Keep Your Eye on the Big Picture

"It’s so easy to be reactive these days. We are drowning in information from unlimited sources. Much of it is inaccurate, most of it is sensational. We’re told of crises and failures, we see the worst of our fellow humans, and rarely are we given the much needed context of how events fit in with the grand scheme of things… because that would render a great deal of it unworthy of coverage."Ryan explains how to filter through the noise of everyday life to find the signal in 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 @DailyStoic: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.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  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.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  Keep your eye on the big picture. It's so easy to be reactive these days. We are drowning in information from unlimited sources. Most of it is inaccurate, most of it sensational. We are told of crises and failures. We see the worst of our fellow humans, and rarely are we given the much-needed context of how events fit into the grand scheme of things, because that would render a great deal of it unworthy of coverage. When the Stoics spoke of wisdom as a key virtue, a big part of that was perspective, of the ability to zoom out and see where this or that fits in historically. We see Marcus Aurelius do this time and time again in Meditations, reminding himself that history

• 1:13Ryan Holiday?

  is filled with all sorts of things that seemed insurmountable or significant at the time, but now feel like nothing. We also see him try to remember and empathize with the fact that people are people and always have been, which means mistakes, which means stupidity, which means selfishness, and sometimes evil. Recently, the actor Hugh Jackman, who has called Marcus Aurelius one of the greatest leaders of all time, in Meditations, one of the greatest books on Stoicism and leadership and humility and wisdom, explained why he is trying to get away from consuming breaking news. "I'm trying to get a wider view of life and what's happening," he said, "because once you get down, all these things seem really, really important."

• 1:55Ryan Holiday?

  And the other way I'm getting my news, and I highly recommend this, is me and my son are going through the whole Ken Burns catalog. We finished the whole Civil War thing, and now we're just about to finish the Vietnam thing. Now, that's a way you should understand events in humanity with that sort of 30-foot-thousand view that he has and that sort of detail. Well, that's also the view of the philosopher, and it's the one we need to be cultivating always and building our media habits around. We need to understand humanity far more than we need the latest, fastest facts. We need to understand history so that we can learn from it, so we can see the true costs of arrogance, of appeasing evil and taking shortcuts, as well as the glory of courage, justice, and

• 2:40Ryan Holiday?

  temperance. We need to teach our kids to do the same. It's the only way we can improve the world. It's the best way to know and do right. And by the way, in the same interview where Hugh Jackman explained his 30,000-foot view habit, he also talked about his habit of reading each morning with his wife. And guess what book he's reading? Stillness is the Key, my book. So if you need another reason to check out Stillness is the Key by me, Ryan Holiday, there you go. And if you want to be a reader, I also recommend our Read to Lead Challenge, which you can check out at dailystoic.com/reading.