Hold Fast To This

Ryan talks about the Stockdale paradox. 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.

• 0:03Ryan 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, dailystoic.com.

• 0:25Ryan Holiday?

  Hold fast to this. The Hanoi Hilton where James Stockdale spent seven years under heinous conditions and near constant torture was a dark place. Death was ever-present. Kindness was rare. There seemed to be no end in sight. In fact, Stockdale would say that those who thought they saw an end in sight were the most vulnerable, because the day they prayed for would come and go, and still more pain and agony awaited them. Crushed, their will would depart them, and he died. And yet, what propelled Stockdale? It was hope. Like the song lyrics go, "He held on to hope, as it was the last thing holdin'

• 1:06Ryan Holiday?

  him." This, thanks to Jim Collins and his classic book, Good to Great, has become known as the Stockdale Paradox. But it might also be called the Stoic Paradox, as it is rooted in the teachings of Epictetus, which Stockdale was introduced to at Stanford before being shot down. A Stoic can't be naive or optimistic. They can't fix their happiness or survival on some wished-for day in the future, a thing outside of our dichotomy of control. They must be realistic. They must face unflinchingly the reality of their situation. But, and this is the big but, they can also hold simultaneously, as Stockdale did, that if they manage to make

• 1:48Ryan Holiday?

  it through, they will turn this experience into the defining event of their life, which in retrospect, they would not trade. No one knows what the future holds. To direct our hopes and desires towards a specific outcome is to set ourselves up for disappointment. So instead, we focus our resilient and unfailing ability to transform whatever is in store for us into material. "We can hope that we get lucky enough to use this," whatever it is, "can turn it into flame and brightness," as Marcus Aurelius wrote. "Nothing can break our hold on that."

• 2:26Ryan Holiday?

  Thanks so much for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. If you don't know this, you can get these delivered to you via email every day. Check it out at dailystoic.com/email.

• 2:55Ryan Holiday?

  Thanks for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. If you don't know this, you can get these delivered to you via email every day. Check it out at dailystoic.com/email.