Wisdom of the Stoics
Hello, listeners, members and subscribers! Our seventh Moonshots Master episode is here and we are delving deep into the philosophy, mindsets, behaviours and Wisdom of the Stoics!
We open up the show with Therealisedman, who has a call to action inspired by Marcus Aurelius and Victor Frankl, stating that we all have power over our minds. We then turn to Moonshots master, Ryan Holiday, on how Stoics had the wisdom to build and maintain self-discipline, and why wisdom is so valuable for our minds.
As we move to understand Stoicism more, we hear from Chris Lines, who reads out a collection of Marcus Aurelius’s greatest quotes. Next up are Gad Saad and Joe Rogan, who discuss the timeless wisdom of the ancient philosophers together, as well as the impact of the Stoics today.
Closing out the show is modern-day Stoic leader, Ryan Holiday, who gives us the secrets to unlocking courage to grow, and how to make progress every day. Then Ryan closes the show with a thought that helps us reconsider our ego, and questions if we did our best today.
Our recommended reading list on the Wisdom of the Stoics includes some key titles that will help you go even deeper into the topic:
What key lesson are you taking from the Stoics, and what we’ve learned in the Master Series? Get in touch and let us know! Thanks for listening. That’s a wrap.
TRANSCRIPT
Hello, and welcome to the Moonshot's Master Series. It's episode 17. I'm your co-host Mike Parsons, and as always, I'm joined by Mark Pearson Freeland. Good morning.
Good morning, Mike and good morning, Moonshots family members and listeners. Boy, do we have an action-packed episode 17 ahead of us today, don't we, Mike?
Action-packed. It's going to be broad, it's going to be profound, and we shall all leave filling just that little bit wiser.
That's right. Members, we are digging into the idea of Stoicism and particularly the wisdom of the stoics as part of today's master series, episode 17. This is a topic and a mindset and behaviour.
A philosophy, Mike, that we've dug into particularly recently on the Moonshots Weekly Show with our series on run holiday. There’s fair to say, though, that this idea, behaviour, and philosophy breaks out of just the work we've encountered with Ron Holiday. Many pictures and frameworks of thinking have come through in many of the moonshots individuals we've dug into, as well as the habits and behaviours that we've started to try and adopt into our own lives.
Wouldn't you say?
Yeah, definitely the tip of the hat to Ryan Holiday, but we have to confess to our members, mark that, after doing the show for over four years, we kept studying all these fantastic people, and we're like, wow. They all seem to be resilient. They're working on themselves continuously.
They're happy to face a challenge. They're even of the School of Yoko willing, whose problems are good; it's an opportunity to grow. And we're like, wow. And then Ryan Holiday comes along and says, folks, three centuries BC there was a bunch of guys called the Stoics, and they were already onto those same themes.
So it all came together into a school of thought, a philosophical way of thinking about life. This thinking is so applicable to anyone trying to be the best version of themselves. They have to encounter hardship and challenge, and we will decode all of that in this master series, aren't we, Mark?
Yeah, you're right, Mike. This idea of Stoicism, this philosophy, can impact. Positively, so many aspects of our lives, can't they? It helps us maximize the positive emotions that we run into every day. It helps reduce any negative emotions that are bound to come up, whether it's work or personal or even some kind of exercise routine you might have.
There are little nagging moments. There are voices in your head. This idea and philosophy around socialism can help us. Those areas and those touchpoints that positively come into our lives, we can utilize this way of thinking to hone and refine the virtues and the behaviours that we put into our focuses around work or home life, whatever it might be.
To get, like you say, the most out of our lives. And it's fantastic. So dive into this brand new series on the master series. As well as the series we've had on the Moonshot Show, where we can understand the idea of Stoicism. How can it benefit me? Why is it still around even after being over 2000 years old?
We're going way, way back. Mike, it's about time we did this on the Master series.
It is the moment to dive into wisdom and Stoicism, and if you are ready to embark and get the most out of life, then there will be good times in bad.
And if you want to maximize your sense of satisfaction, fulfilment, of realizing your purpose. Then this is the show for you. So stay tuned. Get out your pen and pencil, and get the espresso coffee flowing because we're about to do some schoolwork. Mark, where shall we begin?
Today we will have clips from several different voices, all orientated on the topic of How to get us inspired around the idea. Then we're going to understand the core behaviours before adopting and picking up some good habits. So, first of all, let's hear from a great YouTube series by the realized man who will open up the show for us.
Take us through some of the work from Marcus, who is a voice and an individual that we'll hear a lot from today. , and we're going to hear, first of all, Each of us has the power over our minds. You have control over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength, Marcus Aureus, to understand this quote. Let's put it into some context. We live in a small blue. That resides in a relatively small, insignificant part of the universe. There are more galaxies than grains of sand on planet earth. As vast as the universe expands outwards, so does it inwards. They're roughly about 50 quintillion atoms in the same grant of sand.
