There’s a Time to Make and a Time to Manage
The Daily Stoic
Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures
4.5 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 28 October 2020
⏱️ 3 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"There are lots of things you can pay people to do for you. You can pay them to mow your lawn or do your taxes. You can pay them to drive you from one place to another and you can pay them to sell things for you. But the one thing you cannot pay people to do for you is think."
Ryan explains why mental focus is so critical in this current, chaotic moment, on today's Daily Stoic Podcast.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. |
| 0:13.6 | 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. |
| 0:23.3 | 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. |
| 0:36.3 | There's a time to make and a time to manage. There are a lot of things you can pay people to do for you. You can pay them to mo your lawn or do your taxes. You can pay them to drive you from one place to another and you can pay them to sell things for you. |
| 0:52.3 | But one thing you cannot pay people to do for you is think. No one can reflect on your behalf. No one can consider the big picture for you. |
| 1:02.3 | Paul Graham has a great essay on the difference between making and managing. This is another good distinction. You can pay people to manage. You can't pay them to make whatever it is that you make. You can't pay them to have ideas for you. Only you can do that. |
| 1:18.3 | The Stoics said over and over and over again that we don't control what happens only that we control how we respond. They said that we had to use our obstacles as fuel and make good out of every situation we find ourselves in. |
| 1:30.3 | So how do you make good out of an indefinite quarantine? Well, one easy way is to use this time to think like Senna in his exiles. |
| 1:39.3 | Musoneus and Epictetus in theirs. They were writing. They were reading. They were thinking and planning. |
| 1:45.3 | Your employees are not going to come up with your businesses five year plan for you. Only you can do that. Your publisher is not going to write your book for you. |
| 1:53.3 | Your sales assistant isn't going to come up with your next great sales strategy. They're not going to invest in relationships for you. They're not going to help you find inspiration to keep going. You have to do that. |
| 2:04.3 | And today is a great day to do that. Now is a time to make to think to reflect to cultivate that stillness because stillness is the key to insights and creativity and all the things you're going to need to dig yourself out of this whole. |
| 2:17.3 | None of this is ideal, but you couldn't have chosen to be in a pandemic. But you can choose for this to be the best thing that ever happened to you. You can choose for this to be the most productive period of your life. |
| 2:31.3 | Hey, just wanted to remind you if you want to take your practices to listen to the next level, if you want some physical reminders of the ideas we talk about here, check out the Daily Stoic store and go to DailyStoic.com slash store. |
| 2:43.3 | These products are what help us keep the lights on here at DailyStoic. They help grow the business, let us spread the message to more and more people. |
| 2:50.3 | So if you want to support us, check that out. Go to DailyStoic.com slash store. |
| 3:01.3 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to the DailyStoic early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts. |
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