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.

This is how we fool ourselves. Look, you knew there was a cost to it. You knew your daughter would be sad that you were

out of town and couldn't come to her play. You knew that your son would be disappointed that you

had yet another long day and couldn't help him with his homework. You knew that work was taking a

toll on your marriage. But you felt it had to be done and you didn't think far enough ahead.

One does not deceive oneself about the consequences of one's act,

John Williams has Augustus say in his beautiful and haunting novel,

which has some amazing parenting lessons.

One deceives oneself about the ease with which one can live with those consequences. We just assume our family will be

endlessly patient. We just assume they will understand. We just assume they'll be able to figure it out.

We just assume we'll be able to live with whatever happens. But that's not how this works,

not as parents anyway, because we can lose the family we take for granted, because the debits you make in a relationship can only outpace the deposits for so long.

Augustus might have been the most powerful man in the world, but in William's novel and in real life, he ends up estranged from his beloved daughter. His marriage is a nightmare.

For all his wealth and fame, he is a miserable and tragic cautionary figure. We fool ourselves

that none of these individual decisions matter. We fool ourselves that the consequences are manageable,

which they are, until suddenly they are not.

Be careful.

Be wise.

Be humble.

Hey, thanks for listening to the Daily Dad podcast.

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