Ordinary Faces

As a new week dawns, we present the following for your enjoyment courtesy the team at the Daily Stoic:

PASSAGE OF THE WEEK:

The work you’re doing today as you read these emails, as you write in your journal, as you review your premeditatio malorum, this is your hard winter training, as Epictetus would say. This is your prep list. And now when a crisis comes (and it will), trust it. Rely on it. Use it. You made it in your sanest moment.

— Trust Your Prep List (Listen)

YOUTUBE TAKEAWAY OF THE WEEK:

In one of the most watched videos on the Daily Stoic YouTube Channel this week, Ryan Holiday explains the secret to the good life: virtue. “Virtue” can seem old-fashioned. Yet virtue—arete—translates to something very simple and very timeless: Excellence. To the Stoics, virtue was comprised of four key components: courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. In this video, Ryan dives deep into each of the four virtues after he shares,

“Virtue is how I try to live my life. I wear this necklace—the four virtues are symbols, reminders, not of abstract ideas to me, but of how I try to live my life. As it says on the back of the necklace, acta non verbal—deeds not words. You live by the virtues, you embody them in the things you do on a daily basis.”

Watch the full video: 4 (Stoic) Secrets To The Good Life

PODCAST TAKEAWAY OF THE WEEK:

On a recent episode of the Daily Stoic podcast, Ryan Holiday interviewed Morgan Housel, author of the mega-bestseller The Psychology of Money. The two talked about the reasons The Psychology of Money has sold millions of copies, the downsides of being unfathomably rich, how success can cannibalize future success, and being aware of how money can often come at the cost of independence and autonomy:

“It’s like lifestyle debt. It’s a unique form of poverty when you have no control over your schedule. And some of the richest, most successful people in the world have no control over their schedule.”

Listen to the full interview: Morgan Housel on Building Wealth and Happiness

WHAT RYAN HOLIDAY IS READING:

“The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. It’s one thing to say I’m the type of person who wants this. It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this.”

— Atomic Habits by James Clear

YOUR STOIC WEEKEND REMINDER:

Being poor isn’t having too little, it’s wanting more.

The writers Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five) and Joseph Heller (Catch-22) were at a glamorous party outside New York City. Standing in the palatial second home of the billionaire host, Vonnegut began to needle his friend. “Joe,” he said, “how does it feel that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel has earned in its entire history?”

“I’ve got something he can never have,” Heller replied. “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”

The Stoics define poverty as wanting more than you have. The person that needs more money, money power, more fame, more recognition…that person is impoverished. The sense of having enough, living in a place of fullness rather than of craving—that, the Stoics would say, is a wealthy person. “Wealth consists not in having great possessions,” Epictetus said, “but in having few wants.”

(For more on this idea, watch this video!)

THIS WEEK'S BEST SOCIAL MEDIA POST:

EMAIL OF THE WEEK:

Your Weakness Can Be Your Strength (Listen)

Justin Herron was one of the best players on his college football team and thought for sure that he would be voted a team captain. But when the votes came back, his teammates selected six players ahead of him.

As Ryan Hockensmith details in a great ESPN article, Herron was crushed. He went and talked to his head coach, "Coach, I do everything right," Herron said. "I get there early. I watch more film than anybody. I do everything right. Why didn't I get elected as a captain? What else can I do?"

"Justin, you do do everything right," his coach told him. "We always see you doing extra work. You're a tremendous competitor and a very good player. But football is a team sport. You need to set a good example and bring other guys with you."

From then on, Herron put the team first. He mentored younger players, even the ones competing for his position. When he got injured, he typed up analyses of the opponent for his replacement. When he went to watch the film, he brought others along with him. And nearly a year to the day he got that devastating news, he got a phone call. "Congratulations, Justin," his coach said. "Your teammates have named you a team captain."

Over and over again in the Stoic writings we see reminders nudging us to realize that life is a kind of team sport. It’s Marcus’ reminder that what’s good for the hive is good for the bee (and not necessarily vice versa). It’s Epictetus’ line that a citizen is “a person who never acts in his own interest or thinks of himself alone…all its actions and desires aim at nothing except contributing to the common good.” It’s Seneca’s observation that there is a name for someone who is self-indulgent and doesn’t care about how their actions impact others—a tyrant.

We do this work to become better teammates. If it's not, if you're here reading these emails to become a better hermit, a better lone wolf, a better sociopath—you've really missed the point. Not just of Stoicism. Of life. Because life isn’t just about just you—it’s a team sport.