We were talking about what force governs all of this. And what hope do we humans have of taking control of outside events? Things will happen in life that you will have no control over. It doesn't matter how well-prepared you are; it doesn't matter how much money you have. So it doesn't matter how smart you are.
Good things will happen, and devastating things will happen. You will win money; you will make friends. You will have a good time. People will die. People will betray you. You will lose your job. It's all part of the game. The only things we have under our control are the strength of perception and the power of thought.
You dominate your mind, and you can exercise freely. You will be choosing how you will interpret events. Marcus says, remove the judgment, and you have removed the thought. I am hurt. Remove the thought. I am hurt, and the hurt itself is removed. Understand that everything starts with the percept.
Everything is perception. Victor Frankel, a Holocaust survivor, famously said that between stimulus and response, there is space. And in that space is our power to choose. Our answer in our response lies in our growth and our freedom. Even after witnessing the horrors of the Holocaust, he could still exercise his control over his mind.
No one can take that away. They can take everything else away from you, but they will never be able to take that away from you. Only you can choose how you interpret things and what you will do. Things can change around you. Chaos can erupt at any moment. However, you can maintain peace and serenity in your mind, but by the same token, you could be living in excellent conditions in luxury.
But if you are a slave to your mind, you will never be able to enjoy it. Everything is perception. Things begin inwards and expand outwards and not the other way around. So, where will you find your strength from? Will you react impulsively to everything like a base animal, or will you choose your response?
When someone wrongs you, will they haunt you for days? Will you bring that negativity everywhere you go? Or will you choose the path of happiness by exercising your free will? Ultimately, you decide what you are going to do with your life. You determine the quality of your consciousness and decide what thoughts you will entertain.
So entertain the right ones and live. El Mark live. Good. What a great way. What a full clip. Our listeners would be forgiven for thinking, what have these guys mean? Smoking? This is feeling very esoteric and philosophical from life and Mark. But there were a couple of big ideas in that clip.
The first and foremost one is that we can choose our response to everything that happens in life, even though we don't control everything. We can control our response, and we often. Find ourselves, and I do this by playing the victim card up or me; life is conspiring against me and playing the life of a victim, or as a judger, rather than saying, I am 100% responsible.
For where I am right now, I will not blame anyone else. I will take full responsibility for my situation, and I will be the one that moves things forward—nobody else. I'm not going to be dreaming of the lotto ticket. I will do the hard work, and step by step, I will get out of whatever hole I'm in.
This is one of the most profound ideas I've discovered in my life, and this is at the heart of how you start with Stoicism. There's crazy stuff around you. You might not control it, but you own your response. Mark, I'm handing to you now the big philosophical talking stick.
What are your thoughts?
Many ideas within the opening clip stand out. The big thing for me is the admission that we have to give ourselves and the awareness that we need to remind ourselves of, which is that terrible things will happen. But at the end of the day, you and I dominate how we react to those situations.
So whether the bad things are life-changing or perhaps as simple as Brene Brown as we heard in a recent show, you're dropping the coffee cup and then instantly looking to blame her husband because he came in late.
Those types of bad things, whether small, like dropping something through to life-changing.
We can still control how we react to those things, whether it is, like you say, appointing the blame game or instead looking towards how we perceive this moment. Is it a moment to learn from a moment to become stronger and more resilient? This idea for me is so empowering because suddenly it's putting us back into the driving seat of our lives rather than.
I can't deal with this. It's unfair that life handed me this poison chalice or this problematic situation. It's very empowering to hear that I can control those subconscious thoughts that sometimes come up in those little voices. You have a choice. I have the option to entertain them or not.
And that's a big takeaway that this idea and philosophy can teach us. And it's so interesting when we think about this idea of ownership and how we react to those moments in our lives that we completely control. Much more so than we thought. Let's take the practical point of view here.
Let's say bad things, challenges, and unfortunate things have happened in your life, and you want to blame others, judge others, or play the victim card. They are black and white. That is zero progress towards getting out of those situations. It drags you deeper into it because you're not focused on accepting and moving forward.
You have yet to accept the situation if the business is going bust if you are super unfit, or if you are 20 kilograms overweight until you get it. And this is almost like the AA program. So it starts with except that you're an a. So, acceptance is the first part, and you can take ownership of getting yourself out.
To me, this is if you are feeling hard done by or injustices by others, you. You don't make any net progress to getting out of that situation if you are dwelling upon the blame you want to attribute to others or playing the victim card to your problem. But, without a doubt, there are sometimes there are terrible things in life that happen that you do have to process and get through those emotions.
But we will hear from Victor Frankel, and not only was he a psychiatrist who studied. He has every right to wisdom, happiness, and meaning because he was a Holocaust survivor. So not many people listening to this show have gone into that sort of suffering. So my point here is we should pay significant attention to the stoics, to Victor Frankel, all of whom are to be on this show, because they've had to surmount incredible suffering.
