Ryan Holiday (3:50)

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.

Podcast Guest / Artist (3:59)

Right? Love that quote.

Ryan Holiday (4:01)

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.

Podcast Guest / Artist (4:40)

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.

Ryan Holiday (8:10)

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.

Ryan Holiday (8:45)

You.

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