Ryan Holiday: ego is the enemy

episode 112

SHOW TRANSCRIPT

Hello and welcome to the moonshots podcast. It's episode one, one, two. That's right. 112. I’m Mike Parsons. And as always, I'm joined by the man himself. The man who is selfless. Mr. Mark Pearson Freeland. Good morning. Hey, good morning, Mike. How's the last week been from a stoic perspective. Have you been thinking about yourself each day?

Uh, I'll tell you what I've been trying to improve myself. I've tried to make the obstacle the way I've tried to be still, but more than anything, I know that one thing is the greatest enemy of all. Oh, and that Mike is going to be our topic of today's episode, episode 112. This is the second of our four part series on Mr Ryan holiday.

And today we are covering his fourth book. Ego is the enemy to fight to master our greatest opponent. Yeah. And it's, um, I've got to say of all the, the bodies of work that we have studied together on the show.

This one is perhaps one of the most confronting, and I would argue in this next hour, we're going to reveal why this book is so important for us right now.

Not only in 2021, but I think generationally. I think this is the perfect book to put us back in our place. I totally agree. I thought last week in episode 111, we were listening to Ryan, tell us about the daily stoic, how to refocus and be the best version of ourselves. But ultimately Mike is something that we've got to confront with all of that.

And it is your ego. It's being aware of. The sort of behaviors or concepts in your own head that can block progress. Um, cloud ambition sometimes maybe trip yourself up along the way and.

What I've, what I've already enjoyed with Ron holiday is his ability to look back at history and show us, Hey, if it worked over the past hundreds and thousands of years, we can do it today in our, in our lives Monday to Friday.

Right? Totally agree. Yeah. I love, I love in the, in what we were doing in the last show, when you start saying, look, If the most powerful man ever in history, the emperor Marcus are really needed to keep working on himself and needed to remind himself of how to be a good and virtuous man. If he needed it, then come on.

Let's be honest. We could all do with a little bit of extra work and there is no doubt that this book ego is the enemy is another. Just masterfully crafted well-written book that is used quite rightly said bulls from both ancient and modern history to point out to us that there is a real journey, um, in life.

And the worst thing we can do is in our success, think that we are great. And in our failure to think that we are not as good as others, that we are poor for it. In fact, It's the ego that plays with us. And, you know, whether we are building a great company, a great product, whether we, uh, just doing our work, our profession, uh, being part of a family or a community, this is essential reading.

So I think in the next album, mot, I. Would propose to you that we're going to learn about mindset, resilience and learning, which are all three big moonshot themes, aren't they? Yeah, they totally are. And I think Mike, [00:04:00] it's time to get cracking and let's hear from, from Ryan himself. And I think over this next hour, we're going to, we're going to be digging in deep.

It might be a little bit confronting thinking about our own egos in this sort of way. So I'm. I'm nervous, but also excited. And I think it's about time, Mike, for us to hear our first clip. This is Ryan Holly, introducing us to the pitfalls of ego and almost every philosophical school, every religion, every great historical story at the root of it is a warning against ego against hubris.

Okay. You don't understand why you need to take a beat with Kanye West. The artists Marina Abramovich said that. The second, we begin to believe in our own greatness. That's the death of our creator. That's me. I'm the hottest artist in the city. The question is how do you prevent that from happening and how do you prevent.

Ego from coming between you and your gifts from destroying you from alienating. Other people stop playing with my fucking man. How do you prevent that toxic ego from ruining your life? The most important step is awareness. It's knowing when ego. It's creeping in when it's whispering in your ear. So you can find it and shut that voice off you can't destroy a cancer that you haven't been diagnosed with.

And so the first defense against ego is awareness. Wow. I mean, that's pretty provocative dropping the Kenya in the background as well. Isn't it? Uh, it's a, the juxtaposition was, was pretty fun actually, but, um, he's quite right. He's just like, He's really starting to like, get that, that kind of splash of water on the face that the ice bucket, like wake up and know that voice, uh, that voice of ego.

And our boy does that really set us up to go and dive into it. So I think ahead for us [00:06:00] on this show, we're going to dive into this mindset, um, of knowing. What starts and ends with this, this idea of ego of mindset of intention. And so once we get that foundation, then we're going to look at how to stay with it, the resilience, then we're going to learn.

And boy, how big is learning as a moonshots theme, Mark? I mean, come on. It's almost like everyone. We study talks about learning. Yeah. Yeah. It's the key, key pillar of the moonshot thing. Every single person illustrated by 111 shows, uh, with, with so many different people, you can learn from everyone around us.

And then actually this is going to be one of a, a stoic, um, Thor that Ron holiday is going to take us through its ability to learn from almost any situation or anybody in your life. So looking forward to hearing about that. Yeah. So let's dive into the foundational work of the book. Ego is the enemy by Ryan holiday, and this is all of course born out of this greater practice of stoicism and the studying of the Stoics.

Um, a very, uh, ancient, uh, philosophical mindset that comes from, uh, you know, ancient Roman and Greek times. Uh, and, uh, this first clip that we're going to. Uh, jumping into as terms of mindset is really going to be about what mindset is the primary starting point, uh, for getting rid of ego and being stoic.

