It is a Lonely Thing | Sweat the Small Stuff

A Stoic thinks about what’s right. They don’t ask, “Is this safe?” They say, “That’s wrong.” 📚 Mentioned: The Four Virtues Boxed Set https://dailystoic.com/virtuesboxset: https://dailystoic.com/virtuesboxset The Daily Stoic https://store.dailystoic.com/products/the-daily-stoic-signed-edition by Ryan Holiday 🎟️DAILY STOIC LIVE https://www.dailystoiclive.com/| Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you https://www.dailystoiclive.com/! Grab tickets here https://www.dailystoiclive.com/ | https://www.dailystoiclive.com/ 🎙️AD-FREE https://dailystoic.supercast.com/| Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing toThe Daily Stoic Premium https://dailystoic.supercast.com/ - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content:https://dailystoic.supercast.com/ 🎥 VIDEO EPISODES https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos| Watch the video episodes onThe Daily Stoic YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos:https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos ✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email athttps://dailystoic.com/dailyemail See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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

• 0:00Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world.

• 0:15Ryan Holiday?

  It is a lonely thing. Many people knew. They knew they were flirting with danger. They knew he had designs. They knew that these were compromises that violated Rome's traditions. They knew that he would never be satisfied. But they didn't do anything. They didn't say anything or try to stop it because they weren't sure how it was going to go down. This is the story of the rise of Caesar. It's the story of Octavian, his successor. It's the story of Rome's emperors, competent and cruel alike. It is not the story of Cato, who stood up against it. It is not the story of Thrasia and Helvidius, who stood against Nero. It is not the story of Thomas Wentworth Higginson,

• 1:00Ryan Holiday?

  the translator of Epictetus, who was radicalized in the 1850s by the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act, seeing clearly the lengths the slave powers would go to. These were lonely positions. They were not, at first, successful positions either. But that's not what a Stoic thinks about. They think about what is right. They don't ask, is this safe? They say, that's wrong. And they say this loudly and repeatedly, even if it's unpopular, even if they are threatened for it, because that's what courage and justice, two of the most essential Stoic virtues, demand of us. That's also the theme of Right Thing Right Now, which is my third book in the Stoic Virtue Series,

• 1:45Ryan Holiday?

  which is all about how we do this, how we take those lonely stands, why we take those lonely stands, what sustains us when we take them. And I think there are obviously some connections to where we are historically, politically, culturally, right now. You can grab Right Thing Right Now, as well as Courage is Calling, or the whole Virtue Set, actually, if you want, and learn from some wonderful men and women who chose to step up when it mattered. We should study these people. We should study their actions, and then we should go do the same.

• 2:25Ryan Holiday?

  Sweat the small stuff. Today's quote comes to us from Zeno. Actually, we don't get this directly from Zeno, but it's passed along to us by Diogenes Laertes. He says, "Well-being is realized by small steps, but it is truly no small thing." The famous biographer Diogenes Laertes attributes this quote to Zeno, but admits that it might also have been said by Socrates, meaning that it might be a quote of a quote of a quote. But does it really matter? Truth is truth. In this case, the truth is one we all know well, that little things add up. Someone is a good person not because they say they are, but because they take good actions.

• 3:08Ryan Holiday?

  One does not magically get one's act together. It is a matter of many individual choices. It's a matter of getting up at the right time, making your bed, resisting shortcuts, investing in yourself, doing your work. And make no mistake, while the individual action is small, its cumulative impact is not. Think about all the small choices that will roll themselves out in front of you today. Do you know which are the right way and which are the easy way? Choose the right way and watch as these little things add up towards transformation. I did a piece about this not long ago, and it's sort of the basis of the habit challenge that we do for Daily Stoic as well. But George Washington's favorite saying was, "Many mickles make a muckle."

• 3:53Ryan Holiday?

  The idea that things add up, that things are cumulative. Marcus Aurelius says that we assemble our life action by action. And he says, "The benefit of doing it this way is that when you shrink it down to these individual actions, it's very unlikely that someone will get in your way." Right? When Nick Saban talked about the process, if your goal is to win a national championship, and that's all you're focused on, there's so many things that can go wrong between you and that goal that determine whether you have the success or failure you want and make it. It's so all or nothing, I guess, right? But if you focus instead I'm like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna kill it at practice today. I am going to throw the hell out of this ball.

• 4:36Ryan Holiday?

  I am really going to listen to my coach to this podcast episode right now. I'm gonna do this thing in front of me, however small it is. I'm gonna do it extraordinarily well. That's, that really can't be interfered with. And that cumulative impact has the big difference, right? Something can get in the way of you striking it rich in some, you know, scheme or genius play or breakthrough invention or, you know, whatever you think is going to make your fortune. But very little can get in the way of you methodically, consistently saving and investing, you know, in it with a long-term target in mind, right?

• 5:20Ryan Holiday?

  And that compounding effect is what the Stoics are talking about. I think the other thing that's important to note here. I've always said that I think epiphanies are overrated, if they exist at all, right? This idea of like this big breakthrough moment, the Zen Buddhist talk of satori, the idea of like the moment that enlightenment appears. I don't think that that's it. And I think what Zeno was saying is you don't just get there on this singular breakthrough. You get to that, that, that real well-being, that, that smooth flow of life that the Stoics are talking about. You get to enlightenment slowly and surely in these small steps. And, and although each individual's action is small,

• 6:04Ryan Holiday?

  the actual place you arrive, the enlightenment that you get to, that's the big thing. Most of the, the big conclusions or big principles or big ideas that I now base my life around didn't strike me like lightning. It was a slow unveiling, a slow reveal. That's how I got there. And I think that's how you'll get there too today. So focus on the little things you can do right. Focus on habits, focus on accumulating, focus on systems, focus on breakthroughs, and I think you'll get where you want to go.