RockneCAST

Stoic Fridays: Embracing Obstacles Through Action (#272, 6 Dec. 2024)

Overview

In this episode of the Rocking Cast, Rockne Cole introduces the concept of Stoic Fridays, focusing on the principles of Stoicism and its impact on personal responsibility and joy. He discusses key passages from Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, emphasizing the importance of focusing on what one can control, embracing obstacles, and finding joy in human actions. The conversation also critiques the blame culture in politics, particularly within the Democratic Party, and encourages listeners to take charge of their lives and actions.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Stoic Fridays

02:52 The Essence of Stoicism

06:13 Embracing Obstacles for Growth

09:05 The Power of Personal Responsibility

11:52 Finding Joy in Human Actions

14:51 Conclusion and Future of Stoic Fridays

Duration:: 16m
Broadcast on:: 06 Dec 2024
Audio Format:: other

What is going on dudes of The Rockin' Cast guys? I have a new microphone and let me know if it works, rockin'cast@gmail.com, rockin' cola@gmail.com. For this episode of The Rockin' Cast, we're gonna focus on the joy of stoicism. This is my first episode. I'm not sure whether I'm gonna do this continuously, but I think I'm gonna call it Stoic Fridays and we're gonna focus on two key passages from the Meditations book. And then I'm gonna do an exploration of why stoicism led me away from the Dems. And then I'm gonna talk about a little gratitude that you can do today that I think virtually everyone can experience. So I hope you find this particular episode helpful, illuminating, and if you really like Stoic Fridays, we'll try to do it every single Friday, stoic Fridays. You can use stoicism to transform your life. So first off, I do almost daily reading of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. I came across stoicism after listening to The Happiness Lab. There was a book on stoicism. There was a professor at Wright State that got me on stoicism and I have pretty much been a stoic ever since. Since that time, I found that it's kind of the thing to be into stoicism. Everyone loves stoicism. And I think there's a reason why. Because the essence of stoicism is empowering you, taking control of your own life and not blaming other people's for it. And so we'll get right into the actual passage that I'm gonna focus on and see if you are as impressed with this as I am or if you have a son or daughter or anyone like that and you can give them some pieces of wisdom, who knows, maybe it'll be like me and they won't really figure it out until they're 50 years old but you can do what you can do. You can give what you can give. But here it is. This is from Marcus Aurelius Meditations page 107 and here Marcus writes, "You have to assemble your life "action by action and be satisfied "if each one achieves its goal as far as it can. "No one can keep that from happening. "But there are external obstacles, "not to behaving with justice, control and good sense. "Well, but perhaps to some more concrete action. "But if you accept the obstacle and work with what you're given "and alternative will present itself, "another piece of what you're trying to assemble. "Action by action." Isn't that freaking good? If you implement that one thing into your life that you are what you repeatedly do, that comes out of Aristotle, James Clear, each action is a vote in the person who you will be destined to become and it's only you that can do that. Think about what are the actions that you can do today to be the best version of you. Some of my daily actions that I do or I read Ruben Young Dolls, Living God's Word, every single day so I can connect with my creator and affirm my identity as a Christian. I try to do some aspect of calisthenics every day and to get a walk in because that reinforces my identity as a bit person. I want to be able to focus on what I can control and I can control setting aside time to work out every single day. I try to do a podcast so that I can provide content for you and that you can be inspired to do and to become the best version of you and that reinforces my identity as a podcaster. And I think this gets into and this seems so amazingly simple. The essence of life is focusing on what you as an individual can control and letting go of what you cannot control. And you think about when you're an observer to politics, you yourself are literally focusing on something that you cannot control. Now, some people can like to have Trump can control a lot right now, but there's a lot of things that you cannot control. And so to place all your emotional, physical and spiritual well-being in something that you cannot control will not advance the ball. And you know, there are many reasons why I am no longer a Democrat, a lot of different reasons. But I think probably it can be distilled down to one thing and one thing only. This is the party of blame. This is the party of putting responsibility in the government's hands and asking nothing of the individual person to impact their life. And if you think about how actual insane that is, if you are drinking a quart of whiskey every day, nothing the government will do will change your life. If you're stuffing your pie hole full of Doritos every single day, no government policy related to getting ozempic or whatever fat loss drug that you'd need to take will change you unless you yourself take control of what you want to do and that the person you wanna come. The government cannot place your own emotional well-being and make you feel better about yourself. The government can't tell you what time to go to bed. They can't tell you what type of foods that you can eat. And once you start viewing your life through the prism of looking at what you can actually control, it is absolutely mind-blowing about what you can achieve. Now, note what he says here. There are obstacles. There are obstacles to focusing on what you can control. But notice what he does here. He says, yeah, those can be obstacles, but those obstacles are merely a path on the way. There's another portion of this particular book on meditations in which he talks about, let the obstacle absorb the obstacle and use it as fuel for future effort. So not only should you not run away from obstacles, but you should actually embrace obstacles because those obstacles actually make you stronger. And notice what he says here. He's talking about external obstacles. Not barriers. Obstacles are things that you can actually overcome. They actually make you stronger. I've never been in the Marine Corps, but I've had friends who have been. There are literally obstacles that are put in PT training to allow these people to become strong enough to be able to overcome those particular obstacles. They make them stronger. They make them fitter and they make them sharper. You know, there was a time in my life when I was craving