So let's have a listen to Ryan holiday talking about. A beginner's mindset adopt the beginner's mindset. Epictetus. The stoic philosopher said that it is impossible to learn that, which we think we already know the key is to pick up a book about something, you know, nothing about to be the dumbest person in a room.

If you're the smartest person in a room that's ego, you're not. Surrounding yourself with people who challenge you, who makes you better off 10 years ahead, mentally and I'm trapped in today's time. So the effort, not the outcome, John wooden, the basketball coach would say that success is the peace of mind of knowing that you made your best effort.

If you put your satisfaction or your success in the hands of critics or fans or sales, You will inevitably be crushed when they are not as good as your wildest hopes, want them to be shun the comfort chatter to do the work instead, shun the comfort and the CHASA. I like that a lot, the, uh, that, that, and, uh, what, what Ron holiday was pointing out in act.

And that really stood out to me was embrace or seek out opportunities to. Feel or be the dumbest person in the room, you know, when you that, how good is that said, I [00:09:00] embrace that discomfort and think, Hey, I want to be in a situation where I might not know the answers because. The result will be that I will learn from it.

I will learn from those in the room and pick up new experience along the way. And as he was, uh, kind of subtly serenaded by Kenya, again, the interesting thing was that he's, he's really kind of. Pointing out that if your ego runs wild, you will think that you already have the answer. And that was a great quote, alluding to the fact that if a man thinks he has all the answers, then you know, he will never learn anything new.

And I thought, wow, this is so good. And then where I think Ryan gets really practical is how to be the dumbest person in the room. And what he's really saying, there is a shoom. You don't have all the answers, which is really. A big counter-intuitive to how a lot of people [00:10:00] think they need to behave in a meeting at work or sometimes in life in general, right?

Yeah. I mean the amount of pressures we all have to be a professional. Uh, let me rephrase that. Uh, a, a master. Of the skill that you're being, you know, perhaps employed to go and do, you know, that's a lot of pressure to think, wow, do I know this back to front? Yeah. I can go out and learn and try and be the best, but ultimately I will always be improving.

I'm never going to be necessarily that sort of absolute master of that given skill, because I want to continue going. So it's a little bit confrontational, you know, this idea of pressure. I think he's going to be, you know, really explored by us over the next 45 minutes an hour in this show, because that pressure sometimes is self.

Um, it's given to you by yourself, isn't it? Yeah. How, if, if you want to explore this idea a little bit, how do we, uh, what practical things can we do in a meeting to be the dumbest person in the room? I ask questions, I think, you know, so rather than, um, You know, be that individual who might not listen and they're always speaking or perhaps not paying attention.

If you listen and maybe ask questions, then I think you can, I suppose curator original thinking like our friend, Adam Grant's would say. Right. I think one of the, the things that we've heard, um, previously on the show is be the last to speak in the meeting. Yes. That was a good one. Be the last to speak.

Right. And, uh, don't look just to confirm what, you know, question challenge to play devil's advocate. Ask why, why. It was another role though. Who asked that question? Do you remember? Yeah, one of our, one of our favorites with, uh, with a start with why, of course keep them going back. I mean, this, this idea of challenging that status quo again, is something that Ron holiday illustrates really nicely and in his other works by bringing out the history.

So you kind of think, Oh, hang on. Let's have a pause for a second. If Marcus Aurelius, the most powerful man in the world had time to keep a journal. What's stopping me another good one. You know, it's it's, it's another great reminder of, Hey, let's everybody take a breath, have a pause. If you're in a meeting, let's think about this.

Let's make sure you ask those questions or you're the last person to speak because learning is what really brings out. Um, This, this, this beginner's mindset as Ryan was calling out and it gives us the ability to [00:13:00] improve that, that ego. Yeah. Yeah. So once you say, okay, I maybe don't have all the answers then I think the second mindset that Ryan holiday wants us to embrace is really kind of bringing our attention to the question.

The thought, the idea of the moment. And do your best within that moment. And so this next clip is Ryan holiday talking about doing your job and doing it right. Do your job do it. Right? Right. Uh, Andrew Johnson, before he became president, before he was the governor, he's giving a talk and a heckler cries out from the crowd.

What the heckler is joking about and making fun of is the fact that Johnson comes from humble beginnings, right? He wasn't a born politician. He wasn't born wealthy. In fact, he was a tailor. His job was making clothes for other people who were rich and successful. And. What, what Johnson's response. And this is, I think this is an excellent response.

He's saying that does not disconcert me in the least for when I used to be a tailor, I had the reputation of being a good one and making clothes fits, always punctual with my customers. And I always did good work. Essentially. What he's saying is I don't give a shit what you think. About, uh, whether being a tailor's a good job or a bad job.

I was good at it. I did what I was supposed to do well, and that's what I take pride in. Right. And this is something was Stokes talked about over and over again. We're all assigned roles in life. These roles change for what matters is what we do in that role. While we have the opportunity, Epictetus is saying, first, you tell yourself what kind of person you want to be.

