Your Saturday Stoic Review — Week of September 19 - 25

​ ​ ​ PASSAGE OF THE WEEK: But how we respond to those situations—be it poverty or disability or a bad upbringing—hell, that we respond at all, well, that says everything about who we are. Are there big systemic problems too? That will require coordination and political action? Absolutely. But in the meantime, we can start taking our individual steps right now, right this morning, big or small. — How You Respond is All You Control (Listen) YOUTUBE TAKEAWAY OF THE WEEK: In one of the most watched videos on the Daily Stoic YouTube Channel this week, Ryan Holiday talks about how to build and maintain discipline. One strategy for cultivating discipline is to seek out difficulty. In the video, there's short clip from Ryan's interview on the Joe Rogan podcast where Rogan says that "difficult things are good for you. They're good for your mind." Ryan elaborates: "Seneca says you treat the body rigorously so that it will not be disobedient to the mind…Running or lifting weights is reminding the body who's in charge. That's what the physical practice is—it's the mind asserting itself over the body…This mental resilience, being in charge of yourself—that's the ultimate muscle that you want to cultivate." Watch the full video: How Stoics Build And Maintain Self-Discipline​ PODCAST TAKEAWAY OF THE WEEK: In one of the most listened to episodes of the Daily Stoic podcast this week, Ryan Holiday talked about the difference between "temperance" and "abstinence." We tend to think the two are synonymous. Ryan quotes C.S. Lewis, who wrote that "temperance" is actually about going to the "right length but no further." As Ryan elaborates: Temperance isn't about elimination—going without, or removing something "bad." It's about moderation—finding the right amount of something, anything. It's Aristotle's famous metaphor of the "Golden Mean"—the idea that virtue usually sits between two vices. Courage is somewhere between cowardice and recklessness. Confidence between crippling self-doubt and blinding arrogance. Hard work between workaholism and laziness… Ryan's latest book, Discipline is Destiny—which is available for preorder right now—is not just a series of admonishments about restraining yourself, but a book on the power of and the path to balance, moderation, and finding the right amount. ​ WHAT RYAN HOLIDAY IS READING: "Good work isn't created in a vacuum…Creativity is always, in some sense, a collaboration, the result of a mind connected to other minds." — Show Your Work by Austin Kleon (Signed by Austin Kleon) YOUR STOIC WEEKEND REMINDER: How you do anything is how you do everything. Whatever you have to do today, chances are you'd probably rather not do it. Maybe there's a Zoom call you'd rather skip. Maybe there's some meeting you're going to as a favor to someone else. Maybe there's some administrative tasks you wish someone else would handle. You want to blow these things off. You want to phone them in. You tell yourself, it doesn't matter. But it does matter. Because how you do anything, is how you do everything. "Concentrate every minute," Marcus Aurelius reminded himself, "on doing what's in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness." (For more on this idea, watch this video!) THIS WEEK'S BEST SOCIAL MEDIA POST: ​ EMAIL OF THE WEEK: ​Would You Actually Be Able To Change? (Listen) ​Unsubscribe | Update your profile | 906 Main Street #274, Bastrop, Texas 78602 ​info@dailystoic.com is not a monitored email