You Can Do This Too

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Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:05Speaker 00

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a Stoic-inspired meditation, designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life. Each one of these episodes is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women, help you learn from them, to follow in their example, and to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom. For more, visit DailyStoic.com.

• 0:56Ryan Holiday?

  The Stoics accepted that life could be cruel and random. They knew that people were stupid and annoying. They did not deny that death was ever-present. And you might think that the result of this beliefs was a dark and dour worldview. Certainly, many critics of the Stoics have registered that, or potential fans of the Stoics have turned away after a few passages of meditations or the writings of Epictetus. But regardless of how realistic the Stoics may have been in their assessment of the world, the Stoics were not, on the whole, despondent. They worked hard at their jobs. They created beautiful art. They went to the theater. They got married. They tried to make a positive difference in the lives of the people around him. You want to call Marcus Aurelius resigned and pessimistic? The guy buried six of his children and continued to get out of bed in the morning.

• 1:40Ryan Holiday?

  And that is a statement of profound hopefulness and meaning, as well as fortitude and character. Whatever it is, whatever you're going through, whatever it's forced you to understand about this thing called life, well, it is not at odds with the ability, with the need to just keep going, to put one foot in front of the other, to do your best to make a tiny contribution. The Stoics managed, and so can you.