Then you do what you have to do for nearly every pursuit. We find this to be the case. Those in athletic pursuits, they choose the sport they want, and then they do that work no matter whether that's the sexy part of the work, that's the work that gets attention. That's the work. That's fun. They do that.

And they do the work that's necessary to do every single thing that they're assigned to do. This is carved on the mantle piece of sir Henry Royce's house. Right? Sir, Henry Royce is a guy that founds rolls, Royce, whatever is rightly done. However humble is noble. So you do your job and you do a right cause that's your job.

And you take pride in that fact, you take pride in excellence. That's what the Stoics are saying. It doesn't matter what, what happened to you. It doesn't matter why you're doing it. What matters is that you do that task well and you see it as an opportunity to be excellent in what you do. Um, Marcus really is, again, he's saying pay attention to what's in front of you, the principle, the task, or what's being portrayed.

That's it? The thing in front of you, the opportunity, not the thing far off in the future. The lesson I learned from this, this is something that I think about when I might be wanting to cut a corner. I might not want to do something. Well, how you do anything is how you do everything. How you do this task in front of you right now is a reflection of who you are as a person.

And it's a reflection of your general attitude towards the rest of your responsibilities. That's neat. He's touching on a lot of different aspects and individuals there is any like this is called boy. Yeah. And once again, he's pretty confronting. If you actually truly listen to some of the thinking here, it's like, don't cut the corners.

And what I really love about the build that he was doing there is don't care. Get caught up on whether what you're doing is considered to be glamorous and successful or not. And very much like bill Belichick, the coach of the new England Patriots really celebrates this idea of just do your job. We've all got a role to play and do it to the best of your ability.

And don't get caught up on whether you've been successful. As you might wanted to have been, or whether you have the recognition, whether everybody sees what you're doing or not, you can take enormous satisfaction and wellbeing from just doing the job to your best ability, doing the job at hand. And I think Mike, this is where true, um, peaceful.

Calmness of the mind in the intention lays because if I had a task at hand and I did it to the very best of my ability, that's what I control. And therefore I am complete. The chapter is closed. I did it to the best of my ability. There was nothing, uh, to suggest that, wow, if I just worked a little harder or stayed a little longer, I did it to the best of my ability.

And I think when we're always racing into the future, this brings us very steadfastly into the present. Uh, I, I couldn't agree more actually. Um, I think. What's really, uh, confronting as a question that I think Ron holidays, you know, referencing here. And I think my, where you're going with that thought as well.

Is, am I working as hard as I can right now? Am I applying myself to this task at hand to the best of my abilities? And we've probably all been there where we've done something, maybe we've delivered a product or a project and. Yeah, we think back to anything, huh? Yeah, that was okay. I could have worked a bit harder.

You never go going to move on from that. It's always going to be something in the back of your mind and you can't go back and change it. Can you and conversely, one of the best feelings that you can have is getting to the end of the day or the week or the month or a year, I worked hard and no matter what that result was, whether.

The business was huge or the product was success. It doesn't really matter what the physical output was instead. And I think this is really true with, with Ron holiday and his work. And particularly today with egos enemies, if you can think back. Yeah, I did my best and I'm really happy. I couldn't worked any harder.

I know that this was my capability to, to the full. Who, who is anybody else to say or question whether that's right or not, you know, that's you being your best version of yourself, I'm working that hard and being present. So I think right now for all of our listeners, if they are, I think if someone is listening to our show, Mark, I think a moonshot is invariably doing their best.

Is giving their all. And one of the things that I would share with you and our audience Mark, is that if you turn up every day, every week, every year, and you're just giving your best, no, that you can be so satisfied. So fulfilled, uh, about that. In fact, with your ego in check, you can be proud. You can be truly proud in the knowingness that you truly gave it your best and your all.

And I just encourage everyone to think about that because I think we too quickly go. Yeah, but it didn't work out. That doesn't matter. Now, what matters is, did you give your best where you in the moment did you do the very best you could at that time? And. I think that's something we could, we can all do a job of being more effective upon in that knowingness and say, yep, I really did give that a good nudge.

Right. I gave that one. I really good point. I gave that a little bit of a tough, a tough Bush work my best. Yeah. If I can end that day. Well, or that moment in time and know that I've, I've done that, that best work of mine. I think that's, that's a, that's a great lesson that Ron holiday is really teaching here.

And I think, you know, coming from that awareness moment that he spoke about in our opening clip, if you are aware of it and you can, you can recognize it and see it. I mean, that's a good foundation around holidays already taught us. This is going well. Yeah, totally, totally. And listen, look, Matt, before we keep going into, um, uh, this universe of stoicism of Ryan holiday and his great book ego is the enemy.

I think it's time to, um, remind our audience that really does span all four corners of the globe these days. Let's remind them that we, we really need your help now mind, how can our audience help us out? We need your help. Dear listeners, we love. Love love hearing from you. We love it when our listeners get in touch with us, and I'll tell you how to do that in a moment such as our good, uh, brand new, uh, friend, Mr.

Rodriguez villas coming over from Germany. Thank you so much for getting in touch. We love hearing from you Rodrigo, and I'll be replying shortly to your, to your question. We get so much value out of that. Not only from a feeling of, Oh, wow, this is, this is great. And it's worth it. And we're so excited to hear from listeners all around the world, but actually we really, really need your help too.

