Vegan Stoic Podcast

'Choose someone whose way of life as well as words, and whose very face as mirroring the character that lies behind it, have won your approval. Be always pointing him out to yourself either as your guardian or as your model. There is a need, in my view, for someone as a standard against which our characters can measure themselves. Without a ruler to do it against you won’t make crooked straight.  ~Seneca We need to find ourselves a role model. Someone who we can measure our behavior against. Someone who inspires and motivates us to be the best that we can be.

You can discard most of the junk that clutters your mind…and clear out space for yourself… by comprehending the scale of the world… by contemplating infinite time… by thinking of the speed with which things change — each part of every thing; the narrow space between our birth and death; the infinite time before; the equally unbounded time that follows. ~Marcus Aurelius This is something that we need to do almost daily. Clear out the junk that is cluttering our mind.

To consort with the crowd is harmful; there is no person who does not make some vice attractive to us, or stamp it upon us, or taint us unconsciously therewith. Certainly, the greater the mob with which we mingle, the greater the danger. Seneca We really need to hold those we consort with to a higher standard. Those we hang around with are supposed to help us improve, and become a better person. If they aren't, they are dragging us down to their level

Every day as it comes should be welcomed and reduced forthwith into our own possession as if it were the finest day imaginable. What flies past has to be seized at. - Seneca, Letter CVIII How often do we wake up in the morning with a bad case of the CBFs, and decide that binging on Netflix or wasting time on social media is more important? Every day is the finest day imaginable.

Today’s quote comes from Epictetus ''If you want to make progress, put up with being perceived as ignorant or naive in worldly matters, don't aspire to a reputation for sagacity. If you do impress others as somebody, don't altogether believe it. You have to realize, it isn't easy to keep your will in agreement with nature, as well as externals. Caring about the one inevitably means you are going to shortchange the other.'' There comes a time where we will all need to decide whether we are going to live our lives in agreement with nature, or in agreement with social media likes and vanity metrics.