a life of comfort. I was craving a life of ease. And I think that's what a lot of people actually crave. They crave where they can just relax, where they can just have comfort, where they can have no obstacles. Well, you know what that makes you? That makes you weak and soft. And there are people that, I'm not gonna go climb Mount Everest. No desire to do it. But I get what they are doing. They know that they're by definition, putting an obstacle in their way so that they can become stronger, more fitter. They can be tougher. They can focus on more difficult things. And so this is the type of thing where if you have an attitude where you actually embrace obstacles and welcome them and actually seek them out, seek out levels of difficulty. You know, there was an episode on Joe Rogan by this guy who theorized that life is like a video game. I remember there was this two games that actually played when I was young. One was Super Mario Brothers and the other was Shinobi, this game that I played it come and go. But you know, in the video game, the more advanced you get at the game, the more difficult the levels are. And it comes at you more and more quickly. And they do that because as you master each stage, the video game presents additional obstacles to you as you master those skills. And I've absolutely found that that is, seems to be how life is. There are always obstacles. There are always difficulties. There are always challenges. And if you look at them and embrace them, they can actually guide you. They can strengthen you. They can make you that much more purpose driven. And when he says, if you accept the obstacle and work with your given, an alternative will present itself. Let the obstacle enter your mind and work with what you're given. Let go and an alternative will present itself. You know, I think of Ulysses S. Grant. One of the reasons why U.S. Grant was such an effective general is that when Lincoln would give him an assignment or his superior generals would give him an assignment, Grant often said that it was his duty to do what he was tasked to do with the resources that were given. So many officers, including officers like George McClellan would constantly say that they needed war. They couldn't do the task unless other resources were given to him. And then if something went wrong rather than accept responsibility, he would blame someone else. If you blame, that is a formula for human misery. Have you ever seen any self-help people say, oh my God, my life, it only changed. Once I started focusing on what I couldn't control and blaming other people, my life totally transformed. Blame is a way to get ahead of life. Now, there is something called accountability where holding people accountable can be really good. But the question with that always is, are you holding yourself to the same standard that you hold other people? And that's one of the reasons why I just cannot stand Dems any more. If you look at Democratic Party, and I still like Bernie because I like where his heart is, I really do think that he is trying to elevate the everyday person. I think that's why there's always been this kind of, weird coalition between Bernie people and Trump people. They both kind of have this desire to help everyday people. But one thing that I just do not like about Bernie is that regardless whatever the issue is, the entire ideology is predicated on blaming someone else and placing no individual responsibility on the individual in terms of focusing on what they can control. He virtually believes that almost whatever outcome you have in your life is not the result of your own personal decisions and circumstances. And that's just demonstrably false. That's not true. That is actually a lie. I don't think he's intentionally lying, but the reason why I think that he thinks that is he's never had to run his own business. He has no idea how hard it is to run your own business, pay your own bills and to embrace those things. But for people that love challenges and love being in the arena, that is part of life. You learn how to embrace it. And if you don't embrace it, you essentially, and you seek a life of ease, you will become weaker, your muscles will wither, you'll become flabbier, you'll become less dynamic, you'll become more bored. I think the key is not to look to the time when you can retire. The key is to challenge yourself and focus on the best being the best version of you. And yes, planning times where you can recuperate, where you can rest. But if you can do that, you can live an absolutely dynamic life. And that's to behaving with self-control, with justice, and good common sense. Those are things within your control. And then to embrace those obstacles. The other passage, which is on page 106 right near, and this is the way meditations is, is that joy for human beings lies in human actions. Human actions, kindness to other, contempt for the sentences, interrogation of appearances, observation of nature, and of events in nature. But I would add, there are so many other human actions that give you joy. The act of calling your mother, the act of writing a note to your daughter, the act of telling your spouse that you love them, the act of serving as an usher at church, the act of prayer, the act of meditation, the act of exercise. These are all joyful actions that create so much joy in you, but you gotta do it. And the good mood that you feel flows from the action itself. You are the one that's actually in control. And if you live your life where you're blaming other people, in particular, I think of the Dems, that is their entire ideology. Is blaming other people. And if you blame other people as your ideology, that is a formula for absolute misery, depression, and a life that's just the opposite of a joyful, abundant life. Are you tracking with me? Do you think this is as good as I do? Heck yeah, it is freaking awesome. So I hope you enjoyed this particular episode of The Racking Cast. I might do Stoic Fridays. Who the hell knows? Maybe I won't. If you like this particular episode, let me know, rackingcast@gmail.com, rackingacole@gmail.com. I'm reading a whole bunch of really good books, and I'm gonna try to share some stuff with you. And I'll continue to repeat my greatest hits. You know how much I love James Clear, and I love Stoicism. I'll share some of the good books that I'm reading, some of the adventures that I'd like to take. So that's it for this episode of The Racking Cast. I've got a lot of work to do. It's got to focus on what I control. But thank you so much for tuning in. I'm so appreciative to all of you who tuned into The Racking Cast. It means so, so much to me. So I hope you all have a fabulous day wherever you are, and that you do at least three actions that will give you abundant joy and happiness and fulfill your holy purpose. That's it for The Racking Cast. and tell them, I have you and I see each other on "The Rock Me" cast.