Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a stoic-inspired meditation

designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life.

Each one of these episodes is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of

history's greatest men and women to help you learn from them, to follow in their example,

and to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom.

For more, visitdailystoic.com. We all want to be liked.

We want the acceptance of our peers.

We want to be chosen.

We want the stamp of approval from the critics, from the crowd, from the market.

This makes sense, except it doesn't.

Is it not true that most people are not very bright, hold regressive or

alarming opinions, and generally follow the herd? And yet somehow we think it's vindication when they

love us. It's nonsense. It's pretty strange how much we value the respect of people we don't respect,

and the lengths we're willing to go to get it. If you are ever tempted to look for

outside approval, Epictetus said, realize that you have compromised your integrity. If you need a

witness, be your own. This was something Marcus Aurelius wrestled with even more than Epictetus

because he was a public person. He saw crowds cheering him in the street.

People flocked to court to heap praise on him before asking for favors. He also had to put up with

their jeers and criticisms. Eventually, he realized that he couldn't pay attention to any of it. He had to

hold himself to his own standard,

an inner scorecard, and ignore everything else. The clapping was meaningless. The booze were, too.

What mattered was his own integrity. He had to be his own witness. And today, so do you. It doesn't

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