Get on with life. Get on with living the best version of yourself. And sometimes it's tough. Sometimes it's a little bit hard. But the point here is that if you dwell in judgment and victimisation in your world, you're not making any progress. So we have a toolset that says to accept it, take responsibility, and then move forward.
To me, Mark, this is such a robust setup for this next big thing, which is very deep in the stoic world, which is discipline. But before we get into this following clip from one of our favorite experts, Brian Ho, those who have shown great domain in becoming members of our show need to tip their hats to them.
Wouldn't you say, Mark?
It is only due diligence and justice that we call out the individuals who are on the other side of this microphone, Mike, from you and I and the moonshots production team, and that's our members without whom. We can't keep the lights on, and we fully appreciate the support that they give us.
So please, first of all, welcome our members who have been with us for over 12 months. Mike, the list keeps growing, including Bob, John, Terry Marlin, Ken DMA, Byron Marja, and Connor. Thank you so much for being with us for such a long time.
That includes Yasmin, Lisa, Sid and Mr Bon Ju Paul and Berg Cowman, David, Joe Crystal, Ivo Christian, hurricane Brain, Samoa Kelly and Barbara, Andre, Matthew, Eric, abb, Hoy, and Joshua. Chris, Deborah Lassen, Steve Craig, Lauren Javier, Daniel Andrew Rave, Yvette and Lgv, Karen, Raul, PJ, and Niara, all our Ingram, Sarah, Dirk, Emily, HB, and our brand-new members.
Mike, the family keeps on growing. Please welcome Greg Carrick Ave. Q. Welcome our brand new members to the Moonshot and Patreon family.
Thank you for your membership, your patronage, and your support. We are super grateful. Thank you ever so much, and reach out to us.
Suppose you have ideas, suggestions, and thoughts. Just head to moonshots.io and click on all of those buttons. But now it is time to go to one of the greatest inspires that our show has. Mr Ryan Holiday. Some people lack discipline. This is why they can't get up off the couch. This is why they shove food in their mouth, which they shouldn't do.
This is why they don't do the hard work on themselves or whatever's in front of them. But then other people have the exact opposite problem. They're too driven. They can't relax; they can't let up, which is why at the Oracle of Delphi, the famous piece of advice was moderation.
It's not good to have no discipline, motivation, and drive. But conversely, it's not any better too—many of these things. In the end, you wreck yourself, Ozzy Manis; look at my works and despair, right? You hurt other people, and you don't fully realize the gifts that you have. So when we say that discipline is destiny, it's not any amount of discipline.
It's the right amount of discipline that makes you who you are. One of the things I think a lot about and dislike is if I were, like, to describe a philosopher, it'd be like a university professor turtleneck, like tweed. You'd think of a. And in the ancient world, philosophers were people who did shit.
They were warriors. They were kings, like Mark Cs Hunts. There's an early stoic who's a distance runner, one who's a boxer. And what I love when you read the Stock text is that their metaphors are all sports. It's wrestling, fighting, running, and hunting because they did those things. Those things are difficult.
Yes, complex things are good for you, and they're good for your mind.
Seneca says we treat the body rigorously so it will not disobey the mind. Ooh. I like that. That's good. And I think about that when I'm jumping in the shower, jumping in a cold pool, whether I'm pushing myself while I'm running or lifting weights, it is like I'm reminding the body who's in charge.
That's what physical practice is. It's the mind asserting itself over the body. We tend to think of philosophers as these sorts of soft people. Still, mental practice, resilience, and being in charge of yourself are the ultimate muscle you want to cultivate. And it's the thing that every great.
It has to have. It's good that you have high standards, but you must understand it's called self-discipline for a reason, meaning it's about you. You don't get to enforce that on other people. This is why Marcus talks about being strict with yourself and tolerant of others. But, Cato says, I can forgive anyone's errors, but my meaning.
You leave other people to their own mistakes. You're tolerant, you're forgiving, and you understand all the context, which goes into it, and that's why you're not hard on them but on yourself. So that's whom you don't accept—you, whom you hold to increasingly high standards because that's the only thing you control.
You control self-discipline. Where you're going to go crazy. Where you're going to become an asshole is if you try to enforce those standards, that self-discipline on the other people around you. Who, by the way, never asked you to do that? They never signed up for it. And maybe they need to agree with your standards, even if they can reach them.
But the point is to set high standards for yourself. Tolerant, forgiving, understanding, and helpful to everyone else. That's what Stoicism is Joy or happiness or delight. That's not an emotion we associate with the STOs, but the stoics' experience that Epitda tells me; I delight in my daily improvement.