Understand and dig into more moonshot innovators. We've got a big year ahead. Today's episode 112, and we need you listeners to help us carve out brand new directions and topics to go and explore. So we call a new listeners to go to www.moonshots.io. Here you will find all of our previous 111 shows on some seriously impressive innovators, as well as all of our show notes and transcripts, a lot of our favorite mantras, as well as a little area, a little topic box you can navigate at the top of the page.

Cool feedback. You can leave us your thoughts. I'm gonna show things that you think work, maybe things that you'd like us to explore doing differently, perhaps, but also you can let us know what you would like us to cover. Next. We have a good, uh, list of future shows coming up that we might, but we're still looking for more and more inspiration.

And that is all where you guys can come in. Yeah. So just tell us, like, who inspires you? Who would you like us to decode, deconstruct and, uh, we'll get the team on it. We'll break it down. We'll get some amazing clips, but tell us what's on your mind. What would you like to know? And, you know, a big shout out to, to, uh, all of our listeners to Rodrigo in Germany, but you know, Mark, here's the craziest thing.

Do you know? You'll never believe this, but there is one country that we almost always end up in the top 10 business and entrepreneurship podcast. And that is Slovenia. Now here's the thing, Mark. We get a lot of emails from listeners, but we have yet to receive any emails or love from. What must be a considerable audience in Slovenia.

So we are putting out the beacon to our dear listeners in Slovenia. If you are listening, let us know your thoughts. Who would you like us to decode and deconstruct here on the moonshots podcast? So big shout out to the team in slot Vinea. Okay. I feel like we are now ready to turn our minds to the topic of resilience.

Yeah, that's right. So we've started with awareness. Let's be aware of our egos and how they might be able to trip us up. Len let's begin each day, each moment, each life, the best aspirations and a good mindset. Now let's dig into. What we might call success, but also Mike something, it's a big word that we've talked about a lot on moonshots and that's resilience.

So the next thing we're going to hear from Mr. Ron holiday is how to keep learning in order to be unbeatable. The MMA fighter. Now he's a, he's a coach. His name is Frank Shamrock is a UFC champion. He has a system that he teaches his fighters who calls it plus minus and equal.

And basically what he says is that every great fighter needs to have someone who's better than them, that they train under someone who there, who is equal to them and ability that they challenge themselves against on a daily basis and someone who is not as good as them.

Who they teach, what they've learned from the other two. And it's the system that's being the student in everything that you do, that is what makes you good. It's what makes you better. And most importantly, it's what hammers away at the ego that undermines our ability to be on a team or to relate and work with other people, Emerson as a quote, that this is how I try to live my life as well.

He says, every man I meet is my master. In some point. And in that I learned from him. He's saying that even when you might be better at someone at 99% of what you do, there's still 1% that they're a little bit better at, and that's what you focus on. It's how can you absorb? If you can absorb one thing from every single person that you meet, you will become better and better and better, and eventually you will become unbeatable.

Um, did every man that you made will be better at something than you. How perfect is that this idea, just to keep you in check, don't get too big for your boots. No, that the person you are meeting guaranteed, there'll be something, there will be something that they can do better than you doesn't that to set you in the right position.

Does it remind you that pride can often be that blocker again, going back to one of the earlier clips in today's show. Around being in the room, in a meeting, perhaps being that last person to speak, be aware of those around you and do think, okay, well, what can I learn from this person, that person, because if you, if you take that little bit of lesson from each of them, you're only going to get stronger and stronger.

Aren't you. You are. And I thought that was a really cool construct. The plus minus equals, uh, structure from the MMA fighters where not only did they have to fight someone who is a bit better, they needed to teach someone who was not as good as them. I like that. Plus minus equals it's. It's a great little, uh, theory.

Isn't it? It's a great little growth mindset approach. Hello, I'm going to, I'm going to try and pull that into my, uh, my way of working as well, trying to determine. Who I might be able to collaborate with. And obviously there's plenty of people to learn from. Well, it's interesting because we talked earlier about this idea of, you know, seek to be the dumbest person in the room.

And now, now, um, just to be like, if you weren't getting the ego under control, now, it's like, okay, everyone you meet is going to be better at something. I think that in yourself. Um, and I just, I find that so, so helpful. Because I think in our, what I fall victim to is in my enthusiasm is I forget this and get too carried away with what I know and make the mistake of not stopping to listen to others.

And so I find this really helpful. Yeah. Yeah. I, I find it very, very. It's practical as well as emotional, you know, this cool from Ron huddle and yeah, via the Stoics. It's reminding me to remove any, you know, pride or self inflation, I suppose you could say, uh, born through, you know, a number of years doing a job or working with people, whatever it might be.

And. And having that stark reminder, Hey, you don't know everything? No, I think, I think, you know, as well as we'll continue digging into it today, this idea of, of ego as, as Ron Holly calls it out, this is a, this is a moment for us all to, you know, step away from any, uh, feelings that we know best. You know, when you're putting things on.

