The Daily Stoic11 Mar 2020

You Should Always Find Something To Do

There was time to kill in Rome, just as there is today. A dinner started late. A meeting got cancelled. Travel delays meant being stuck in this place or that place for a couple days. Something would break and someone would need to go into town for supplies. The impulse then, as now, when faced with these kinds of situations, was to just wait. Or complain. Or mess around.

We all do it, writing stuff off as dead time, as we’ve talked about before. It’s a rather presumptuous thing to do, though, if you think about it. We kill time as time is literally killing us. Who says you’ll get more moments? Can you really afford to let any be wasted?

Cato the Elder was built of that sturdy, original Roman stock. He didn’t put up with laziness or poor productivity. He didn’t tolerate it from his workers or his family or himself. As he wrote in On Agriculture, there is no excuse for just sitting around. =“In rainy weather,” Cato advised, “try to find something to do indoors. Clean up, rather than be idle. Remember that even though work stops, expenses run on nonetheless.”

We can always find something to do, even when our original intention or plan is thwarted (that’s what the obstacle is the way means). We can read. We can think. We can clean up and prepare. We can squeeze in a few minutes of work while we sit in the waiting room. We can turn a rainy day into a family day.

There is always something to do. You can’t afford for there not to be.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(3142)

It’s Good That You’re Having Trouble | On Handling Haters

Nobody said getting wiser, better, or stronger would be accomplished without hard work. In fact, the Stoics specifically said the opposite.Turn the words into works 👉 Read to Lead: A Daily Stoic Read...

21 Sep 7min

Ryan Holiday on Bill Maher: Why Stoicism Is Having a Moment

Before stepping in front of a live audience on Real Time with Bill Maher, Ryan turned to five Stoic reminders to calm his nerves. In today’s episode, Ryan takes you behind the scenes and shares highli...

20 Sep 21min

What It Means to Be on That Hill | Seth Wickersham

How do you keep climbing when there’s no guarantee your work will pay off? Sportswriter Seth Wickersham joins Ryan to talk about the Springsteen lyric that inspired his new book Be On That Hill, the r...

19 Sep 22min

Do This (It’s Good For Your Sanity) | A Garden Is Not For Show

Comfort and convenience are nice, but too much insulation comes at a cost. 🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE | Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you! Grab tickets here | https://www.dailystoiclive.com/🎙️ AD-...

18 Sep 6min

You’re Going To Wish You Did This

Do you write down the important things you read? Do you take the time to understand those “helpful pieces of teaching” and what they could mean for you?Turn the words into works 👉 Read to Lead: A Dai...

17 Sep 2min

Colin Kaepernick, 10 Years After Taking A Knee

Ten years after taking a knee, Colin Kaepernick looks back on the decision that changed his life and cost him more than $150 million. In today’s episode, he sits down with Ryan to discuss navigating t...

17 Sep 1h 18min

You Don’t Need Your Books | 9 Stoic Lessons From Roman Politics

Marcus Aurelius loved to read and tried to always have a text from a philosopher or a playwright or a historian with him. But, as it is for all of us, we don’t always get our way—sometimes life interv...

16 Sep 17min

Time Is a Violent River | Stop Being Surprised By This

Are we doing the work we know we should be doing? Or are we letting hour after hour, day after day, simply drift past us? -- Dr. Becky Kennedy is a clinical psychologist, bestselling author, and the f...

15 Sep 12min