00:00:00
2,000 years ago Marcus relius is the
00:00:02
most powerful man on Earth he controls
00:00:05
an Empire of tens of millions of square
00:00:08
miles controls the lives of tens of
00:00:11
millions of people he controls the most
00:00:13
powerful Army on Earth he has the power
00:00:16
of life and death over other people he
00:00:19
could have done whatever he wanted he
00:00:20
could have retreated to pleasure and
00:00:22
indolence he could have easily descended
00:00:25
into Insanity from stress and overwork
00:00:28
yet he manages as as one biographer
00:00:30
would say to prove himself worthy of all
00:00:32
the responsibility and power placed upon
00:00:35
him he he manages I think just as
00:00:37
impressively to manage it he isn't
00:00:39
corrupted by it he doesn't break under
00:00:41
the stress by it he acquits himself well
00:00:43
so what's his secret what is the life of
00:00:46
this guy look like how does Marcus
00:00:48
Aurelius manage his debt well because of
00:00:51
Marcus aurelius's meditations his his
00:00:54
the private thoughts of of this totally
00:00:56
unique singular man we have some idea
00:00:58
and that's what I want to talk about to
00:01:00
day the daily routine of Marcus Aurelius
00:01:03
the philosopher king like all people it
00:01:05
starts with the morning for Marcus
00:01:07
aurelus we know that Marcus Aurelius
00:01:10
wakes up early we know this because he
00:01:12
talks in meditations about struggling
00:01:16
with this right he's a Mourning person
00:01:18
but not by Nature he's a Mourning person
00:01:20
by habit at dawn when you have trouble
00:01:22
getting out of bed he says tell yourself
00:01:25
I have to go to work as a human being is
00:01:27
this what I was created for to huddle
00:01:28
under the blankon state warm it's nice
00:01:31
here and he says but are you made to
00:01:33
feel nice no Marcus Aurelius attacks the
00:01:36
dawn he gets up he gets after it as I
00:01:39
think most productive successful people
00:01:42
do you start the day with a conscious
00:01:45
Choice a choice to do the thing that
00:01:47
isn't easy but starts the day off right
00:01:50
and we can imagine he is doing some of
00:01:53
his meditative work his study of
00:01:55
philosophy his writing his journaling
00:01:57
there in the morning before he was besed
00:01:59
Ed by inquiries people who wanted favors
00:02:03
before the bad news had been delivered
00:02:05
before he had to get up and travel
00:02:07
before the battle begun he was carving
00:02:09
out a little time for Stillness and
00:02:12
reflection what he's not doing is the
00:02:13
equivalent of what so many of us do in
00:02:15
the morning which is we go straight to
00:02:17
this thing before our feet Hit the Floor
00:02:20
we're sucked into the phone we're sucked
00:02:22
into the to-do list we're not
00:02:24
cultivating that that stoic state of
00:02:26
ataraxia of freedom from disturbance
00:02:28
we're not being reflected we're not
00:02:30
being intentional we're just putting out
00:02:33
fires from the minute we wake up and
00:02:35
it's very clear that Marcus aelius is
00:02:38
using this little bit of time in the
00:02:40
morning to be in a meditative
00:02:43
philosophical intentional State this is
00:02:45
how he opens book two of meditations
00:02:48
again he's talking about the morning
00:02:50
here he says when you wake up in the
00:02:52
morning tell yourself the people I deal
00:02:54
with today will be meddling ungrateful
00:02:55
arrogant dishonest jealous and Surly
00:02:57
he's not saying hey the day sucks he's
00:03:00
trying to think who are the kind of
00:03:01
people that I'm going to meet today what
00:03:02
are they going to be like and then he's
00:03:04
saying look how can I be patient how can
00:03:06
I be understanding how can I deal with
00:03:08
this how can I anticipate this this is
00:03:10
one of the stoic ideas senica says that
00:03:12
the unexpected blow lands heaviest if
00:03:13
you expect everyone to be wonderful and
00:03:15
awesome if you expect to get nothing but
00:03:17
green lights all day you're going to be
00:03:18
sorely disappointed Marcus is instead
00:03:20
trying to anticipate due this idea of
00:03:22
premeditation and then you know what he