Social media when you're constantly online, whether it's with customers, clients, audience, whoever it might be. You've got to put up that for solid almost don't you I'm going, I'm going to go so far as to say it's a little bit of a facade. It's my, uh, uh, putting up for others to see my LinkedIn, my, whatever it might be.

I've got to be the best at something. And I think what happens naturally is that will start to rub off. And therefore I went. I'll actually think I am that. Mind I am in that space. You know, I am the best at something. You know, if you put on the fancy dress outfit, enough times you end up thinking you are the superhero, the weather, that's it.

If you put it on the fancy Cape and you dress up as a Superman and you go out, maybe at some point, you're going to start thinking, Oh yeah, well, yeah, I am. I am that Superman person. And I think this is just a really good little illustration. Of the issues with having that unhealthy belief in yourself.

Yeah. Because you know, you're consumed with how you're perceived on the outside rather than, uh, who you are in the moment. But the funniest thing is that if we stop pretending and go back to what we've already discussed, that's in the book. Ego is the enemy have a beginner's mindset, do your job, do it right.

Be self-aware, you know, walk into a meeting and say, I'm going to be the dumbest person in the room and know that every person that you meet will be able to teach you something. Isn't it funny that by being that humble, that you will achieve. The, um, the status that you was so consumed with earlier, so people will go, wow.

Geez, Mark asks good questions. I feel like we always make good progress, right? Yeah. That's it. But it's, it's funny. Because then this next clip that we're going to hear from, from Ron holiday, again, in this column and thought construct around this resilience is to not necessarily target that output. Not necessarily think, Hey, I'm going to.

Uh, get people to think, Oh, Mott smokes a small guy instead. Think about the journey that you've just discussed, Mike, about the beginner's mindset and learning some. So this next clip we're going to hear from Mr. Ron holiday is how to focus and follow the process rather than the outcome. Follow the process, Marcus really saying, you must build your life action by action and be content.

If each one achieves its goal, as far as possible. And no one can keep you from this. So this is 2000 years ago, the most powerful man in the world, he's reminding themselves that you take things step-by-step, you don't focus the distant future. You focus on what's in front of you. You focus on doing it well, and right, this might sound familiar to you guys, right?

This is the process, right? This is the Stokes talking about the process. The thing that you guys hear and see everywhere I was in your stadium earlier, I saw the process starts here. This is that same idea. 2000 years later, tested in, in battle tested in the highest, you know, military and political offices in the world, tested by creatives, by authors, by entrepreneurs, by, by, by some of the smartest people who ever lived there, they're living their life by the process.

What we ultimately control the Stoics are again making the distinction between what we control and what we don't control. And what we control is in front of us, Gertrude is saying what matters to an active man is to do the right thing. Whether the right thing comes to pass should not bother him. We tend to be a, to Z thinkers.

Right? And we, we forget that all the letters in between, we forget the little things. We forget the process, right? Your pin on the ground. What you do is you don't focus on, on being free completely. The first thing you do is you don't do something stupid. That gets you choked out. You take your time, you get your bearings and then you break it down.

Step-by-step right. You give yourself a little bit of space. You try to get to your side. Then you pull maybe a leg out, you trap an arm, you bucked your hips. This is a process being trapped, being pinned down is not fate. It's not over. It's a methodical thing. Breaking it down. Step-by-step is how you get out of here.

It's not one big swoop. It's not one major move. That's not how you do it. You break it down and you see the best fighters in the world. Do this. The process, the process, the process. Now what's funny about this thought that is well over 3000 years old, is that it is so present, even in really small things like thinking about weight loss, what any good or weight loss advisor will say to someone is just focus on eating a little less today.

Just try and lose one. Kilogram this week, that's all. And when we studied, uh, Tim Ferris, one of the key things that he shared was that people fail in their goals because they set wildly unrealistic goals that they wish to achieve in an unrealistic, short span of time. So therefore they get a few weeks into.

Achieving a goal, whether it's weight loss or anything, and Mark, they only get a few weeks into it. And what happens? Well, they give up or they go back to how they were before. Right? Exactly. So that very thought is embedded in this. Like, if you want greatness, go it aside. Focus on the process, focus on the hard work to do today and do not obsess about the allure, the shiny, the sparkly success.

Take satisfaction that today you did the hard work that you know is part of your overall purpose and your mission, your vision. This stuff is so good. Mark. It went so essential to stoicism. It's very much what we've touched upon in episode one, one, one with Ron huddle laid previously in the daily stoic, you know, when you could do the step-by-step action by action.

A journey, process, personal development, you know, I like where you, you took a mic, um, with regards to the habits series, you know, when we were digging into James, Claire, Charles Duhigg, as well as William H McRaven, when we were learning about habit formation, it is broken down very, very simply do the little things today and do it every day.

And again, it just feels like it's a really. Valid form of stoicism as well. Isn't it? You go out with that best intention. Have that good awareness, do little by little and gradually you will just keep on getting better. Yeah. And I think here, this is the elixir to the sense that things are not going as well as they could be.

