Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast, where we provide one lesson every single day to help you with your most important job, being a parent.

I'm Ryan Holiday, and I draw these lessons from ancient philosophy, modern psychology, practical wisdom, and insights from

parents just like you all over the world. Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

It has stolen so much from you. You left way earlier than you should have because you got

nervous and stressed before your flight. You were harsh to them at should have because you got nervous and stressed before your

flight. You were harsh to them at the park because you didn't want them to hurt themselves. You were

distracted and disconnected because you've been worried about what you saw in the news. You're worried

about how you're going to pay for this or that that you don't know what the test results will say.

Anxiety. You know what it is? It's a thief. It steals time from you and your

family. It takes you away from the moment. Ironically, it makes you less vigilant as a parent in many

ways because you're so busy thinking about what might happen that you don't always see what is

happening. Does it sometimes serve us? Sure, it catches some things. We miss fewer planes. We dodge some

bullets. But for the most part, as Seneca reminds us, we suffer more in imagination than in reality.

He who suffers before it is necessary, Seneca wrote, suffers more than is necessary.

And really, it's our family that suffers for this anxiety. They are the ones who are the real

victims of it. Not that it's much fun for us. As parents, we need to take ownership over our

own anxiety and not allow it to steal any more from those we love most. Fortunately, the Stoics have

some answers for how we can free ourselves from unnecessary stress and worry.

Marcus Aurelius reminds himself that you don't escape your anxiety. No, you discard it because it's

within you, within your own perceptions and not outside. What Marcus Aurelius understood is that

anxiety comes from inside the house. We are the creators of it, which means that we can be

the ones who do something about it. We can stay present with our children, even when there's a looming deadline at work. We can take the bird's eye view and remember how short our time is, especially the time we get to spend with our kids. We can ask ourselves what's bothering us so much, what's causing all this worry and determine whether that's something we can control or not.

...