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Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast. On Friday, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation,

but also reading a passage from the Daily Stoic. My book, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance in the Heart of Livin,

which I wrote with my wonderful collaborator, translator, and literary agent, Stephen Hanselman.

So today, we'll give you a quick meditation from the Stoics with some analysis from me,

and then we'll send you out into the world to turn these words into works.

Have you ever had a motionless moment? We are so busy, we think we're supposed to be.

We think that's how we get better. We think that moving is the only way forward.

And you might think that Mark as a realist could relate after all, he headed an entire empire.

He had books to read, writing to do, laws to pass, cases to hear, troops to lead.

So yes, he was a busy man. He, like us, was pulled in many directions.

He had ambitions, worries, hopes, dreams. And yet, when he speaks most beautifully, it's of moments of quiet and calm.

If you can cut free of impressions that cling to the mind, he said, free of the future in the past and can make yourself, as impetically says, a sphere rejoicing in its perfect stillness.

Have you ever had a moment like that? If you have, you know how special it is.

You know what kind of insights you were able to access, what kind of happiness crept in, what kind of peace you were able to feel.

Marcus wrote that having that stillness allows us to concentrate on what living can be lived, the present moment.

Only then he said, could you spend the time you have left in tranquility and in kindness and at peace with the spirit within you.

You deserve moments like that, moments where you watch the snow fall, moments when you sit quietly with a book, moments when you look out the train window, not on a conference call, not checking email, not wondering how long.

Until you arrive in the city, but a moment to check in with yourself to think about your life and what you want to do with it, moments with loved ones, moments when you are grateful, connected, happy, creative in the zone, doing whatever it is that you do best.

When the Stoics talk about stillness, they're not talking about some abstract notion, they're talking about maybe the most important thing you can be doing in your life.

They are saying that all the work you are doing, all the thoughts you're expending, trying to get ahead, trying to force as a breakthrough, are pointless.

The real way to charge ahead is to slow down, to clear your mind, to rejoice in perfect stillness, free of the future and the past, fully present and locked in.

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