Today, think about how you might strengthen your soul. Search for ways to be kinder, more inclusive, and more open-minded. Build your spirit, like you would sculpt your body or fill your mind. You can be the light that you, yourself, sometimes need.
In one of the all-time most watched videos on the Daily Stoic YouTube Channel, Ryan Holiday shared some of the rules and principles the one and only Marcus Aurelius lived by. One of those is to discard your anxiety. "This was something that I realized during the pandemic," Ryan says,
Suddenly I wasn't doing anything. I wasn't having to get to this plane, I wasn't stuck in traffic here, I wasn't having to prepare for this or that. And so you'd think that my anxiety would go way down when suddenly you'd have a lot less to worry about. But it didn't. So then you realize, 'oh the anxiety has nothing to do with any of those things.' Marcus Aurelius actually talks about this in Meditations—he says, 'I escaped anxiety.' And then he goes, 'no, actually, I discarded it because it was within me.' That was a breakthrough for me—I was like, 'oh I thought i was stressed and anxious and worried because of all of these very reasonable things that 'cause' those things in your life: work, family stuff. And then when all that gets pared down, you realize, 'oh no it was me.'"
"Every major publisher turned it down. Every single one. In fact the agent that I had at the time had to fire me, respectfully, because she couldn't sell the book. She said in 22 years, this was the first time that ever happened. So I went out on my own…And then our first print run was 5,000 copies and even with that, we were like, 'it'd be great if it sold 5,000 copies, that'd be awesome [but] if we can't sell them, maybe we'll give them away to schools.'"
Listen to the full episode: Morgan Housel on Building Wealth and Happiness (Podcast, YouTube)
WHAT RYAN HOLIDAY IS READING:
"A lot of people want the biggest sound, with a wall of guitar and huge drums. But I don't think those things matter . . . the 'newest sounds' have a tendency to sound old when the next new sound comes along. But a grand piano sounded great 50 years ago and will sound great 50 years from now…I try to make records that have that timeless quality."
Epictetus said that the root of beauty was beautiful choices. "If your choices are beautiful," he said, "so too will you be." It's simple and it's true. You are what your choices make you, nothing more and nothing less.
He was talking of true beautiful human behavior, one imagines, not of physical beauty. But actually, it applies to both. Beauty, in either case, can't be separated from the process, the regiment that creates it. It takes exercise, it takes discipline, it takes sacrifice, it takes weeks and months and years. It's the decision, day after day after day, to get out of bed early and go for a run. It's how often you pick up the book instead of the television remote, the groceries instead of the fast food, the journal instead of the phone. It's saying "no" to cool opportunities to "yes" to your kids.
So if you'd like to look and feel and be better, that gives you a good place to start—in your choices.
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