His delight wasn't coming from money or fame or recognition or pleasure. It was from getting better every day. It was from improving. It wasn't based on externals as this stokes warn us against. It was based on the winter work he could do on himself. It was. He was becoming a little bit better, a little bit wiser, a little bit more self-controlled, self-contained, little more resilient.
That's where the stoic finds joy and happiness, and pleasure.
Mike, this is the perfect clip. Let’s kick off this idea of getting inspired and starting to scratch the surface of what it means when we. Talk about this idea of Stoicism, the philosophy of the stoics. Something that we have heard about a lot within our shows on run holiday, but also something that is becoming a little bit more prevalent with the likes of Jocko Willink, Joe Rogan.
And that, for me, Mike is, and the big takeaway I'm taking away from that clip, not. Around how everything can be done in moderation. This is a good idea that we're going to come back to, but also this idea that your mind is a muscle. It's a muscle you can train should you choose to, and we should all choose to; we should all be empowered enough to go out and practice and train our brains and mindsets because, ultimately, that's the key.
To progress into, it's being a bit fitter. It could be being more courageous at work. It could be more full of life. So we must go out and practice with our mind, with our brain showing who is in charge and therefore not limiting or holding us back when trying new experiences, new things or new levels of stress within our life, such as marathon running and other ways.
So how do you keep being in charge and work your mind as a muscle, like what comes to mind as the things you do? That helps you be in that position as you get your best stoic action on. Yeah, there are many moments for me, particularly over the last few months when I've started getting into open water swimming, and this has led me to test how much my brain can put up with being in moments of stress.
So for those who don't know open swimming, you're just hopping in at any, obviously, safely hopping in at open water space, whether it's a bay, a beach, or a lake. But the critical thing I soon discovered was how much time you spend alone with your thoughts. Because as you find out when you're swimming, there's not a great deal of socialization you can do when you're turning your head trying to breathe
Now when you expose yourself to the pressures of time.
So over the weekend, I went into quite a tough race, at least for me, around an island off the coast of Australia. There were moments when I was going through that swim. It was the longest I'd done for a long time, thinking, this is a challenge. I'm a bit afraid.
I'm nervous here, whether it's too deep, too cold, or too far. And what I found myself leaning towards when I was alone was just me, and my thoughts were moments of panic. But, of course, the anxiety that was coming up was not one I was necessarily choosing
Those subconscious little voices just cut out when you were stressed, when you wanted to flee and fly away or run away. Still, as you can probably imagine, Mike, similar to when you're, when you were running your marathon, there's not many places you can go, and you need.
Then start to work on that mindset. Yes. And that brain reaction. And that's where I began to see, yeah. And that's why we hear in this clip that they were so into hunting and wrestling and taking on the challenge because that's where you face your true self. So that's where the rubber hits the road, man.
That's where you keep running, or do you stop? Do you keep swimming or stop? It is, Capacity to stay on course. The real thing is that we can practice discipline in our daily lives by having a plan and sticking to it. So if we get up at 6:00 AM, get out of bed. Don't hit snooze, and you'll feel better for it.
And it gets. Bigger and bigger increments. The bigger the challenge. So you do a big swim, do a big run, have a plan, prepare, execute, get out of that water, cross that finish line, and feel good. But it's not just good; it’s not pleasure. This is something way deeper. This is satisfaction and fulfilment and knowing that you had a plan and the discipline to stick to it, and you can enjoy the results on the other. To me, this is the true wisdom in discipline and overcoming hardship.
You’ve perfectly encapsulated there, Mike. It's similar to what we heard from Ron Holiday. This idea of delighting in the journey, the process of improving yourself, it's being able to look back at the end of each day. Maybe it's in a year and thinking, wow, I managed to make it through that moment, that swim, that marathon.
And it was delightful in the journey it took you through. So those stresses and being able to say, yep, I went through it, ticked it off, I got through that wall. That moment of stress that's the greatest joy because you know that you did it. It was the empowerment you could put into action and that control over your mind that you could build.
Exactly. So now we're inspired, energized, and digging into the possibilities of finding the wisdom in the stoics. But Mark, you need to set this next one up because we're now about to go deeper into understanding. We're going to hear from some of the stoics themselves.
Perhaps one of the greatest stoics. That's right, Mike. We are going to step into this idea because we're all inspired, and we understand this idea of Stoicism. So let’s now hear some actual stoic quotes from Chris Lys, who does a great breakdown and deep dive into some of the greatest quotes by perhaps one of them.
So let's hear some life-changing quotes. When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive, breathe, think, enjoy, and love.
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
Look well into thyself. There is a source of strength which will always spring upon. Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not. But I reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess. And then, thankfully, remember how you would crave them if they were not yours.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. Here is a rule to remember in future when anything tempts you to feel bitter; not this is a misfortune, but to bear this worthily is good fortune.
Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny. What could more aptly fit your needs?
You can turn this into something. It doesn't have to upset you to live a good life. We all have the potential for it if we learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference.
Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly.
Death smiles at us all, but all a man can do is smile back.
The best revenge is not to be like your enemy. Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in the thought of, and such impressions color the human spirit. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes how you have the power of your mind, not outside events.
Realize this, and you will find strength. It is not death. He should fear, but he should. Fear never begins to live.
Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it if you have to with the same weapons of reason today to arm you against the present. Very little is needed to make a happy life. It is all within yourself in your way of thinking. Loss is nothing else but. And change is nature's delight.
A man's true delight is to do the things he was made for.
Oh boy. We just got a massive dose of stoic wisdom from Chris Line reading a collection of Marcus's Greatest thoughts. Now, to remind you, if you're asking yourself, who the hell was this Marcus Aureus guy? He was considered one of the most successful emperors of Rome in 27 BC.
180 AD was a period of the five good emperors, of which he was one. And whilst, running the most extensive empire in history, he penned a few thoughts. And so, Marcus Aurelius has some great writings, many of which are freely available on the internet or even on your Kindle. So you can get some of these books.
And these are the basis on which a lot of the work of Ryan Holiday is based, and it is full of good stuff. There was so much there, mark, that I don't think it's fair to try and discuss what we just heard, but my proposal would be this. So how do we keep some of these ideas top of mind?
How do we remember there's all this wisdom? How do we make it part of our day, our week? How do we reflect on these? How do we bring it into our working day? How do we have a little bit of wisdom each day? How do we take those thoughts? So Mark, how do you keep these thoughts on top of?
One avenue Mike would be to go down the Ryan holiday route and have them tattooed on your arms.
So similar you'd want to go for a relatively short one,
yeah, exactly. You couldn't necessarily choose some of the longer meditations from Marcus Arelius. But then, and regardless, joking aside, what Ryan Holiday does there with tattooing them on his arms. He's demonstrating the value of having them as daily mantras.
So the idea that the Daily Stoic, a collection of 365 thoughts and lessons that Ron Holiday put into one of his first and trendy books, were essentially mantras that you could read one at a. Day by day. Now that's one route you can go down, like with Marcus, his book Meditations.
They are written, so you can consume them essentially one at a time if you like. So for me, Mike, the way that I get value out of some of these thoughts, these reminders, these teachings, is to write down the ones or highlight the ones within a book that I'm.
I'm captivated by it; if I've got my Kindle, I'll highlight the particular phrases or sections that stand out to me and make a note of them. Try and write them down; try and remember them. And, when I have moments when I am struggling, maybe it's with focus, maybe it's with not letting other people's emotions or opinions get in the way of my own.
Or it's moments when I am. I'm envious or trying to go after something that I don't need, and I'm trying to spend more money than I should. I can remember these things. I've written them down because I've bookmarked them. Put them into my Todoist app.
I've got a. Reference point that I can either go back to or try and regurgitate in my brain when moments like that occur. And that is how I put into practice some of these lessons, tips, tricks, and quotes from the stoics such as Marcus Ellis, but also more modern with Ron Holiday.
What about you, Mike? Are there techniques that? Put into mind, put into your daily practice when you are trying to orientate your way and navigate by the stoic mindset.
I will tap into what you were talking about, mark, and build upon that. It is about capturing. These ideas and thoughts, not only bringing them back to yourself with highlights on your Kindle or your laptop or iPad, but here's the next build.
You have to repeat them. Yes. You have to repeat them. Write them again fresh. The key thing here is that they come alive. When you pick one thought from what we just heard from Marcus Sarius, is the quality of your life equal to the rate of your thoughts?
I would journal on that. What does that mean? How do I do that? That's how you bring it into your conscience, how you bring it to the top of your mind, and how you start to consider and reflect upon it. I have a whole list of stoic men that I listen to every morning, be still for there as much to hear, start every day like it's a new life, et cetera, et cetera.
That's my way of bringing a living thought process instead of something on my bookshelf. I want this to be part of my life, so I need to write about it. I need to say it. I need to work on it; almost like it's an essay. And this is where journaling is so powerful.
We saw that from Matthew McConaughey. It's an essential thing to open up wisdom. And the truth is that we're all on a path looking to. More satisfied at the end of the day, more fulfilled with our day's work, and experiencing moments of joy and happiness whilst acknowledging we know tough things will happen.
And Joe Rogan might not strike you as a stoic person, but he's a massive fan of this line of thinking, and we've got a clip now where he's talking to ga. And they're talking about how timeless the wisdom is of these ancient, stoic philosophers. And what we're going to do now is understand how old thinking of yesterday can be helpful to us today.
So I recently saw you on Instagram posting about Marcus Aureus. Yes. And so I. Can we veer to that? For sure, please. So in my, in the next book that I'm working doing, the recipe for the Good life, of course, I get into the history of all sorts of cultures that have explored the good life. I'm one of many guys to write about this.
