How Will You Remember This?

Right now, we’re looking at this all up close. It’s in our face. Being stuck at home. Watching business—and money—evaporate. Our plans are cancelled. Opportunities that we so looked forward to are gone, never to return again. How long will this last? Another month? Another year? How long will we be in the hurt? No one can say. A couple weeks ago, we interviewed Chris Guillibeau for Ask Daily Stoic, our Saturday podcast, while he was feeling the fresh sting of having to cancel a 40-city tour for his new book, The Money Tree. But instead of feeling sorry for himself, Chris said he was trying to focus on that old idea from Epictetus: go to what you control. Look for the positive. See what you can do with what’s in front of you. “Everyone is going to remember this,” he said. “We’re all going to have very sharp memories of this time.” The question, he said, is will you be proud of how you used it? How will you feel about who you were in this moment? Flashing forward like that is a great way to hold your current self accountable. It can be easy to let yourself drift when suddenly the structure and routine of your life is torn away. It’s easy to feel sorry for yourself when your plans are wrecked (imagine being Chris—all the work and preparation and expense lost). But a Stoic has to be stronger than that. A Stoic knows they can’t afford to waste the present—because they know tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. No, we must seize this moment. We must turn this down time, this dead time, into “alive time” (here’s our challenge to you about that). We can’t get lost in the chaos or the despair or the unpleasantness. We have to get back to work. We have to make the most of what we have. We don’t control what has happened, but we do control how we respond. And so we will respond well. We will keep going. We will be proud of what we did, and who we were, in this moment. We will make it so we can look back at ourselves—and this experience—fondly. We can start to earn that pride and positive memory...today. 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.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good 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.

• 0:28Ryan Holiday?

  How will you remember this? Right now, we're looking at all this up close. It's in your face, being stuck at home, watching business and money evaporate. Our plans are canceled. Opportunities that we so look forward to are gone, never to return again. How long will this last? Another month? Another year? How long will we be in the hurt? No one can say. A couple of weeks ago, we interviewed Chris Gilibow for the Ask Daily Stoic, our Saturday podcast, just as he was feeling the fresh sting of having to cancel a 40-city tour for his new book, The Money Tree, which I highly recommend. Instead of feeling sorry for himself, Chris said he was trying to focus on that old idea from

• 1:10Ryan Holiday?

  Epictetus: Go to what you control. Look for the positive. See what you can do with what's in front of you. "Everyone is going to remember this," he said. "We're all going to have some very sharp memories of this time." The question, he said, is, "Will you be proud of how you used it? How will you feel about who you were in this moment?" Flashing forward like that is a great way to hold your current self accountable. It can be easy to let yourself drift when suddenly the structure and routine of your life is torn away. It's easy to feel sorry for yourself when your plans are wrecked. Imagine being Chris, all the work and preparation and expenses that it costs. But a Stoic has to be stronger than that. A Stoic knows that

• 1:52Ryan Holiday?

  they can't afford to waste the present because we don't know how much longer we have. No, we must seize this moment. We insist on a lifetime. And again, you can check out our Lifetime Challenge about this, dailystoic.com/lifetime. We can't get lost in the chaos or the despair or the unpleasant. We have to get back to work. We have to make the most of what we have. We don't control what has happened, but we do control how we respond. So we should respond well. We will keep going. We will be proud of what we did in the moment. We will make it so we can look back at ourselves and this experience fondly. We can earn that today. Please check out Chris Gilbo's new book, The Money Tree. I also highly recommend his book, $100 Startup.

• 2:37Ryan Holiday?

  He's a great guy. He's also got a great daily podcast to check out. And then, of course, if you're looking to make sure you remember this well, if you want to want to make sure that you use this time productively, check out our Daily Stoic Alive Time Challenge. It's two weeks of Stoic-inspired challenges to help you get the most of this quarantine period. Check it out at dailystoic.com/alive time.