This is Why You're Upset | Anyone Can Get Lucky, Not Everyone Can Persevere

Ryan explains why legacy is for everyone else not for you, and reads The Daily Stoic’s entry of the day, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast. Pre-orders are available for Ryan Holiday’s new book Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors The Brave - check it out at https://dailystoic.com/preorderDECKED truck bed tool boxes and cargo van storage systems revolutionize organization with a heavy-duty in-vehicle storage system featuring slide out toolboxes. DECKED makes organizing, accessing, protecting, and securing everything you need so much easier. Get your DECKED Drawer System at Decked.com/STOIC and get free shipping. 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.

• 0:04Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Thursdays, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation, but also reading a passage from the book The Daily Stoic, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living, which I wrote with my wonderful co-author and collaborator, Stephen Hanselman. And so today, we'll give you a quick meditation from one of the Stoics, from Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, then some analysis from me. And then we send you out into the world to do your best to turn these words into works.

• 0:41Ryan Holiday?

  This is why you're upset. Like a lot of us, you wake up each day a little frustrated and dismayed, or sometimes really frustrated and dismayed. Did someone really tweet that? Why can't these people get their act together? What's happening to this country? Why are my kids acting like that? What the hell is wrong with my neighbor? Things may be baffling, and there may be real consequences to what's happening in the world right now, but it shouldn't surprise you that you're upset. Your attitude is largely responsible. Or, according to Marcus Aurelius, totally responsible. "You take things you don't control and define them as good or bad," he said. "And so, of course, when bad things happen, or the good ones don't,

• 1:23Ryan Holiday?

  you blame the gods and feel hatred for the people responsible, or those you decide to make responsible." We have to remember, what happens to us is objective. Most of it has nothing to do with us. Most of it is not anyone's fault, and most of it does not actually even harm us. We just tell ourselves that it does. We desist on having an opinion. We insist on assigning blame. No wonder we're angry. No wonder we're upset. We inserted ourselves into this. We're demanding things we don't control be a certain way, and we are surprised when they aren't. This is madness. You have to remember what Marcus Aurelius said, that we must limit assigning good or bad, or rather positive and negative, to our own actions.

• 2:07Ryan Holiday?

  Then we'll have no reason to curse anyone or anything, except, of course, ourselves.

• 2:15Ryan Holiday?

  Anyone can get lucky. Not everyone can persevere. Success comes to the lowly and to the poorly talented, but the special characteristic of a great person is to triumph over the disasters and panics of human life. That's Seneca on Providence 41. And I'm reading to you today from the Daily Stoic 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by yours truly and my co-author and translator, Stephen Hanselman. You can get signed copies, by the way, in the Daily Stoic store. Over a million copies of the Daily Stoic in print now. It's been just such a lovely experience to watch it. Spent more than 250 weeks, consecutive weeks, on the bestsellers. It's just an awesome

• 2:59Ryan Holiday?

  experience. But I hope you check it out. We have a premium leather edition at store.dailystoic.com as well. But let's get on with today's reading. Perhaps you know people who have been extraordinarily lucky in life. Maybe they hit the genetic lottery or have skated through classes or careers with ease. Despite never planning, making reckless decisions, jumping from one thing to the next, they've somehow survived without a scratch. There's even a saying, "God favors fools." It's natural to be a bit envious of these folks. We want the easy life too, or so we think. But is the easy life really that admirable? Anyone can get lucky. There's no skill to being oblivious, and no one would consider

• 3:41Ryan Holiday?

  that greatness. On the other hand, the person who perseveres through difficulties, who keeps going when others quit, who makes it to their destination through hard work and honesty, that's admirable. Because the survival was the result of fortitude and resilience, not birthright or circumstance. A person who overcame not just the external obstacles to success, but has mastered themselves and their emotions along the way, that's impressive. The person who has been dealt a harder hand, understood it, and still triumph, that's greatness. I say a version of this in some of my talks too, especially over the last year where I've been talking to people about the pandemic. I go, "Look, it's good that it's hard. Is

• 4:24Ryan Holiday?

  it true that, yes, some people, it hasn't been hard for them? Some people have been extraordinarily lucky, skated through life, as we've said, never had to stoop for a thing, never had to ask, never had to work." Even when they do all the right things, you know, they don't struggle, right? Sure. But it's good that it's hard because for the most part, it's the difficulty that weeds those people out. Over a long enough timeline, if you're not resilient, if you're not tough, if you don't actually have competence, it's going to catch up with you. So when I, when things are hard, like I'm in the middle of writing a book right now, it's kicking my ass, as they always do, I go, look, it's good that it's hard. If it was easy, there'd be a lot more books out there. And there's already a ton of books out there. So I go, it's good that it's hard.

• 5:09Ryan Holiday?

  It keeps me honest, for one. Keeps me on the straight and narrow. But also, it keeps out other people. Do I know authors who have phoned in books, hired, you know, crappy ghostwriters or whatever, just put up a book that was basically an article, expanded out into, you know, 300 pages and hit it huge? Do I know people who've been complete jerks, violated every rule, done everything wrong, and dominated the bestseller list? Yes. But one, I don't find that particularly impressive. And, and two, it's very difficult for those people to repeat that stroke of good fortune. So if they're in this for the long haul, which I am, which I hope you are in, whatever

• 5:52Ryan Holiday?

  you are in for the long haul, it's better to be good than lucky. It's better that it's hard than easy. It's better that you had to earn it. It not only was, you know, a builder of character, but it kept out the riffraff, made the thing honorable, made it impressive, and it showed you what it was worth and what you're capable of. That's what I think about. Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I don't want to see it any other way. And I don't think you do either. My newest book, Courage is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave, is now available for pre-order. We've got a bunch of amazing bonuses. You can get signed copies, of course. I'm so proud of this book.

• 6:36Ryan Holiday?

  General Jim Mattis has called it a superb handbook for crafting a purposeful life. Matthew McConaughey called it an urgent call to arms to each and all of us. I do hope you check it out. It's my first in the Four Virtues series, Courage, Temperance, Justice, Wisdom. Courage is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave. If you want to pre-order it, I'd really appreciate your support. Go to dailystoic.com/preorder.