We Almost Always Regret This | A Week Without Complaining
The Daily Stoic
Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures
4.5 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 31 July 2023
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s not that we didn’t have a reason. That we weren’t provoked. Or mistreated. We were. We had legitimate reasons to be upset. We had a legitimate grievance.
And yet…our response was such a mistake. We come to regret the yelling. We regret the harsh words. How much better would we have been had we been able to, as the great play about Cato put it, look at things through the “calm light of mild philosophy.”
To the Stoics, what we did in a fit of passion–be it of lust or envy but most of all out of anger–was almost always the wrong thing.
---
And in today's Daily Stoic meditation, Ryan discusses the transformation that you will undergo when you recognize what you are complaining about in your thoughts, and then challenge yourself to re-focus
💪 If you really want to get serious about conquering your anger, sign up for our course: Taming Your Temper: The 11-Day Stoic Guide to Controlling Anger. It’s 11 days of challenges, exercises, video lessons, and bonus tools based on Stoic philosophy that is aimed at helping you deal with your anger in a constructive manner. Learn more here!
✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail
🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.
📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. |
| 0:05.7 | Each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics illustrated with stories |
| 0:11.0 | from history, current events, and literature to help you be better at what you do. |
| 0:16.0 | And at the beginning of the week, we try to do a deeper dive, setting a kind of Stoic |
| 0:20.0 | intention for the week, something to meditate on, something to think on, something to leave |
| 0:25.0 | you with, to journal about whatever it is you happen to be doing. |
| 0:28.8 | So let's get into it. |
| 0:43.2 | We almost always regret this. |
| 0:45.7 | It's not that we didn't have a reason that we weren't provoked or mistreated. |
| 0:50.2 | We were. |
| 0:51.2 | We had legitimate reasons to be upset. |
| 0:52.7 | We had a legitimate grievance. |
| 0:55.3 | And yet our response was such a mistake. |
| 0:58.6 | We come to regret the yelling. |
| 1:00.0 | We regret the harsh words. |
| 1:01.4 | How much better we would have been if we had been able to, as the great play about |
| 1:05.0 | Kato put it, look at things through the calm light of mild philosophy. |
| 1:10.8 | To the Stoics, what we did in a fit of passion, be it lust or envy. |
| 1:13.9 | But most of all, out of anger was almost always the wrong thing. |
| 1:18.0 | It didn't matter if the other person was wrong. |
| 1:20.1 | If we were relentlessly baited or abused, it didn't matter if we escaped consequences. |
| 1:24.9 | It was a mistake to be overcome by our passions. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.