Good Character and Good Deeds

Ryan discusses why you should have your own definition of success, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/emailFollow 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.

• 0:05Ryan 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.

• 0:26Ryan Holiday?

  Good character and good deeds. For Marcus Aurelius, becoming powerful was not a measure of success. Neither was defeating invading tribes or even becoming a philosophical genius. To him, the criteria for success was simple: displaying good character and doing good works. The fruit of this life, the fruit of the study of philosophy, he said, is just that: good character and acts for the common good. And this is a wonderful mantra worth repeating to ourselves always. It's so easy to get distracted by other things, by other definitions of success. We see other people getting recognition and we want it. We see them making money and suddenly what we have is not enough. We see them getting away with things

• 1:11Ryan Holiday?

  and think, "Maybe I should try that, too." How this leads us astray. Making money, getting recognition, getting away with things? This requires things outside your control to go right. Even when they do, they still won't matter. What matters always is whether we're cultivating our character. What matters is whether by our actions we are part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Are we helping, contributing, being a positive difference maker, even if only in the tiniest way? Good characters and good deeds, those are up to you always and you can do it right, right now. We all can, always.

• 1:54Ryan Holiday?

  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 at dailystoic.com/email.