That you haven't quite made it. You're not the success you could have been. I think that's a moment where you can turn to this book, don't you? Yeah. Yeah. I think for those of us who are thinking, well, you know, maybe I should be a bit softer myself, or maybe I should be working harder. Maybe those in doubt, those who have had a promotion and maybe they're worried about being a leader or conversely, those who.

I feel like I've missed out on a promotion and therefore they are annoyed at their leaders. Know, I believe that there's a great benefit that a lot of us and our listeners can get from digging into these lessons that Ron Hoddle lays really calling out. I think for me, at least somebody who's probably in my past considered, or maybe doubted my, um, uh, Level that you've reached over a course of a number of years.

This is a great reminder that, Hey, stop beating yourself up. Don't forget to work on yourself. Not only from a career profession, um, ambition perspective, but also your, your mindset, you know, take care of your internal side so that your external elements can be better. You know, you can't be a great leader unless you've got that foundation.

And strength within your, your mind and in this case today with ego, once you've got your ego and to check you elude a much better direction, I think to a lot of your team and you know, it just, for me at least feels like we've got so much, all of us have so much to, to take from stoicism. It's like this series of books from Ryan holiday, it's like a gym membership for the mind.

Isn't it? It's like essential workouts to keep you fit happy and healthy. Don't you? Yeah. Well, what's fun is you're not in ego. The enemy, you're not digging into a sort of Freudian aspect of ego. You know, you're not digging into that psychology or, or that really, um, You know, professional or medic it's.

Yeah, it's a little bit more colloquial actually. I'd say, you know, Ronald lays breaking down ego as this, um, again, to use the word awareness he's, he's breaking it down into slightly more, easy to understand approaches that we can dig into. And yeah, I, I, it's just, it's just a really fun, really fun way to almost open up your, open up your skull and really have a poke around to try and to try and improve that, that mindset, you know, that's ultimately what it's all about.

It's like going to the mechanics in your car, getting a service. This is taking your mind to the mechanic, getting a grease and oil change, getting everything sorted out, getting everything recalibrate. Um, and it really does. I think part of this is it helps put your mind to rest. And I think a lot of us over the last year have found getting that [00:40:00] calm that, um, Awareness and just being able to be in the moment and not worry about a million things.

I think this is all essential fuel. For that mission and for that, cause now before we go into another bunch of really, really great, uh, thoughts from Ryan holiday, uh, I do feel Mark that I should say that this is not because of our egos. But we do like a good rating of our podcast, or maybe even a review don't we, we do, we do, we've had some wonderful reviews across a number of different platforms over the years from you, our listeners, and each one of them means so, so much to us, you know, much like our wonderful listeners who are tuning in from Slovenia.

I suspect it's because somebody was kind enough to leave a review. We'll share the podcast or even at a rating, because this is how we spread the extent of our, uh, our reach with the podcast. You know, we're getting into all four corners of the globe. And I think that really comes down to you. Our dear listeners who are kind enough to leave a review rating or to share the podcast with somebody online and for us.

We, we, we thank you for it. And if you're feeling as though you want to go and do that, you can do those in your podcasting app of choice, or like I say, you can pop along to www.moonshots.io and share away from there. So thank you for helping us spread the word. Thank you for helping us learn out loud together.

Cause we truly do believe that the work that we're doing together together, as you tell us who you want us to decode, as we share this sort of breakdown are some of the greatest entrepreneurs, thinkers, and innovators. This is something that can serve so many people, not only at work, but also. Beyond that in their personal lives.

And I [00:42:00] tell you what, we now come to one of our greatest moonshot topics. I mean, it doesn't get more moonshot than the idea of learning. And here we've got just a sweet, tight little clip. That's all about learning to look back. Even when you are doing great, what you want to be looking at is what you could do better, not what you did.

Well, Elizabeth Noel Newman, she's a sculptor. And she's saying, this is something I try to live my life by as a writer, she's saying I never looked back except to find out about mistakes. I only see danger in looking back and seeing things you're proud of because this is what pops up the ego. This is what makes you think you're invincible that you were faded to win that everything is yours by right.

And of course, that's. That's not the case. So you look backwards to find mistakes and you look forward to find opportunities to apply those new lessons and be better than you were the first time. Now, this one is, is really, really good. Actually, Mike, you know, we've reached a moment or run huddle day talking about ego, and this is pretty practical.

Actually, this is quite a physical tool that I'm going to try and use more regularly. You know, the ability of not only looking ahead and thinking, Hey, what are my goals for this year? Or how can I go out and be exactly what my customers or my team need me to be? Instead, it's going again into that mirror.

Isn't it. It's looking back at the, okay, well, I've just completed a project. Let me write down what I've learned. Let me write down what I could have done better. Post the post-mortem right, exactly. This feels, you know, really, really valuable. We've spoken about on the podcast before. Um, when we kick off projects together, we'll write a skeleton.

We'll write our initial thoughts maybe a week or so in advance. Right. Either I think what could be quite an interesting little experiment is to do the same, but looking backwards. So thinking, okay, well, I'm going to scribble all of my thoughts on the past week. Of this particular project. Well, in the past few months, yeah.

