← The Daily Stoic
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- [00:02]
Toyota Truck Advertiser
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- [00:36]
Daily Stoic Podcast Host
Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast where each day we bring you a stoic inspired meditation designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life. Each one of these episodes is based on the 2000 year old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. Help you learn from them, to follow in their example, and to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom. For more visit Dailystoic.com.
- [01:27]
Ryan Holiday
That's something the Stoics talk about, which is like, what good is success if the result is that you don't feel like you're in charge of your own mind or your own life? Like, how is that success exactly?
- [01:39]
Podcast Guest / Artist
And that's like not what we as a society are taught. And actually so much of. I feel like healing is being like, what of this is like what I actually want. And what of this is just like what everybody else is doing. And I'm doing it because everybody else is doing it like that, you know, and stillness is the key. Like, that really resonated with me, like, what's your definite. And ego is an enemy too. When it's like all of these questions about like, what is success to you? Like, is success being famous and having these awards and I feel like it's especially unnecessary teaching nowadays because I have like, you know, my little Cousin who's like 8 years old and, and I'm like, what do you want to be when you grow up? And she's like, I want to be TikTok famous.
- [02:25]
It's like these values of like, no, what's important is, you know, how content you are with your life. Like the level of gratitude that you experience most importantly for me right now, like, the connections that you have with your family and your friendships and your community and your purpose, like your. I genuinely do feel like my purpose is in art. You know, I don't think I actually, even though I, it's always been my passion, my favorite thing to do. Like, I feel like in the past eight months I really was like, oh no, this is like what I, what I want to do, you know, like, this is like what I feel like my purpose is. And it's like not doing it for.
- [03:08]
Any outcome of like being famous. Or success or what people think of you, which it can subconsciously. Like, I know. I mean, I can. I can only speak for myself. But, like, even when you don't say that to yourself, like, I've never been. Like, I want to be the most famous. I want to be number one. I've never said that, but I remember, like, reading Ego is the Enemy and being like. But then at the same time, I go to do a writing session, and I care so much about what these people in the room think of. Think of me. Like, I'm, like, so insecure and afraid. And, like, that's ego, too, because I'm still not doing it for the right reasons. Like, the. The right reason is to tell my truth. That's it. Period.
- [03:51]
Ryan Holiday
There's a great Marcus Aurelius quote. He says, we care about ourselves more than other people. He says, but we care about other people's opinion more than our own.
- [04:00]
Podcast Guest / Artist
Right? Love that quote.
- [04:02]
Ryan Holiday
It's so true. Like, you. You pour yourself into this thing, doing it the way that only you want to do it, you know, and then. And then all of a sudden, it comes out. And then what you're thinking is, like, did other people say it's good or not? And sometimes you need a project. I did a book a few years ago, this book called Conspiracy, which I think is my best book, but it sold the least well out of all of them. It didn't fail. It just didn't do maybe what it could have done. And what was really freeing about that experience was it totally decoupled, like, critical success and sales for me from what I know is good. And that's, like. It was such a huge breakthrough.
- [04:41]
Podcast Guest / Artist
It was such a huge breakthrough for me. When I saw, like, a couple months ago, I was like, you know, I read Ego. I read Obstacles Away, like, I think, like, two years ago. And I. For my second album, I read. A friend of mine gave me that book, and so I read it. And it. I remember, like, reading it. And then for the next, like, two months while I was reading it, like, my writing sessions were, like, amazing, because everything, even my own insecurity and my own, like, fear, I was kind of using it to fuel, you know, I was doing that. That stoic teaching that I love so much. The Amor Fatih, the taking everything and even the bad stuff and loving that it happened. Not just accepting it, but being like, oh, I'm going to use this now. And that's the first time I read that book. Then, like, three, two, two years later, I read Stillness is The key. And that was actually when I was. When I was. That was like a year ago, actually. That's when I was going through the height of my. My. My mental health crisis, and that really impacted me. And then during quarantine, I read Ego is the Enemy, and I started really getting into stoicism, and I got, like, the Daily Stoic Journal, and I was reading the Daily Stoic videos, and one video that really resonated with me was the one where you're talking about how stoics define success and. And the internal scoreboard and how it's like, there's success. That's like, okay, how many views did this get? How many likes did this get? How successful is this? Is this song or this album gonna be? And that's all the things that you can't control. So if you measure success like that or how other. What other people in the room think of me, then you're gonna be unhappy your whole life. But if you change your definition of success, which I've really been practicing when I've been writing for this album, if I change my definition of success to how honest was I today? How vulnerable was I today? How, you know, did I. Did I show up completely as myself? Was I kind to people? You know, was. Did I see people? Did I make this a fun experience for everybody in the room? Like, if I just focus on what I can control in this moment, then at the end of every day, I was like, it was. It was a successful day. Even if I did feel anxious or nervous, I was like. My metric of success was, hey, guys, I feel a little nervous, you know, and I was truthful, and therefore, I met with my, like, standard of success. And it's like, that's so much more important. Like, it's so much more important to be the person that you want to be and lead with. With that than, like, how other people perceive you or what people perceive you. Like, that's like, what I. What I love about stoicism and, like, what I feel like is going to be my philosophy of life forever is, like, which it wasn't before. Like, I feel like I was leading with what I was doing instead of who I was being. You know, it's like, you know, I was. I just, like, now I'm so conscious of, like, me being a, you know, brave and courageous and kind and, you know, and truthful, and my character comes before any of the things that I do.
- [08:10]
Ryan Holiday
Hey, it's Ryan. Thank you for listening to the Daily Stoic podcast. I just wanted to say we so appreciate it. We love serving you. It's amazing to us that over 30, 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in the couple years we've been doing it. It's an honor. Please spread the word, tell people about it. And this isn't to sell anything. I just wanted to say thank.
- [08:45]
You.
- [08:49]
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