One of the topics that have post been most written about. None have been as prolific as the ancient Greeks. And so when I saw your thing about Marcus Aurelius, I was about to write you to say I've come to that same realisation because, as I was doing my research for the book, every time I would get an insight that I thought was original to me, I.
That fucker Epic already said it 2000 years ago. Isn't that wild? Yeah, it's unbelievable. Yeah, it's great. And so it reminds me, and I want to give him kudos on the show. So do you know who Naim is? Sure. Yeah. So Naim is a good friend of mine; he's fellow Lebanese. And so many years ago, he was egging me, teasing me, saying, I don't understand what you study in psychology, guide everything there is to know about psychology and human nature.
Ancient Greece has already covered it. And so he was egging me on, but then many years later, as I'm preparing for this book, he might be right. So, we might be empirically validating what they've already philosophies, so your post about Marcus Aureus resonated with me at that moment.
It's fascinating when you read his writing; it's unbelievable cause he was so wise and his. D decisions for what he would concentrate on and not concentrate on. Yeah. And you know how he would accept people's flaws and mistakes that they'd made. Yeah. As if they had never made them. And this is just an approach to Stoicism and his unbelievable philosophy on life.
The Greeks were the Greeks and the Romans. And if you look at the history of these ancient civilisations that dominated the world at that period, and the just we can. So a kind of understanding of how they thought about things: one of the more remarkable things about history is to peer into the; it's almost like we have a little bit of a time machine, Yeah.
To peer into the mindset of these people that were such wise thousands and thousands of years ago and that their words are applicable today. Yeah. That speaks to universality, the human condition, right?
So I always tell my students when I'm teaching about evolutionary theory, I say, look, you can use cultural products as fossils of the human mind, right?
The human mind doesn't fossilize, but the products left from human minds, we can study its contents similarly.
Paleontologists study fossil remains. So I can connect to the sense of an ancient Greek poet and understand what he's talking about. It's as though he's speaking today because of the software that's running his mind and mind.
He doesn't know what a podcast is, but he knows about sexual longing, paternity uncertainty, and sibling rivalry. So those are the universal themes across time and place. One of the things that I love about being an author is that I get to be connected through ideas with all these immortal souls. And the fact that I independently thought of something Epic Titus thought 2000 years ago connects me with him. Yes.
Truth. You developed an understanding of human beings and nature, deciphered from this and extracted some truth.
And it turns out other people have done the same thing. That's fantastic—the critical call out here, Mike. We're getting a great reminder of how timeless contemporary, as well as prevalent, philosophy and the behaviors that we've already started hearing about on the show today.
These behaviors are in our modern-day culture - as well as from the history of the ancient Greeks and the Romans.
The key thing is that. Hearing within all of the eclipse and the references between Joe Rogan and Godard in that clip, this ability to forgive and accept the flaws of others is something that even the stoics in ancient. Days dealt with; this is a pervasive trait,
Yeah. We all struggle with it. It isn’t that we either forgive or at least put up with some of the frustrations or of challenges that other people face. Provide us, so to speak, each day. It could be distractions, notifications, a snarky email, or a difficult deadline posed to us.
This is a key reminder for all of us that everybody has to remember that everybody is unique. We can accept the flaws of others, but also we can accept our flaws of ourselves before jumping to judgment and conclusions. We're able to take a. Take a beat. Look back at those mantras that we heard in the previous clip.
Let’s take a moment and think about the other individual before judging. And this is a; it's an amazing moment to be reminded that every single person, whether they were the Emperor of Rome or you and I recording our moonshot podcast every week, has so much to learn from this way of think.
I think we had a very similar situation to God's where we were like, oh my gosh, there are all these themes of discipline, courage working on life, following your purpose, humility, and we're like, oh. Those stoics seem to have worked that out a couple of thousand years ago. They might not know how to spend less time on your iPhone, but they have so much to give us for the slightly more important things in life.
And now that we've gone deep, I think. It's time to twist and turn towards okay; we have already started getting into some practices. So what can we do to find a little bit more wisdom or say differently? How do we feel more satisfied with our day?
And we will turn to none other than Ryan Holiday, one of the absolute favorites of Moonshot. And we're going to listen to him talking about the secret to self-improvement for the STOs: the willingness to look and be different from everyone else. Aida says if you wish to improve, be content to be seen as clueless or stupid about some things you think about. So Cato dresses and acts differently, holding himself to radically different standards.
It takes courage to be different. It takes courage to march to the beat of your drummer. But if you want to learn something and grow, this is part and parcel. There is no learning without first the admission of ignorance. There is only mastering something with first being good at it.
So you’ll never get any better if you're too afraid to look silly, to look stupid, not to be as good as other people. That's why courage is so important—the courage to put yourself out there to try. When I first made these videos, I felt so awkward when I first gave public talks. I was so afraid.
