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You set off on a journey of self-improvement.

You practice patience in mountain monasteries.

You discovered discipline running across the driest deserts

and found your focus beneath the surface of frozen lakes

while squashed into someone's armpit on the train

There's more to imagine when you listen

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Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcasts.

On Friday, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation, but also reading a passage

from the Daily Stoic, my book, 366 meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance in the Art of Living,

which I wrote with my wonderful collaborator, translator, and literary agent, Stephen Hanselman.

So today we'll give you a quick meditation from the Stoics with some analysis from me,

and then we'll send you out into the world to turn these words into works.

Does it measure up? You want to do big things. You want to achieve. You want to leave your mark on the universe. You want to conquer the world. This is what Alexander the Great did literally. And yet, where did it get him?

Marcus Aurelius took pains to remind himself that the man died and was buried like the rest of us. The band Iron Maid, my favorite, of course, has a wonderful lyric. Measure your coffin.

Does it measure up to your lust? As it happens, there's a much older poem from Juvenile, writing

sometime in the second century AD, who pointed out that in life while the world was not big

enough for Alexander's ambition, in death, a coffin was sufficient.

No one is saying you should put all your drive aside that you should not try to do anything.

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