It’s Your Job To See This Coming | Corralling The Unnecessary

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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's your job to see this coming. It was unlikely, it was unexpected, it was unpleasant. It was your fault. Not that it happened, but that you were surprised that it happened. You should have seen it coming. You should have seen it coming because the Stoics' job is to see it coming. "All the terms of the human lot," Seneca writes, "should be before our eyes." Exile, war, torture, shipwreck. These are some of the possibilities that Seneca urged us to contemplate. We could add other timely and timeless contingencies. Recession, cancellation, climate disaster, sickness, betrayal, loss, death. These things happen to people, and therefore, they could happen to you.

• 0:58Ryan Holiday?

  "And if you don't anticipate them, train for them, contemplate their existence, you will be hurt all the more by them." "The unexpected blow," Seneca says, "lands heaviest." So be aware, be ready.

• 1:25Ryan Holiday?

  Corralling the Unnecessary. This is an entry from the Daily Stoic, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living. I riff on this on another episode in the Daily Stoic Journal, but it's so important, it's worth saying again. "It is said that if you want to have peace of mind, busy yourself with little. But wouldn't a better saying be to do what you must and as required of a rational being created for public life? For this brings not only the peace of mind of doing few things, but the greater peace of doing them well. Since the vast majority of our words and actions are unnecessary, corralling them will create an abundance of leisure and tranquility. As a result, we shouldn't forget at every moment to ask,

• 2:08Ryan Holiday?

  is this one of the unnecessary things? And we must corral not only the unnecessary actions, but unnecessary thoughts too, so needless acts don't tag along after them." That's Marcus in Meditations 424. I read the Gregory Hayes translation before, but I thought I would give you the Robin Waterfield translation of that same line, because again, it's so good. He says, "Do little if you want to be content. But wouldn't it be better to do what's necessary, everything the reason of a naturally social being requires, in the manner it requires it? The upshot will not only be the contentment that comes from doing the right thing, but also the contentment that comes from doing little.

• 2:51Ryan Holiday?

  After all, most of our words and actions are unnecessary, and dispensing with them gives one more freedom and greater peace of mind. It follows that you should prod yourself every time by asking, is this really necessary? And it's important to dispense not only with the unnecessary actions, but unnecessary thoughts as well, because it will ensure that no redundant actions follow either." And Waterfield says that this first line, that "do little if you want to be content," or as in R1, "if you want to be content, do less," it's saying that this is actually a fragment from Democritus that was then taken up by the Epicureans. "To the extent to which a philosopher should engage with the world was a major bone of contention with the two schools,

• 3:34Ryan Holiday?

  with the Epicureans recommending withdrawal in the Stoics' engagement, basing their view here, as Marcus does, on the fact that we are by nature social beings." So, the idea is, we can't withdraw completely. We have to be involved, but we should only be involved in the essential, important things. And so, I'll give you the rest of today's riffing. I say, "The Stoics were not monks. They didn't retreat to the sanctuary of a monastery or a temple. They were politicians, businessmen, soldiers, artists. They practiced their philosophy amid the busyness of life, just as you are attempting to do, just as I am attempting to do. The key to accomplishing this is to ruthlessly expunge the inessential from our lives.

• 4:18Ryan Holiday?

  What vanity obligates us to do, what greed signs us up for, what ill discipline adds to our plate, what a lack of courage prevents us from saying no to, all of this we must cut." What are you going to say no to this week? That's the question. What inessential things are you going to question and remove? What obligations are you going to wriggle out of? Because they're not actually obligations, but impositions that society has foisted on us that don't actually matter.

• 4:50Ryan Holiday?

  Say no. There is power in that. Not just power in the freedom it gives you, but by saying no to the things that don't matter, we're able to say yes, fully, doubly, as Marcus says, to the things that do matter. We do less, better. That's what I want for you. That's what you should want for yourself. Say no this week. Ask yourself at every moment, is this essential? Is this one of the unnecessary things? Does this actually matter? Is it important? Chances are, it isn't, so act accordingly.