You have to be willing to put yourself out there. You have to be ready to grow in front of other people; if you're not, you'll never get any better and never improve.
The secret to greatness is progress. Are you making progress every single day? Mark says you can be content anywhere with anything if you know you're getting better daily. That's what Stoicism was, the study of Stoicism, writing in the journal, and reading books. The purpose was to get a little bit better every single day.
Mes realist says, assemble your life action by action, step by step. No one. I can stop you from that. So, for example, suppose you're focused on outcomes. If you're focused on this transformation far down the road, you might never get there. If you focus on making a little progress every day, that's the ticket.
That's how you become great, step by step. As Xeno says, well-being is realized in small steps, but it's no small thing, Mike. Again, we are hearing some epic references that connect. The idea of socialism to some individuals we have covered on the moon. Oh my gosh. Show Mark. We heard compound effect, Darren Hardy, 1% better every day.
Atomic Habits by James Clear, it's not just a diet; it's a lifestyle. It is a way of thinking and being all in the battle against our two biggest enemies. Fear and doubt in our mind, are they not our greatest enemies?
Mark, isn't that amazing? This idea of being content at being ignorant when you're first starting is something that we need to remember, perhaps even celebrate, but also be patient.
Mike, there's been loads of times in my life and actually, when I look back at them now, at the rip port age of being in my mid-thirties, when I try something new, whether it's training to run or swim, or maybe it's starting a new job, or maybe it's just picking up a new piece of technology, whatever it might be.
Those moments when you're first starting. Look, we've all been there. Sometimes, the learning curve is steep, but it can be quite off-putting, intimidating and frustrating. What I think is great as we're hearing from the master there on holiday is that to grow, to have this growth mindset, you must admit that you have ignorance in that space.
You are. A master automatically at everything you try when you're learning to drive a car. Were we all born to drive cars? Not necessarily. You learn how to do it. And I know that's a little bit of a random example, but having the courage to step into the car, or as Brene Brown says, step into the arena, put yourself out there.
Admit that there's an opportunity for you to grow and learn something new. And bringing in that James clear 1% daily habit where we get better each day. I think a call out from that stoic way of thinking where the journey is, the destination; the challenges are, the enjoy, enjoying the moments of life that you enjoy because then you can look back and say, Hey Mike, do you remember that challenge that you and I accomplished?
Wow. Yeah. Imagine that you and I were advising a listen. A member is experiencing some fear and doubt, and we're like, you must learn to get uncomfortable. But they're. Still, they're like, unsure, and like, but yeah, I'm not sure if I can do it.
And what are people going to say if I fail? Here is a really powerful thought. If everything we've covered so far is not enough, how about this? People don't care. And the point here is that people are so preoccupied with their life. Most of them, almost all of them, will never notice if you fail. Yeah.
So please don't be worried about how your failure appears to others because most people are too busy in their minds, in their heads, living their lives, not thinking about others. So the beauty is, No one's looking. So you can go and fail if that is a blocker. But we can all look back to moments when you used to drive.
That’s a really good one. Most of us are scared out of our lives the first time we have to drive a car. So by the time we've been doing it for a few years, we almost do it on automatic pilot. That's right. And it is the same for anything you want to learn, any area of your life you want to develop; you can move through that whole novice to expert mode from fear to autopilot.
No problem. I got this. If you have the courage and need to look into that, as David Goggin says, go to your cookie jar of success. Pick out a cookie where you've been successful, where you have overcome. Remind yourself that you can do it. And listen, hey, ain't nobody looking. They're all too busy looking around for their cookies.
So let's say you do overcome that, starting with fear and doubt. How are you going to show up when you are in the arena? You mentioned Brene Brown. How are you going to play when you're in the arena? Are you going to be distracted? Are you going to be on your phone? Are you going to be thinking of tweeting, Instagramming, or whatever?
Or are you going to commit? Are you going to get in and give it everything you got? So we've got this last clip from Ryan Holiday that will bring it home because it's all about the commitment to the game.
There's this cool exercise from Adam Smith, who was the Economist. He wrote The Wealth of Nations, but he also wrote a book called The Theory of Moral Sentiments, a brilliant book about philosophy and why we do the right thing.
And one of the things he was talking about is you, are you should judge all your actions. It would help if you subjected it. But, to the indifferent spectator test, what if an impartial person you didn't know was standing there watching you? What would they think of this?
How would they judge what's happening? And that's a way to step out from your logic, your impulses, your natural feelings, and judge if you're not religious, you're not. What would Jesus do? You're like, what would some random guy think of this? And if it doesn't pass his test, Not a good thing to do.
And so that's the test I go is what would a person who isn't so caught up in this, whose identity isn't on the line, how would they react to this rude remark or how would they respond to this lowball offer? They would not be nearly so caught up in it; it wouldn't threaten them the way I'm feeling.
