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

Welcome to the Daily Stoke. For each day, we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living good life.

Each one of these passages is based on the 2000 year old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at DailyStoic.com.

On a long enough timeline, we are all blips. Here is an interesting exercise. Pull up a Spotify playlist for hits from the 90s.

Or turn on a satellite radio station built around that time period. As you listen to the songs, note how many recognize and how many you've never heard of.

Now go back in era or two and do the same thing for the 80s or for the second wave of classic rock. Then do it again for real oldies.

As you keep going backwards, the familiarity will fall further and further away until you've heard none of the hit songs before. And all the famous names sound strange or even made up.

The point of this stroll through music history is not nostalgia or even about discovering some forgotten grates. It's a reminder of how ephemeral we all are, how fleeting fame and life is.

As Marcus Aurelius writes, words once in common use now sound archaic and the names of the famous dead as well.

Camilius, Casseo, Volsus, Dentatus, Cipio, Encato, Augustus, Hadrian and Antoninus. And everything fades so quickly turns into legend and soon oblivion covers it.

He points out something that is worth noting about the music we just flipped through as well. The names we no longer recognize are the most famous ones, the ones who shown for at least a few minutes.

The vast majority of people of art that's made of events that happen are unknown, unasked for and don't even get this. They are not even blips. They were less than blips.

The lesson from this as with so many stoic lessons is humility. We are not nearly as important as we think we are. And even if we are important, the passage of time is an unforgiving leveler.

The other lesson is about priorities. If all fame is fleeting, if even the most accomplished and most influential, the writers of the biggest hits and the owners of the greatest songs of their time are eventually forgotten.

Why chase it? Why let it make you miserable? Why let getting it make you miserable? Why not focus on right now on living the life you have as best you can?

Memento Mori, remember death, remember you are mortal. Or as Marcus really said, you could leave life right now, let that determine what you do and say and think.

I actually wear this reminder in a Sigmite ring on my finger, one of the most ancient and I think meaningful forms of jewelry there is. I wear it on my right ring finger.

And we now make a Memento Mori Sigmite ring in the daily stoic store. You can check it out at dailystoic.com slash store.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the daily stoic early and add free on Amazon music. Download the Amazon music app today or you can listen early and add free with Wondering Plus in Apple podcasts.

The 10% happier podcast hosted by me, Dan Harris has one overarching message. Happiness is a skill. The mind is trainable. So why not get involved with this? I used to be a fidgety skeptical news anchor, but after having a panic attack on national television, which was pretty inconvenient, I decided to change my life.

I went on a whole trip to learn everything I could about the human brain, human mind, human psyche. And now my job is to help you achieve some measure of peace and happiness in your own life.

On my show every week, I talk to top scientists, meditation teachers, even the odd celebrity in wide ranging conversations that explore topics such as productivity, relationships, anxiety, enlightenment and psychedelics.

...