Now you're talking about now, Mark, while you're, while you're in the zone, remind us, where might you write these reflections? Whether it be personal or professional, where might you write them? Well, I think as we've discussed again, it's all about journaling. Isn't it? Tony comes back to this essential. And again, we touched on this a lot in last week's episode with the daily stoic journaling is such an essential form of stoicism.

Isn't it? Well, and getting, uh, putting your mind in the gym, right? Getting the thoughts organized out. I mean, as I, I I've mentioned this several times, but when I'm journaling and I'm writing, saying, I might know, that's not exactly what I think, which shows me that my thinking has not evolved enough. On whatever the topic might be, that I've got more work to do on it.

And so I can only have that reveal when I attempt to. Right. So the, the, the act of writing forces upon you clarity, and I think this is so good when you want to reflect, and let me just build on this for a second, because in one of these other books, Ryan holiday talks about, uh, Napoleon only wanting bad news delivered immediately.

And he said always postpone good news. And this is a really interesting thought as well, where this whole mindset that Ryan holiday is pointing out for us is an attack. The things that cause data to uncertainty, attack the problems, learn from your mistakes is essential. And don't be too indulgent with your success because it feeds the ego.

Hmm, that's great. Isn't it? Uh, what a, what a, what a physical equation. So for me, when I, when I don't want to, when I want to explore this a little bit more after our listeners have listened to this podcast and they think, okay, well, I've learned about the ego today. What can I go and do in order to almost check that ego?

I do believe that starting with that self-reflection as you were just saying is a perfect. Starting point, isn't it reflection that comes from Australia. Clarity that comes from reflection is, and I'm, I'm guilty of this as well. Mike writing something and thinking, Oh, that's not really what I mean, actually, that isn't necessarily true.

Sometimes I'll cross it out or sometimes I'll just carry on writing and try to further clarify. Through that reflection. Um, and it's a fascinating way. It's kind of like a touchstone. It's a fascinating way to understand or know what I appreciate what I know, what I do fully grasp and also illustrates RK.

Right? I don't yet know how to talk about this or describe that maybe in a professional way, it's a tool or a software or a process in which case that's a great moment. Say, okay. I need to go out and maybe spend another half an hour or find somebody as Ryan holiday says, somebody else, who's a master at this.

I will go and learn a little bit more from listening to them. Maybe I'll ask them a couple of questions. You know, I think, you know, not only can journaling and reflection be used on, you know, personal development, I think it can also be. Used on analyzing a project, the way that you've behaved or the way it's gone and thinking, okay, well, how can it be improved better?

Maybe the team we will need to get better at this process or this tool? I think, I think that that's, what's really coming. To me from that, from that particular clip. You're absolutely right now, if we follow this line of thinking around personal reflection and one of the other great things that we've got from Ryan holiday is this idea of following your own scoreboard.

So let's have a listen now to Ryan holiday talking about the scoreboard. Marcus really it's the same, you know, ambition is tying your wellbeing to what other people say or do time that's tying yourself to outcomes. Self-indulgence means tying to the things that happened to you, but sanity means tying it to your own actions.

That's tough to what you do, what you think, what you can improve, not looking at what the scoreboard says. Cause that's irrelevant. Ultimately the scoreboard should not be as high as the standard that you personally hold it and yourself to the school board, no being as high as what you hold yourself. I think this reminds me of one of our earlier clips as well, Mike, around following the process.

So this step-by-step action [00:49:00] by action. Instead of looking at the result. You know, you're new England Patriots instead of jumping to the, into the, the end game or, you know, the final score and thing. Okay. Well, here we are. Instead, it's almost seeing, okay, where am I now? Where am I now? And for me, that's, that's how I'm interpreting this.

W w what comes to mind when you hear this? Totally like, um, did I do my best. On the things I did today, that's the scoreboard. And it comes back to this idea that we've heard, not only from stoicism, but also from Steve jobs, which is live everyday. Like it's your last right play every game. Like it's your life last game, right.

I think, I think, um, the release here that I want to connect for you and for our listeners Mark here is I think if you say here's my goal for the day you give your best. And then at the end of the day, If you can [00:50:00] stand in and say, well, I gave it everything I got. That was a good day. Um, does it mean you've climbed the mountain?

No, but you've started and you did your best today and maybe with a little reflection you can learn about tomorrow as well. And I think. I think that's the cycle. It's almost like that's the stoic loop, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think that's exactly that loop. And I think, you know, when, when you're hearing about these, these scorecards and so on, I think it's also around knowing yourself, knowing that again, you've worked as hard as you can, knowing that you've done all of that work in order to, uh, sort of end that week and that day and that year and think, yep.

What's my inner scorecard. Well, I know that I was a nice guy. I know I helped somebody else out. I know that I gave the time to somebody who needed it. I think that's the school card rather than saying, Oh yeah, well, I, I [00:51:00] sold X amount or I brought in this, you know, the inner school called the, we can feed our confidence and our, our happiness with is self-awareness of what you've done.

And what do you value? What's good for you, you know, you've, you personally might have spoken about legacy on the podcast before for me, again, that's really striking home at a, at a stoic concept. What are you going to leave behind? What are you creating and how are you creating it? Who yeah. Gets to take part in that journey of yours.

