This Is What The World Thinks Of Your Dreams | The Wake Up

The world does not give anyone what they deserve. Still, we have to figure it out. We have to decide how we’re going to respond. We have to make the best of it.📓 Pick up a signed edition of The Daily Stoic Journal: 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on The Art of Living: https://store.dailystoic.com/🎙️ Follow The Daily Stoic Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoicpodcast🎥 Watch top moments from The Daily Stoic Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dailystoicpodcast✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and 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.

• 0:42Ryan Holiday?

  "This is what the world thinks of your dreams. Oh, you don't like that it worked out this way? Oh, it's not how you hoped it would go, not what you planned for, not what you deserved." What do you think Marcus Aurelius thought? "Twenty years of peace and prosperity, four predecessors whose reigns went more or less swimmingly. But almost to the day he took over, it was one thing after another: floods and wars, a plague, coups, and nagging health problems, funeral after funeral of his own children. Sure, he had wealth and power, but were the lyrics from Les Mis ever truer for a person?"

• 1:19Speaker 01

  "I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I'm living."

• 1:29Ryan Holiday?

  Marcus hadn't even wanted to be emperor, and now he was king. Of a nightmare. Here's the thing, the world doesn't care about your dreams. It makes no accommodations for your expectations, does not give anyone what they deserve. Still, we have to figure it out. We have to decide how we're going to respond. We have to get through it. We have to make the best of it, which, by the way, is what Marcus Aurelius did. In fact, he became great because of it. He may not have gotten the good fortune that he deserved. He may have dreamed of something very different, but all of that is irrelevant, because it made him the Marcus Aurelius we know today. It made him what his nature demanded.

• 2:18Ryan Holiday?

  The Wake Up. This is from this week's entry in the Daily Stoic Journal, "366 Days of Writing and Reflection on the Art of Living" by yours truly and my wonderful collaborator, Stephen Hanselman, who I also worked on the Daily Stoic with. Today's entry. "Each morning, when you sit with the 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,

• 3:03Ryan Holiday?

  for the Stoic is designed to make you ready to face the day, 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? 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.

• 3:47Ryan Holiday?

  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? In short, to be coddled or to exert yourself?" That's from Marcus Aurelius's Meditations 5.1. I think 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." 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're 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.

• 4:30Ryan Holiday?

  For me, as I've said before, that my number one rule in the morning is I don't, I don't check my phone. I don't sleep with my phone in the room. I sleep with it in the kitchen, plugged in. When I go to bed, like 10, 11, and then when I wake up, you know, six or seven, that's a, that's a good chunk of time without the phone, first and foremost. And then my wife usually gets up before, 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 on the road by our house. We go for this walk, depending on how light or foggy it is, it might change the route. So 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.

• 5:12Ryan Holiday?

  And my wife is showering or on the Peloton, or maybe she's cooked 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 do the evening reflection in the morning. So I'll reflect on how I did with the thing I was thinking about yesterday. 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, let's see what today's question was. I'm recording this on the, I guess today's the 23rd.

• 5:55Ryan Holiday?

  So today's question was, if I relaxed my tight grip on life, what would happen? So I'm taking a minute, I'm just thinking about, what am I trying to control too hard? What do I, 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, disrupting my tranquility? What am I like? Who am I?

• 6:40Ryan Holiday?

  What's demanded of me? You know, he's reminding himself to meditate on his actions. He's looking at how he steered away from serenity. You know, 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.

• 7:23Ryan Holiday?

  But then I'd also just, you know, 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. 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. Looking forward to connecting with you over the next 12 months and making this a great year. 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.

• 8:07Ryan Holiday?

  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.