Important Things Are Simple | A Week Without Complaining

“It’s hard to be an academic who specializes in Stoicism. Because the philosophy is so complex? On the contrary. Stoicism is a difficult choice for tenure because it’s so simple. The Stoics say what they mean and they say it clearly.”Ryan discusses the beauty of simplicity, and reads this week’s meditation from The Daily Stoic Journal, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow 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.

• 0:04Ryan Holiday?

  Bienvenidos al podcast diario de Stoic. Cada día te traemos una meditación inspirada por los antiguos estoicos, ilustrada con historias de la historia, eventos actuales y literatura para ayudarte a ser mejor en lo que haces. Y al principio de la semana intentamos hacer un profundizar, estableciendo una especie de intención estoica para la semana, algo para meditar, algo para pensar, algo para dejarte con, para journalizar, lo que sea que te suceda que estés haciendo. Así que vamos a entrar.

• 0:33Ryan Holiday?

  Las cosas importantes son simples. Es difícil ser un académico que especializa en el estoicismo porque la filosofía es tan compleja. Por el contrario, el estoicismo es una elección difícil para el teniente porque es tan simple. Los estoicos dicen lo que significan y lo dicen claramente. A veces dicen eso de manera tan sustantiva que puede encajar en una tarjeta de índice o una sola línea en una tarjeta de índice. Epictetus: "No son las cosas que nos molestan, es nuestro juicio sobre las cosas." Marcus Heralis: "El fruto de esta vida es buen carácter y actúa para el bien común." Seneca: "No es que la vida sea corta, es que perdemos mucho de ella." Puedes, como hemos resumido, toda la filosofía en una frase. Un estoico cree que no controlan el mundo alrededor de ellos, solo cómo responden.

• 1:16Ryan Holiday?

  "Tienen que responder siempre con coraje, temperance, sabiduría y justicia." Esto es algo bueno, aunque tal vez no tan bueno si quieres hacer un nombre para ti mismo como un experto genial. Epictetus una vez bromeó con algunos de sus estudiantes que estaban orgullosos de hablar de haber digestado los trabajos de los estoicos más simples, Crisippus. "Sabes que si Crisippus hubiera sido un mejor escritor", dijo él, "no tendrías nada para brindar." Los estoicos son simples porque llegaron a la verdad de las cosas y las verdades centrales de la vida son simples. Dicen lo que significan, no golpearon por la pimienta, no importaban por impresionar a la gente y en esto nos han enseñado una última lección.

• 1:55Ryan Holiday?

  A Week Without Complaining. Epictetus spoke often to his students about the need to give up blaming and complaining. In fact, he saw it as one of the primary measuring sticks of progress in the art of living. How much of life is wasted, pointed fingers? Has complaining ever solved a single problem? Marcus Aurelius would say blame yourself or no one. This week, try constructive feedback over complaining and responsibility over blame. And if something goes wrong, spend some time reflecting on what the true causes were. Don't waste a minute with complaints in your journal or out loud. This is from this week's entry in the Daily Stoic Journal, 366 Days of Writing on Reflection

• 2:39Ryan Holiday?

  in the Art of Living by me, Ryan Holiday, and my co-author Stephen Hanselman. You can get this anywhere books are sold, although we also have signed copies in the Daily Stoic store and of course, at my bookstore, The Painted Porch here in Bastrop, Texas. But we have three quotes from Epictetus today about complaints. He says, "You must stop blaming God and not blame any person. You must completely control your desire and shift your avoidance to what lies within your reasoned choice. You must no longer feel anger, resentment, envy, or regret." That's the Discourses 322. "For nothing outside my reasoned choice," he says, "can hinder or harm it. My reasoned choice alone can do this to itself. If we would lean this way whenever we fail and would blame only ourselves and remember

• 3:22Ryan Holiday?

  that nothing but opinion is the cause of a troubled mind and uneasiness, then by God, I swear, we would be making progress." That's Discourses 319. And then he also says in Coridion 1:3, "But if you deem as your own only what is yours, and what belongs to others is truly not yours, then no one will ever be able to coerce or stop you, and you will find no one to blame or accuse, you will do nothing against your will, and you will have no enemy, and no one will harm you, because no harm can affect you." It's funny, just as I was sitting here, I was thinking to myself, "Man, it's so hot. It's hot in my office. I have to turn off the AC when I record." But one of my favorite quotes from Marcus Rilis about complaining,

• 4:06Ryan Holiday?

  which I actually also have in sort of fictionalized in The Boy Who Would Be King. He says, "Don't be heard complaining at court, not even to yourself." Right? There are so many parts of Marcus Rilis's job that we get the sense that he didn't really like. He's kind of an introverted person. He's a good person. He wants to do what's right. He's not an ambitious person in the sense he doesn't want to dominate or win or everything. And so it must have been so frustrating to be around these obnoxious, annoying, you know, dishonest people, these professional politicians, basically. But he catches himself. He's like, "It's not even enough not to complain publicly." And of course, everyone would have indulged his complaints. He's emperor.

• 4:51Ryan Holiday?

  But he says, "Don't even complain in your own mind." And that is some higher level shit right there, isn't it? Right? To not only be able to stop yourself from complaining. I think it was Will Bowen. He had the no complaint challenge. Every time, you know, you say a complaint, you have to move the bracelet from one wrist to the other. And the idea is, can you leave it on one wrist for 30 days? Can you get it in one spot for 30 days? No complaints. But imagine how most of us would fail if even thinking about a complaint, not even verbalizing it disqualified us. But that's the challenge of the Stoics. And I think Epictetus, though, is more honest when he talks about just progress.

• 5:34Ryan Holiday?

  The less blame, the less complaining, the more responsibility you're taking, the more constructive you are, that's what matters. Are you making a little bit of progress every day? Are you moving forward? Are you complaining less? Right? I think that's a fair way to think about it. So, "I thought the complaint, but I didn't say it. That's progress." But maybe next time I can just go, "The temperature is what the temperature is. If I want to do this thing, it's what I have to put up with." So, you know, so that's what it is. It doesn't, thinking about it doesn't help me. It doesn't make me any cooler, right? It just makes me frustrated. And that's why we try not to complain. So, "Don't be heard complaining today, not even to yourself."

• 6:18Ryan Holiday?

  That's the standard we're ascribing to. But could we just make some progress?

• 6:25Ryan Holiday?

  We just blame only ourselves, or ideally no one. That's progress. Let's do it. Let's work for it. Let's make ourselves a little bit stronger as a result. Thanks so much for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. Again, if you don't know this, you can get these delivered to you via email every day. You just go to dailystoic.com/email. So check it out, dailystoic.com/email.