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Welcome to the Daily Stood Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom

designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom every day life.

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

of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us dailystood.com.

Why did Marcus Aurelius write his meditations? It wasn't for an audience. It wasn't simply

to practice his Greek or his rhetorical abilities. He was already good at all these things.

The book lacks an author's note and he never seems to have told anyone about his intentions

so we can't know for sure. But there are two clues that when put together provide an answer

as good as any. Have you ever noticed how much of meditations is about other people?

The opening debts and lessons make up nearly 10% of the book. Almost every other page

has at least one quote or one story or one mention of a story about somebody else.

So when we come across this passage in meditations, it suddenly makes sense. Marcus writes,

when you need encouragement, think of the qualities the people around you have. This one's

energy, that one's modesty, another's generosity and so on. Nothing is as encouraging as when

the virtues are visibly embodied in the people around us. When we are practically showered

with them, it's good to keep this in mind. Marcus was writing to encourage himself. He

is thinking of the qualities of the people around him. He was showering himself in their

virtues so that he might be improved by the association. And as far as we can tell,

this worked because he was a good man despite facing incredible temptations and pressures.

Today we should follow this example, maybe in a journal, maybe just by taking a few minutes

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