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Saturday, August 20, 2022
Your Saturday Stoic Review — Week of August 15 - 21
PASSAGE OF THE WEEK:
All the rudeness, all the things you take offense at, all the things that frustrate you, all the sounds you hate, all the writers whose opinions make you angry—you can tune it all out. You can stay above the noise. You can not have an opinion. You can shut your ears. When anger begins to flush your face, you can turn it into laughter. Try it. It's life-changing.
In one of the most watched videos on the Daily Stoic YouTube Channel this week, Ryan Holiday shares 7 Stoic strategies to happiness. When people think of happiness, they think of things like exuberance, excitement, and getting what you want. To the Stoics, happiness is a deeper place—as Ryan says in the video, "it's when you're realizing the potential you have as a human being." Here's Ryan:
"Epictetus said, 'I delight in my own improvement day to day.' I love that—his delight wasn't coming from money or fame or recognition or pleasure, it was from getting better every day. It was from improving. It was from fulfilling his potential."
On a recent episode of the Daily Stoic podcast, Ryan Holiday interviewed Matt Quinn, the frontman of indie rock band Mt. Joy. The two talked about how artists are like small business owners, the current state of the music industry, Mt. Joy's rise and how the band has navigated success:
"It's helpful to tether to controlling what you can control. That's the thing we think about all the time. We just put out our third album—of course we want it to do better than whatever the possibilities are. But at the end of the day, we're so fortunate to be where we're at and we've put in a lot of hard work. And if we just keep doing that—if we just keep getting better and practicing our instruments and doing the controllable things—then the outcome will at least be not a failure. I believe that for us. That's really kind of been our motto.
"When we screw up, deflecting attention onto a completely unrelated action utterly misses the point, which is: that we screwed up. Despite their fundamental differences, the philosophical theories we've discussed all agree—on like a "this is so obvious we shouldn't have to say it" level—that each of us is responsible for our own actions. They might differ on the moral accounting we do once we've decided to act, but none of them suggests that our actions should be judged based on other people's actions that have nothing to do with ours. It's plainly obvious, and yet here we are, in the year 2022, surrounded by people who try to get away with stuff because of other stuff that has nothing to do with their stuff."
It's important to remember: The Stoic has strict standards. We have strong opinions on what's right and what isn't. But…and this is a big but…we have to be understanding and forgiving of those who have been, as Marcus Aurelius writes, cut off from truth.
Marcus's rule was to be strict with yourself, tolerant with others. We can, to borrow an old expression, hate the sin while still loving the sinner. Because what they do, how they act is not up to us. The good we choose to still see in them? That's in our control.
For most of history, people made themselves constantly aware of the shortness of life. Desks were staged with skulls. On their walls hung paintings of skeletons, hour glasses, extinguished candles, wilting tulips. These physical manifestations were not to create panic, but priority, humility, appreciation.
That's why we created our Momento Mori pendant, medallion and signet ring. This is the last chance to buy our popular Memento Mori Pendant! And for a limited time you can bundle it with the Moment Mori medallion and save 10%!
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