00:03:24
says In this passage he says look why
00:03:25
are they like this and what is my job in
00:03:28
relation to them he's saying don't lose
00:03:29
your temper with them don't write them
00:03:30
off try to find the good in them right
00:03:33
so Marcus is trying to anticipate how
00:03:35
the day is going to go and set himself
00:03:37
up for success but because Marcus Reis
00:03:40
does have a difficult job because there
00:03:41
is immense amount of responsibility on
00:03:43
them he has to get to work that's what
00:03:45
he's doing in that passage he said get
00:03:46
up get after what were you put here to
00:03:48
do right he tells himself throughout
00:03:50
meditations concentrate on your tasks
00:03:53
like a Roman he points out the example
00:03:55
of antoninus his predecessor and beloved
00:03:58
stepfather about how antoninus planned
00:04:00
out his day how he even planned out his
00:04:02
bathroom break so he wasn't wasting time
00:04:04
he tried to show up and when he was at
00:04:06
work to be at work he didn't complain
00:04:09
about this this is another thing Marcus
00:04:10
Reus talks about he says never be
00:04:12
overheard complaining at court not even
00:04:14
to yourself what do I have to do today
00:04:16
what are my responsibilities what are my
00:04:18
jobs let's do them and for Marcus this
00:04:20
would have been making decisions
00:04:22
throughout the day this would have been
00:04:23
hearing cases this would have been
00:04:26
speaking to crowds this would have been
00:04:28
travel this would s of in some cases
00:04:30
been uh leading troops into battle right
00:04:33
but all the while he's having to be
00:04:35
focused he he says get used to winnowing
00:04:38
your thoughts he says if somebody asks
00:04:40
you what you're thinking about you
00:04:41
should be able to answer saying don't
00:04:44
let your mind wander don't get
00:04:46
distracted focus on what you're doing
00:04:48
he's talking about what Cal Newport
00:04:50
would call Deep work the ability to
00:04:52
focus on the task in front of you to
00:04:54
actually do it again not to be
00:04:56
distracted by this thing or all the
00:04:58
other things that you could be doing
00:04:59
lock on to the task in front of you that
00:05:02
is a key part of Marcus aurelius's
00:05:04
workstyle his his philosophical beliefs
00:05:07
and his daily routine you can imagine
00:05:09
that Marcus is sucked into meetings he's
00:05:11
meeting with advisers and ministers and
00:05:14
ambassadors he's getting briefed on
00:05:15
strategy one of the things he says he
00:05:17
learns from antoninus is is when to
00:05:19
yield the floor to experts how to listen
00:05:22
to other people's opinions how to take
00:05:24
in feedback and criticism he says you
00:05:26
know when somebody corrects me when they
00:05:28
tell me that I've been wrong that I'm
00:05:30
wrong he's like they're not harming me
00:05:31
they're doing me a favor he says the
00:05:33
harm is to remain in air to not correct
00:05:36
it so it there would have just been a
00:05:38
lot coming at him his job would have
00:05:39
been stressful it would have been
00:05:41
exhausting it would have weighed on him
00:05:43
but he tried to approach it with the
00:05:44
might the right mindset and he tried to
00:05:47
keep it contained this is I I think an
00:05:49
important part because there has to be
00:05:51
balance right we work very hard we throw
00:05:53
ourselves at at what we have to do but
00:05:55
if we're all about business that's one
00:05:57
of the things Marcus says in meditation
00:05:58
say remind yourself not to be all about
00:06:00
business and we know that Marcus was not
00:06:03
all about business we know that he he
00:06:05
was active in physical exercise right we
00:06:08
know that he enjoyed boxing and
00:06:10
wrestling and hunting and horseback
00:06:12
riding we know that he would take walks
00:06:15
right we we see all these fascinating
00:06:17
observations in meditations about nature
00:06:20
right he's walking through the fields
00:06:21
like that scene in Gladiator he's
00:06:23
dragging the hand there's a passage in
00:06:24
meditations about grain bending low
00:06:26
under its weight he talks about you know
