You Own Nothing

Ryan explains the reality of all of the possessions you pile up, 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?

  You own nothing. As we work and achieve, we pile up titles and money. We accumulate assets and influence. We build a life, as they say. And a life is made up of things: our job, our house, our car, our relationships, our reputation. Looking around at what we possess, what we've poured so much sweat and blood into, is an immensely rewarding experience. As Margaret Atwood writes in a beautiful poem, "The moment when, after many years of hard work and a long voyage, you stand in the center of your room, your house, a half-acre, square-mile, island country, knowing at last how you got there, and say, 'I own this.'"

• 1:09Ryan Holiday?

  But the Stoic knows that we never really own anything. All we possess in this life, Marcus really says, even life itself, it's really only ours in trust. We are renters. Our lives are here on loan, loans that can get called in at any time, can be fired. Someone can dislodge our seemingly dominant market position. A loved one can leave. People die. And that's why Margaret Atwood warns against the pride and satisfaction of surveying one's possessions. "The moment you do that," she says, "nature rebels. Almost out of spite, it feels the need to rebuke you for your pride." "No," they whisper, "you own nothing. You were a visitor, time after time,

• 1:54Ryan Holiday?

  climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming, 'We never belonged to you. You never found us.' It was always the other way around."

• 2:05Ryan Holiday?

  None of us own anything. Everything is constantly in flux. What we have today may be gone tomorrow. We ourselves may be gone tomorrow. Understand that. Appreciate everything accordingly. Be grateful and humble, or life will rebuke you. Fate will remind you who is in charge, and nature will reclaim what is hers.

• 2:31Ryan 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, dailystoic.com/email.