What You Think You’re Lacking Is The Problem

George Ball, the diplomat and advisor to President Kennedy (one of who David Halberstam would call ‘the best and the brightest’), once observed about Lyndon Johnson that LBJ was hardly disadvantaged by his lack of an Ivy League education. Rather, he said, LBJ suffered from his sense of lacking that education. That is, LBJ’s insecurity about his deficiency was far worse than any actual deficit that may have existed. Isn’t that how it usually goes? Seneca’s line that we suffer more in imagination than in reality, would indicate that it’s been that way for millennia. But more appropriate on this occasion is that essential insight from Epictetus: It’s not things that upset us, it’s our opinion about them that does. And from Marcus Aurelius too: Choose to feel harmed and you have been, choose not to and you haven’t been. LBJ was convinced that he had been done an injustice by growing up poor and unable to afford a school like Harvard or Yale. On its face, this was absurd--he still ended up being President--but he carried what we would today call ‘populist rage’ for so long and believed it for so long that it became true. Worse was the result; LBJ was alternately too trusting and too suspicious of those who were more credentialed or smarter than he was. He was harmed by his lack of education...because he harmed himself by believing there was something lacking. The same is true for us. You’re not lacking whatever you thinking you’re lacking. It’s your opinion that you’re deficient that is far worse than any potential deprivation. You’ve got plenty. You are plenty. Remember that. 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. What you think you are lacking is the problem. George Ball, the diplomat and advisor to President Kennedy, one of the men that David Halberstam would call the best and the brightest, once observed about Lyndon Johnson that LBJ was hardly disadvantaged by his lack of

• 0:47Ryan Holiday?

  an Ivy League education. Rather, he said, LBJ suffered from his sense of lacking that education. That is, LBJ's insecurity about his deficiency was far worse than any actual deficit that may have existed. Isn't that how it usually goes? Seneca's line that we suffer more in imagination than in reality would indicate that it's been this way for a millennium. But more appropriate on this occasion is the essential insight from Epictetus. It's not things that upset us, it's our opinion about them that does. And from Marcus Aurelius too, "Choose to feel harmed, and you have been; choose not to, and you haven't been."

• 1:29Ryan Holiday?

  LBJ was convinced that he had been done and injusticed by growing up poor and being unable to afford a school like Harvard or Yale. On its face, this was absurd. He still ended up being president. But he carried what we would today call a populist rage for so long and believed in it for so long that it became true. Worse was the result. LBJ was alternately too trusting and too suspicious of those who were more credentialed or smarter than he was. He was harmed by his lack of education because he harmed himself by believing that there was something lacking. The same is true for us. You're not lacking

• 2:10Ryan Holiday?

  whatever you think you're lacking. It's your opinion that you're in a deficit that is far worse than any potential deprivation. You've got plenty. You are plenty.

• 2:24Ryan Holiday?

  Remember that. You know, one of the ideas behind my book, Ego is the Enemy, and then the Medallion Ego is the Enemy, it actually is not just for overconfident people, but for people who are dealing with imposter syndrome. You know, the idea that everyone is thinking about you, the idea that everyone cared, anyone cared, whether LBJ had an Ivy League education or not, that is an obsession with the self. And so one of the reasons we carry the Ego is the Enemy medallion, so we can touch it and remind ourselves that this obsession, this, this sort of constant monitoring of ourselves, the view from above that we carry around with us, we're the only one thinking it. Nobody else cares. Everyone else is thinking about themselves. And so in this way, ego

• 3:09Ryan Holiday?

  can make us miserable as well as overconfident. And so I hope you'll check out the medallion. Maybe it'll be of use to you. You can go to dailystoic.com/store.