Hey, prime members. You can listen to the Daily Stoic podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today.

Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast. Each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics illustrative with stories from history,

the current events and literature to help you be better at what you do. And at the beginning of the week we try to do a deeper dive, setting a kind of Stoic intention for the week, something to meditate on, something to think on, something to leave you with, to journal about whatever it is you happen to be doing.

So let's get into it.

Every time you cut your hair, every time you trim your nails, every time you have to replace an old shirt or a worn out pair of running shoes, take note, take note of what this symbolizes, because in those clippings in that thinning hairline, in that worn out pair of jeans is a message.

Time is passing. Life has gone by. Sennaka reminds us that every second that has passed belongs to death. We are dying every day. He says, we are dying one haircut, one t-shirt at a time.

There are larger reminders, two ones that sneak up on us. Is your car getting up there in miles? Do you have to replace your air conditioner? The one you purchased new with a 15 year warranty that just expired? Are the athletes you remember from Draft Day now up for the Hall of Fame?

Sennaka tells the story of coming upon some old and dying trees at his country estate, only to suddenly realize he had planted them himself. Life sneaks up on us in this way, and in that way, so to does death.

Which is why we practice memento mori. It's not morbid. It's helpful. What's morbid is dying having wasted your brief time on this planet. We meditate on our mortality so we can use this incredible asset we have been given.

So we take nothing for granted. So we are present. So we can fully enjoy the moment we walk in those shoes so we can grow while our hair is growing. So we can appreciate even the mundane task of trimming our nails. Let this be a reminder.

Always ask yourself this question. Much of what we do and say during the course of a week is completely unnecessary. Meetings, material possessions, confrontations, pursuits, pointless distractions and problems. They take us away from tranquility and purpose.

And a stowed cuts through these temptations and obligations by asking a simple question, a question that should lead you in your journal and in thinking this week. It is this. Before speaking and acting or buying something, just ask, is this a necessary thing?

This is from today's entry in the Daily Stoic journal 366 days of writing and reflection on the art of living by yours truly Ryan Holiday. You can get it anywhere. Books or sold. I do it every single morning, including this morning. And you can also buy a signed copy in the Daily Stoic store.

But today's quotes, we have one long quote from Marks Relays and one short one from Seneca. Marks Relays says, it is said that if you want to have peace of mind, busy yourself with little, wouldn't a better saying be do what you must and as required of a rational being created for public life.

For this brings not only the peace of mind of doing few things, but the greater peace of doing them well, since the vast majority of our words and actions are unnecessary, corralling them will create an abundance of leisure and tranquility.

As a result, we shouldn't forget at each moment to ask, is this one of the unnecessary things? But we must corrall not only unnecessary actions, but unnecessary thoughts too. So needless acts don't tag along after them.

That's our translation from the Daily Stoic and the Daily Stoic Journal. Let me give you Gregory Hayes, which I also really like.

He says, if you seek tranquility, do less or more accurately do what is essential, what the logos of a social being requires and in the requisite way, which brings a double satisfaction to do less better.

Because most of what we do and say, and it's not essential, if you can eliminate this, you'll have more time and more tranquility. Ask yourself at every moment, is this necessary? But we need to eliminate unnecessary assumptions as well to eliminate the unnecessary actions that follow.

And then our second quote from Seneca is, I was shipwrecked before I even boarded. The journey showed me this. But how much of what we have is unnecessary? And how easily we can decide to rid ourselves of these things whenever it's necessary and that's never suffering to loss. That's moral letters.

871. So to me, the pandemic has been a masterful teacher in this regard. How much of the things we thought were unchangeable parts of the job, fixed obligations due to this profession or school or whatever it was, that the pandemic said, nope, all of it's flexible.

Most of it doesn't need to be done at all. And most of the way that it is done can be done differently. And I feel like it's been this massive shared lifestyle experiment. And I found that so much of what I was doing was one of the unnecessary things. So much of what I was doing and saying and thinking and being a part of was not one of the essential things.

...