Don't Escape It. Create It.

“Escapism is tempting...but dangerous. We think, when frenzied or fraught, an exotic getaway will be the cure. But inevitably, the rush of travel wears off and the pretty pictures fade from your phone’s “recent” album.”Ryan explains why you should create the future that you really want, on 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 Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@daily_stoic See 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?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom, designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom in everyday 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.

• 0:27Ryan Holiday?

  Don't escape it, create it. Escapism is tempting, but dangerous. We think, when friends eat or fraught, that an exotic getaway will be the cure. But inevitably, the rush of travel wears off and the pretty pictures fade from your phone's recent album. And we're back to reality, only feeling worse, tortured by thoughts, calculating when we can justify taking the next trip. It's like buying inner peace on a high-interest credit card. Eventually, the bill comes due and the debt piles higher and higher. With exactly that in mind, we interviewed Katie Wells, the creator of Wellness Mama and a practicing Stoic. And we asked her why she decided to up and move her family to the beach.

• 1:11Ryan Holiday?

  We wondered, was there an element of wanting to escape the busyness of the city and everyday life in Katie's decision? Her answer is one that Marcus would likely endorse. She said, "I joked that it was beaches and taxes, but it isn't that far from the truth. My husband and I wanted to find a place where we could spend a lot of time outdoors with our kids and build community. I find that living in a beautiful place actually enhances my ability to work and to be able to look inward. When we lived in other places, I found myself looking forward to the escape of vacation much more because it came so rarely. Living in a beautiful place enhances my creativity and sense of wonder." Katie wasn't escaping reality.

• 1:54Ryan Holiday?

  She was creating a reality she didn't want to escape. How many of us fantasize about that hopefully not so distant future where the time will be just right to live the life we really want? How many of us chase the mirage of retirement out of fear of the uncertainties and the unknowns inherent in life? How many of us defer our happiness? Even in Seneca's time, people were doing this. As he wrote in On the Shortness of Life, "You will hear many people saying, 'When I am 50, I shall retire into leisure. When I am 60, I shall give up public duties.' And what guarantee do you have of a longer life? Who will allow your course to proceed as you arrange it? Aren't you ashamed to keep for yourself just the remnants of your life and to devote

• 2:39Ryan Holiday?

  to wisdom only that time which cannot be spent on any business? How late it is to begin to live only when life must end. We could have the life we want today, Marcus Aurelius wrote, but instead we choose tomorrow." Well, let's stop that. Make a different decision. Think about Katie's example. It's actually not reckless. It may very well be the path to wellness.

• 3:05Ryan Holiday?

  Hey, it's Ryan. 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. So check it out, dailystoic.com/email.