You Are Mortal. You Don’t Have To Be Stupid.

The Daily Stoic

Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures

Business, 694393, Society & Culture, Daily Stoic, Stoic, Education, Ryan Holiday, Philosophy, Stoic Philosophy, Stoicism, Self-improvement

4.5 • 5.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2019

⏱️ 3 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Yes, the Stoics talk a lot about death. How it’s inevitable. How life is fragile. How it can be taken from us at any moment. It’s in our power to live well, Seneca said, but not in our power to live long.

It’s easy to take from these commentaries that the Stoics were completely fatalistic about their health, and that’s a mistake—one easily disproved by the evidence. Seneca talked about death, but he also talked about the life-giving powers of taking a cold plunge. He experimented with vegetarianism. He exercised. He ate moderately not only because it was part of his philosophy, but because he knew that gluttons rarely live to see old age. Marcus Aurelius was treated by the famous doctor Galen, and one presumes that he did so because he asked Galen to improve his health, not worsen it.

The key exercise in Stoicism, according to Epictetus, was distinguishing what’s in our control and what isn’t. Our genetics are not in our control. But we are not prisoners of them. They are not an oracle. We control our diet and our exercise. We can control how our genetics express themselves and impact our live

Death can be random and cruel—as it was for the millions who died of the plague in Marcus’s time. Nobody controls that. But we do control whether we drive a motorcycle and decline to wear a helmet. You don’t control whether you get drafted and sent to fight in a war, but you do control whether you go around picking fights in bars or walk through the wrong neighborhood at the wrong time of day. We control whether we make smart decisions or dumb ones, whether we take good care of ourselves or not.

We are all mortal. Life is fragile. But that doesn’t mean you kiss all the control up to God or to Fate. You decide whether you’re going to be healthy or not. You decide whether to be stupid or not. You decide the path you walk.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today.
0:13.6	Welcome to the Daily Stoke. For each day, we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living good life.
0:23.3	Each one of these passages is based on the 2000 year old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at DailyStoic.com.
0:35.3	You are mortal. You don't have to be stupid. Yes, the Stokes talk a lot about death, how it's inevitable, how life is fragile, how it can be taken from us at any moment.
0:46.3	It's in our power to live well, Senaqa said, but not in our power to live long. It's easy to take from this commentary that the Stokes were completely fatalistic about their health. And that's a mistake. One easily disproved by the evidence.
1:02.3	Senaqa talked about death, but he also talked about the life-giving powers of taking a cold plunge. He experimented with vegetarianism. He exercised. He ate moderately not only because it was part of his philosophy, but because he knew that he was a great person.
1:16.3	It's not the only way that he could live long enough to live a great life. He was a great person. And he also talked about the life-giving powers of taking a cold plunge.
1:27.3	The way he was treated by the famous Dr. Galen, and one presumes that he did so because he asked Galen to improve his health, not worse than it.
1:33.3	The key exercise in Stoicism, according to Epochetus, was to distinguish what's in our control and what isn't. Our genetics are not in our control.
1:41.3	We control our diet and our exercise. Death can be random and cruel as it was for the millions who died of the plague in Marcus' time. Nobody controls that.
1:52.3	But we do control whether we drive a motorcycle and decline to wear a helmet. You don't control whether you get drafted or sent to fight in a war.
2:01.3	But you do control whether you go around picking fights in bars or whether you walk through the wrong neighborhood at the wrong time.
2:06.3	We control whether we make smart decisions or dumb ones, whether we take good care of ourselves or not.
2:13.3	We are all mortal. Life is fragile. But that doesn't mean you kiss all the control up to God or fate. You decide whether you're going to be healthy or not.
2:22.3	You decide whether you're going to be stupid or not.
2:26.3	Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcast app. And if you don't get the Daily Stoke email, go to DailyStoke.com.
2:36.3	And if you don't get the Daily Stoke email, go to DailyStoke.com.

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