the food?

• 3:15Speaker 01

  The food was really good. It was really delicious. Cornbread. There's a cornbread appetizer that's usually like shared among people and I ate the whole thing myself.

• 3:21Ryan Holiday?

  You just worked it off. Yeah.

• 3:22Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 3:23Ryan Holiday?

  You could do whatever you wanted.

• 3:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:26Ryan Holiday?

  I think as you get older, you have less time and also tolerance for doing inexplicable things because they seem irresponsible or hard to justify, or even just hard from a scheduling standpoint. But that's kind of what life is. Those are like, those are the things that you remember.