You Need This Trait To Live Your Best Life | Focus On The Present Moment

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Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. Each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics, illustrated with stories from history, current events, and literature to help you be better at what you do. And at the beginning of the week, we try to do a deeper dive, setting a kind of stoic intention for the week, something to meditate on, something to think on, something to leave you with, to journal about whatever it is you happen to be doing. So let's get into it.

You need this trait to live your best life. We were raised a certain way. We were taught a certain way. It's always been done a certain way. So we just keep on doing it. And this is a tragedy. Too many people, Seneca, writes, lack the fickleness to live as they ought to and instead live as they have begun.

And we talked about that word, fickleness, and what Seneca meant by it in our episode with James Clear on the Daily Stoke podcast recently, because fickleness usually has a negative connotation. But in Seneca's context, it's positive. He means that we have to be open to change and willing to experiment with our lives so we can potentially find something better.

And what James suggested was that in modern times, we also need that willingness to adapt and change to find our best life. We have to be willing to question, we have to be willing to try new things, or we'll never get any better. We have to understand that the way things are, the way they've been done is not the way they have to be.

or even the best way for them to be. And we have to be willing to break from traditions or habit when we find that they're holding us back instead of launching us forward. And this time of year is a stranger. And just a couple of weeks ago, we're all talking about how 20, 25 could be the year. We shared our goals and our resolutions. We made plans for joining this gym or starting that project. But now even a month into 2025, the novelty of those resolutions is already wearing off. So is our motivation.

It's like we've already given up on the potential of the new year. And Marcus would say that this was disgraceful to give up when the body is still going strong. And so I think it goes for giving up on a whole year so early. 2025 is yet young. You still have time. There's so much time. It's too early to quit on yourself.

Because, well, sure, it would have been better to do this stuff earlier. The second best time is right now, and you can still make 2025 a great year. And that is why we are relaunching the daily Stoic New Year New Year challenge. Typically, that starts from January 1st through January 21st is 21 days of consecutive Stoic inspired challenges all of us all over the world doing it together.

And we actually just wrapped up the last live call from that earlier this afternoon. But I heard from a bunch of people that missed out. They didn't sign up. They regretted not signing up. And they asked if it was too late. And I said, no, it's not. I want to see you in there. And I heard from so many people who did the challenge, who really got a lot out of it that we wanted to keep it open. So you can sign up now at dailystowak.com slash challenge. It's going to be open for a few more days. And here, listen to what some of the people said about the challenge they just did.

So this is my second time doing the challenge. Absolutely love it. So it's been great for me. The challenge is terrific. And I'm trying to incorporate many, if not most, into some sort of habit beyond just challenge, right? I think that's the key. And it's pretty powerful stuff.

So look, this is your opportunity to practice the kind of fickleness that Seneca was talking about. It's your chance to ask for more this year, ask for more of yourself. Don't get caught up in how everyone else is doing it. Don't stick with what's not working. Sign up for the 2025 daily stoic new year, new you challenge. The year is yet young and I want to see you in there. Embrace your inner fickleness and sign up for the daily stoic new year, new you challenge dailystoic.com slash challenge. Let's do it.

Focus on the present moment. This is from this week's entry in the Daily Stoke Journal 366 days of writing and reflection on the art of living. Marcus Aurelius ruled at a particularly turbulent time. Wars erupted on multiple fronts, terrible plagues ravaged Rome. His rule was certainly one of constant unrelenting pressure, but he never let it overwhelm him.

From the Stoics and from the example of his adopted father, the Emperor Antoninus Pius, Marcus found a coping strategy in always sticking close to the present moment in the duties at hand. When our own stress boils over, we can remember his practices and exercises to stick with what is in front of us. Not everything that it might mean.

At every moment, keep a sturdy mind on the task at hand as a Roman and as a human being. Stick, doing it with strict and simple dignity, affection, freedom and justice, giving yourself a break from all other considerations. You can do this if you approach each task as if it is your last, giving up every distraction, emotional subversion of reason and all drama, vanity and complaint over your fair share.

You can see how a mastery over a few things makes it possible to live an abundant and devout life that's marked realism and meditations.

We to live 3,000 years or even a countless multiple of that keep in mind that no one ever loses a life other than the one they are living. And no one ever lives a life other than the one they are losing. The longest and the shortest life then amount to the same for the present moment lasts for all and is all anyone possesses. No one can possess either the past or the future for how can someone be deprived of what is not theirs. And that's Marx realizes meditations again.

And then this is one of my favorite quotes from Marcus. He says, don't let your reflection of the whole sweep of life crush you. Don't fill your mind with all the bad things that might still happen. Stay focused on the present situation and ask yourself why it is so unbearable and can't be survived.

And yeah, Seneca talks about pre-meditatio molarum thinking of the evils in advance. He means that specifically and generally, but that's about being prepared for what might happen. Once you've done that, saying you got to zoom in and focus on what's in front of you, that's today, right? And so I think just routine is helpful for focusing on the present moment, but I think Marcus' point of concentrating on the task before you like a Roman. It's just, you know, that's beautifully said.

Marcus Rios has another great quote. He goes, yeah, you're worried about the future. He says, but you'll meet the future with the same weapons that you have now. So let's focus on what's in front of you right now. Let's use those weapons where they're most effective. Let's have the most impact where we can right now. Let's tackle this problem. Let's not work on this problem with our eye towards the next problem and the next problem and the next problem and then what's going to happen when that next one doesn't work and blah, blah, blah, blah. It's so easy to start spiraling and it doesn't help. It doesn't make you happier. It doesn't make things better.

So let's zoom in. And look, do the stoics sometimes talk about zooming way out and seeing the big picture? Yes. But right now we're talking about zooming in because zooming in is an effective tool. That's what I want you to be thinking about today. And that's all I'm going to say. So get out there. Get after it. But stay focused. Concentrate like a Roman. Keep your mind at the task at hand. Do it with strict and simple dignity, affection, freedom, justice.

Give yourself a break from all of their considerations. As Marcus says, approach this task as if it is your last. Giving up every distraction, emotional subversion of reason. Give up the drama and the vanity and all the complaints. Master these few things and that will give you a good life. Talk soon.

Hey, it's Ryan. Thank you for listening to the Daily Stog Podcast. I just wanted to say we so appreciate it. We love serving you. It's amazing to us that over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in a couple of years. We've been doing it. It's an honor. Please spread the word. Tell people about it. And this isn't to sell anything. I just wanted to say thank you.

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