So I'm going to borrow a little bit of their objectivity, and I'm going to incorporate it into my reaction here. In how therapy is about questioning our thoughts, philosophy gives us the tools to end the heat of the moment. So Victor Frankel would talk about how there's this between stimulus and response, there's like a moment, and that's where we get to choose who we're going to be.
And philosophy is about that moment in meditation. Markus has loved the discipline and let it support them. I love that idea. Find what you're good at. Find the craft that you're committed to. Treat it like a job. Commit to it and let it guide you. Don't cheat it. You can't cheat the game - You can't cheat your talent -You can't cheat life.
You have to give everything you have. You have to give your best and let this guide you, right? You trust the process. You trust that if you put in the work and stay committed if you show up every day, It'll get you where you want to go.
There's a story about Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of America's nuclear navy. He was interviewing this young navy inside. A young Jimmy Carter went on and on about how good he was at the Naval Academy, all the awards he won, and the jobs he'd done. And finally, Rick overlooks him and says, but did you always do your best?
And Jimmy Carter thinks about it, and he waits a minute. And he says, no, I didn't always do my best. And Hyman, Rick overlooks at him, and he says, why not? And then he gets up and walks out of the room. And this question haunts Jimmy Carter for the rest of his life, and it should haunt all of us. So the Stokes would say, why didn't you do your best?
Why didn't you give everything you had? Why didn't you do it as if it was the last thing you were doing as a realist? Why didn't you do it with justice and tenderness and commitment and honesty in all that you had? That's the question. Why aren't you doing you? Why aren't you doing your best?
Mike? If there was a call to action, a call to arms, a way to end our master series 17 with the wisdom of the sea, I think it couldn't be better said than that. And where are you being taken to when you hear that?
Live your life like there's a documentary crew following you around. Yeah. Remember that one from Joe Rogan?
Joe Rogan, to create that accountability as soon as they discussed how your behaviours will look to others who are not as invested. It's another thought like Steve Jobs, live every day like it's your last. Another stoic thought. It's like this idea of living your life. Like everything you did today will be read by your grandma in the newspaper tomorrow.
And all of these things call us to account, don't they?
Yeah, this accountability is where all those thoughts come through, aren't they? It also reminds me of Don Miguel Ruiz and the four Agreements wisdom book we dove into on the Weekly Moonshot Show a week or so ago around not taking things personally.
First is the idea of stopping making yourself feel like a victim. Things go differently than there to plan, but also how you can bring to life your passion for the process to enjoy the journey to becoming better at something because you are just doing your best. For me, Mike, there have been plenty of times in my career when things have yet to work out, or maybe I still need to achieve the absolute goal.
I may have yet to come first in a race, whatever it might be. You took part and entered the arena like Brene Brown would say you had the discipline to try your hardest. And to do your best. That's all we can ask for. And when we do remove what others think of you, as you were calling out earlier, the reliance or the paranoia that comes on.
Are they judging me? Are they going to look at my failures as negative? Once you've removed all that, then you're a little bit freer to take accountability with your life to work on that legacy that we often come and to talk about on the Moonshot Show, but also find a little bit more enjoyment in life because we know that we're trying our hardest.
Absolutely. It also reminds me to think about what your legacy will be. That's why you should try your hardest because you want to be at the end saying, I didn't give it a good go.
Exactly. Nobody wants to get to that point, do we? Not at all. And Stoicism gives us all the tools to overcome fear and doubt and be the very best version of ourselves.
So my question to you, mark, is, of all the things we've learned today, What's going up on the top of the task list?
There's so much Mike with the stoics, and we’ll continue to find out about wisdom every week on the Moonshot Show. But the area for me comes down to that first clip we heard, which was a great breakdown by the realized man.
With Mark Res and references to Vic Frankel around how we have power over our minds. It isn't something that we can or should leave in the background. You can take ownership of how you react to things, and that's the big takeaway for me. What about you, Mike? What's standing out today?
I'm totally supporting you on this. We agree again. We've had a few shows in a row. Your response is your choice, and it's the ultimate empowerment.
It is the ultimate empowerment that we can all take ownership of today.And that's all we can do.All right, mark. Listen, I want to say thank you to you. Thank you to our members and our listeners too. It has been a roaring adventure into the world of Stoicism and wisdom. It started here on our master series, episode 17, with learning to control how you respond because you have the power over yours.
Do that, and then discover that discipline can lead to joy, happiness, and fulfilment. And we found inspiration from some of the greats, such as Marcus Aureus. And, amazingly, this ancient thinking is as powerful today as it was then. And Ryan Holiday gave it a contemporary spin by showing us how to.
The courage to grow and how to make progress every single day. Commit to this. Commit to the game. Step into the arena. Give it everything you've got, and your legacy indeed will be that you were the best version of yourself. And that is exactly what we're all about here on the Moonshots podcast. That's a wrap.