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. Who decides who gets what? You went to school. You worked hard. You sacrificed. You got really good at what you do. That's what they pay you for, right? That's why they recruited you. That's why they put you in charge. You earned it. And yet, despite this success, this track

record, this leverage you have, your life is so backwards. In one of his letters, Seneca tells

the story about Alexander the Great, then on the verge of conquering another distant land.

The rulers of that country came to him and offered him some of their territory

if he ceased his attack. Alexander, Seneca tells us, quietly corrected them, saying that

he hadn't come to Asia with the intention of accepting whatever they cared to give him, but of

letting them keep whatever he chose to leave them. And so it ought to go for our time and priorities, Seneca continued.

Philosophy likewise tells all other occupations, he wrote, it is not my intention to accept whatever time

is left over for you. You shall have. Instead, he says, what I regret. Philosophy should not get the leftovers. Or, as we said in a

Daily Dad email and podcast about the same idea, neither should your family. It should not be

relegated to the scraps of time between other obligations. It is not some frivolous hobby.

It is the key to everything we are trying to do.

It's a compass, a guiding light. It's what we owe our ultimate devotion. So as you look at your day,

as you look at your life, make sure that you are prioritizing properly. Make sure that you

are giving your best, your most productive hours to the most important things.

Because you're not really successful if success doesn't allow you to do that.

You don't really have leverage if you have to give the best of yourself away to things that don't matter.

...