Decide What to Be and Go Be It | How Would The Stoics Handle Social Media Envy?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. Decide what to be and go be it. In a way, it's easier to think about the greats as being made of superior stock, to think of Cato as coming from a long line of distinguished ancestors, to think of Marcus Aurelius as being someone who's naturally wise and decent. It lets us off the hook to think of virtue as something someone is born with, as something all or nothing. But as we've talked about many times, Aristotle's insight was that this is nonsense. Virtue is no different than any other skill. You don't have it. You do it. And you get better at it the more you do it.
If you want to be generous, if you want to be brave, if you want to be honest, if you want to be tough, if you want to be an early riser, it's not a complicated formula. In fact, by wanting to be those things, you've already taken an important step. First, say to yourself what you would be, Epictetus tells us, and then do what you have to do. The second part is harder, but hardly complicated. You start tipping bigger. You start doing the stuff that scares you.
How does Epictetus’ advice ‘Decide what to be and go be it’ explain habit formation?
Stop dancing around your real opinions. You push yourself physically, you set your alarm. And in doing this, you become what you wish you were. And that's basically what we built the Daily Stoic Habits for Success, Habits for Happiness Challenge around. It's six weeks of forcing you to be the habits, to do the virtue, that you know you're going to want to have and to be. It's daily actions that compound into long-term habits and results. There was a study by the University College of London that shows it takes something like 66 days to establish a habit for a behavior to become automatic, to become part of who we are. And so I want you to think about who you could be two months from now or who you could be right now had you started two months ago.
That wasn't that long ago. That was May, right? How quickly that time has passed. But how long habits that you had started then could last, could endure, could be a part of you had you picked them up. I don't want you to let any more time pass by. I want you to think about what a habit would be worth if you started it today, if you had it established by September. And that's what the course is. We built this course many years ago. It's helped thousands of people all over the world build habits step-by-step and develop lasting change in their lives. But we updated it now for this moment. We wanted to keep the things that worked, wanted to add some new ones. We added some great new tools to help you reflect and sort of meditate on the changes you're making.
There's also a great new community space because I think habits are something best done with others. It's really awesome. We're gonna start it on July 21st, so I'd love to see you in there. We're offering a group discount if you enroll with some of your friends. And you can sign up today at dailystereo.com slash habits.
We're traveling internationally this summer. And some of those places like in Europe, you know, you can't just go dress like you're slobby American. You got to dress up a little bit. Can't show their shoulders. Can't wear shorts. So I'm going to take some of the stuff I bought from Quince because it holds up well, looks good. It's fancy without being uncomfortable. I'm going to try to pack clothes that are light. airy and comfortable. I can use them in multiple settings. You've certainly seen me in some of these things. If you've ever watched the Daily Stoic video or seen me talk live, I want something that looks good on stage that I'm not going to sweat through. It's not going to get super wrinkled. Quince has got great t-shirts.
They've got great light sweaters and everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen. So you're paying for quality, not brand markup. And Quince goes way beyond clothing. They've got sofas and ceramic cookware, premium bedding.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:20
2
How does Epictetus’ advice ‘Decide what to be and go be it’ explain habit formation?
1:20–5:51
3
What is the Daily Stoic Habits course and how can it change my routine?
5:51–10:18
4
Why does the speaker recommend updating habits with reflection and community features?
10:18–12:53
5
How does travel and practical advice about packing illustrate Stoic planning?
12:53–21:38
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The Daily Stoic
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