Um, so, so, you know, we've got this kind of mindset thing, um, earlier in this show, which is this thought of, you know, really a beginner's mind mindset, you know? Um, I think it's, um, So grounding and building on top of that, focus [00:52:00] on the task at hand. Right. You know, make sure that you are following the process, right.

And not too obsessed about the status of the end result, focus on the process. And then it brings us into this whole kind of, sort of learning mindset as we go through. The process, um, you know, this is really good stuff, but I think we've got just one more clip. One more idea that we can share with the audience.

Right? We do, we do to close out our show episode 112 with Mr. Ron holiday ego is the enemy. This is one final clip from Ryan telling us that we should all be at this very moment. I'll leave you with one quote, this is a stoke quote that I try to remember more than any other. I think it applies in every single situation.

Marcus, a really saying objective [00:53:00] judgment now at this very moment, right? That's our perceptions. That's how we look at what we're seeing. We're we're seeing clearly and objectively. We're not bringing anything to it. We're looking at it for what it is. Objective judgment. Now at this very moment. Unselfish action.

So that's what we're going to do about this problem. That's not acting with selfishness. That's not acting with ego. That's acting as a team. It's doing your job. It's doing it well now at this very moment. Right? And then willing acceptance. That's accepting the things you can't change. That's focusing exclusively on the things you can change.

That's focusing on your response. Not on why you're here, not on what caused this, not on what mistake you made or someone else made. So objective judgment now at this very moment, unselfish action. Now at this very moment, willing acceptance now at this very moment of all external events, that's all you need.

Marcus really is. Marcus are really bringing us in to the moment, quiet, quite a fitting [00:54:00] way for us to sort of bring it over to you. Yeah, exactly. You know, we've really talked about. We were on holiday today, this, this awareness of your mind and this perhaps speed bumps that you can cause yourself by focusing too far in the future on what you should or shouldn't perhaps be, or perhaps doing.

And, and that clever are there, you know, we touched on it in the previous episode, the daily stoic about being here right here right now, how can I be the best version of myself? Right now, how can I improve upon how I interact with people or how I respond to, uh, uncomfortable situations, how I interpret opportunities or perhaps challenges that I'm going to face?

What can I do today right now to go and be that best version to be a good person? Pretty good stuff, right? Yeah. It's been, it's been a great reminder for me that. [00:55:00] I shouldn't get so caught up in, I think expectations, you know, for me, the big, big lesson here was, and again, it's a great stoic thought awareness.

Being open and aware and conscious and maybe, uh, noticing these moments where perhaps you're falling into, uh, you know, as our habit series would have said about habit here, it might be falling into a response that perhaps isn't going to be as productive for me or those around me. And what can I be aware of day?

What can I reflect on? And therefore, what can I improve upon in the future? And, uh, when I, when I get through this show and think about what's the one thing we could, um, encourage our listeners to do upon hearing this, I feel like white cup. In the morning. And now of course, if they're good, moonshot is they'll have had a cold shower, right.

[00:56:00] Then they're going to do, take their mind to the gym. And I think it really feels like setting your intention for the day through your journal, um, with that sort of beginner's mindset, that would be the most essential action our listeners could take. Yeah, I think that's it. It's, it's being in that moment.

Um, and I think. Through cold showers, we're getting a, you know, a nice early getting up early and taking your mind through an mot or giving it a bit of a workout. That's how you're going to be in that moment. For me, Mike, when I've done something that gets my blood pumping, you know, whether that's, uh, going to the gym exercising, or actually it's just maybe journaling or having a good conversation with someone, these are all different forms of heightening.

Your sense of being present. And being in that moment and for me, that's, that's what it's all about here that supports reminding me to go out and improve upon. [00:57:00] Yeah, well, Mark, thank you. Thank you for, for sharing that and all of your thoughts as we whizzed through this great book, our second book in the series on Ryan holiday, it was ego.

Is the enemy. Are you ready to go fight? That enemy Mark. I am. I'm going to take it by both horns wrestling, wrestling, wrestling away. Very, very good. That's very moon shotty of you. Well, Mark, thank you to you and thank you to you. Our listeners, uh, in all four corners of this world, it truly is amazing to learn out loud together with listeners from Slovenia, South Korea, Hong Kong check here.

Thailand, South Africa, and well, well beyond, thank you for joining us in this journey, in this adventure. And today we met the enemy, we met the ego. So the [00:58:00] big question was how do we beat it? And that we can learn from Ryan holiday and his book. And it all starts with mindset. It's the first of three steps.

It starts with being aware, adopting that beginner's mindset, and seeking, remember seeking to be perhaps the dumbest person in the room. Ask the questions, be the last. To speak. And as you go about your job, do your job right. Be in that moment. And as we go on that challenge on that journey, we are going to need a lot of resilience.

So keep on learning, focus on the process. And don't worry about the outcome because you are focused at the moment on the day. And as you go about meeting and beating your own scorecard, you will require a whole lot of learning. And if we continue. To be disciplined and come back to this practice of stoicism.

We can not only have a better day. We can put our egos in check. We can be well there you have it. That's it for the moonshots podcast.