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Stoic podcast designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice and wisdom into the real world.
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So I start each day with several practices as part of a morning routine. Okay, One of the things I do at the end is a journaling practice where I answer three questions right, which I'll share in just a moment. But going back to what I said about happiness before and this kind of deep, what I call core happiness, as opposed to junk happiness, the happiness that I think we're all really looking for, not the happiness that we might think will looking for those three ingredients that I mentioned, alignment, contentment, and control. I think they're all important. They're all equally important to me. But that control, one, I think is really, really important, particularly in the world in which we live today. When I say control, I'm talking about a sense of control. I'm not talking about controlling the external world, which is fundamentally, in so many ways uncontrollable. And a lot of people, I think, get really frustrated and disempowered by the state of the world, politics, the news headlines, you know, whatever it might be. And I understand that. But there are ways around that. And giving yourself a sense of control each day through your actions is a very powerful way to ground yourself and insulate you. And we know from the scientific research people who have a strong sense of control over their lives, they're happier, they're healthier, they have better social relationships, they earn more money. There's a very strong relationship. So I have been teaching, teaching my patients for years about little, 5, 10, 15 minute rituals that they can do each morning that helps to ground them. And even when I'm in America now I'm traveling on this book tour, I've been in LA for 10 days. I'm in Austin for a couple of days. I bring a few things with me, like my. My coffee pot and my cafeteria. So I make coffee in the hotel room, and in the five minutes that it brews, I do a little strength workout in my pajamas. It's something I do at home. And it sounds simple and it sounds a bit unnecessary, but it actually is very helpful for me because it's a grounding practice that helps me feel, oh, I've got a sense of control over my day. So those three questions that I ask myself each day, I think, really speak to your point, which is this idea that justice, virtue, being the person you want to be is an action, right? So I start off with my coffee, and the first question is, what is one thing I deeply appreciate about my life? Okay, really simple question. You know, there's a lot of science on gratitude in terms of what it can do. And, you know, humans have this negativity bias that's kept us alive for many, many years. But the truth is that we take in nine bits of negative information for every one bit of positive information. So I say to a lot of my patients that you do have a morning routine, even if you think you don't. The question is, are you intentional about it? Right? If you wake up and in bed, you scroll the news and Twitter and your work emails, you're entitled to do that, but it's gonna have a consequence if you infuse your brain with negativity first thing in the morning. Is it any wonder that half an hour later, you're a bit negative about the world, You're a bit reactive with your children or your partner? Right? I'm not saying that's the only thing. But if you put that input in first thing, of course, the output 30 minutes later, one hour later, is gonna be hugely dependent on what you put in. So instead, if you, let's say, start off with this practice of gratitude, what is one thing I deeply appreciate about my life? It changes the focus, and it's so simple, I can never say, I don't have time to write that down. And I really challenge anyone. And I'm sure your audience, Ryan, are already familiar with journaling, and I'm sure much of your audience already are doing a journaling practice, right? But hopefully these three questions might give them a bit of. So the first question is, what is one thing I deeply appreciate about my life? The second question is, what is the most important thing I have to do today? Which I love. Probably my favorite question the third question is, which quality do I want to showcase to the world today? And I tell you, those three questions are so simple, but they really change your relationship with your day and your relationship with yourself. Right? So that second question, what is the most important thing I have to do today? It's incredibly powerful, because what I would see with patients and I've experienced myself, is that these days, we often only do the important things when everything else is done.