00:06:28
the flex of foam on a Boar's mouth the
00:06:31
brow of the lion right he he's getting
00:06:33
outside he's enjoying nature the stoic
00:06:35
said that the whole world is a temple of
00:06:37
the Gods Markus is going out there and
00:06:39
having this spiritual experience a hobby
00:06:42
he was not into that many Romans shared
00:06:44
was the Carnage of the Coliseum we know
00:06:47
Marcus didn't like this he liked getting
00:06:49
away from his Imperial duties but he
00:06:51
hated the violence of it he hated the
00:06:53
the the pointlessness of it and so it's
00:06:55
funny he was often seen doing his
00:06:57
philosophical work or reading papers or
00:06:59
thinking he he was he was there he had
00:07:02
to be there but but mentally he was
00:07:04
somewhere else because he wanted peace
00:07:07
and
00:07:08
relaxation he says look it doesn't
00:07:10
matter where you are he says people long
00:07:12
to get away from it all right they want
00:07:14
to travel they want to just leave all
00:07:16
their work behind he says but you can
00:07:17
Retreat inwards to your own soul at any
00:07:20
moment and that's what Marcus was doing
00:07:22
there at the Coliseum it didn't matter
00:07:23
how horrifying and violent and gory and
00:07:25
loud what was going on on the floor was
00:07:28
he was reading Ides he was reading
00:07:31
escalus he was reading the Odyssey he
00:07:34
was reading cleanthes or Zeno or epicus
00:07:38
he was studying philosophy he was
00:07:40
getting out of the dustiness of Rome
00:07:43
getting somewhere clean and better and
00:07:45
he probably visited the baths every day
00:07:47
he talks about washing off the dirt of
00:07:50
of Earthly life and I think he means
00:07:52
this phys figuratively and literally the
00:07:55
Romans uh one of the things part big
00:07:57
part of Roman culture was the gymnasia
00:07:59
and then and then the baths so you'd
00:08:01
work out and then the cold plunge or a
00:08:05
hot bath and if if you visit a quinam
00:08:08
which is a little Roman Camp outside
00:08:10
buddhafest where Markus probably wrote
00:08:12
Some of meditations you can actually go
00:08:15
in one of the hot springs that Marcus
00:08:17
probably visited right so so Marcus
00:08:19
isn't all about business he does find
00:08:22
relaxation and pleasure he is washing
00:08:24
off the dirt and dustiness of life so he
00:08:27
can get back to what he needs to do and
00:08:30
look Marcus's Imperial duties would have
00:08:32
been overwhelming to even the strongest
00:08:35
of people in Marcus re's Reign there's a
00:08:37
series of historic floods there's a
00:08:39
devastating plague the antonine plague
00:08:42
there's Wars there's an invasion there's
00:08:44
coups he has health issues he has family
00:08:47
issues one ancient historian say Marcus
00:08:49
doesn't have the good fortune that he
00:08:51
deserves his whole Reign is involved in
00:08:52
a series of trouble the stress would
00:08:54
have been unimaginable the difficulty
00:08:56
would have been overwhelming there must
00:08:57
have been moments where Marcus r fell to
00:08:58
his knees and he said look I just can't
00:09:00
do it but first off he believed he had
00:09:02
to do it it was his responsibility
00:09:04
people were counting on him and also he
00:09:07
realized he had to have helpful coping
00:09:09
mechanisms to deal with this stress
00:09:11
that's part of what his journaling
00:09:13
practice is that's what stoicism was
00:09:15
helping him with amidst all of this
00:09:17
difficulty and stress what what he's
00:09:18
trying to do is stay calm stay centered
00:09:22
to avoid anger and destructive emotions
00:09:24
to to not be reactive but to be
00:09:27
intentional and the idea the obstacles
00:09:29
is the way comes from this like he's
00:09:31
dealing with difficult people he's
00:09:32
dealing with difficult situations he's
00:09:33
dealing with things that are that that
00:09:35
bad news but he's trying to see it all
00:09:37
as an opportunity to practice virtue
00:09:39
famously when when Marcus is betrayed by
00:09:41
aidus Casas his most trusted General he
00:09:44
doesn't immediately react he steps back
00:09:46
he he he doesn't say anything he's just
00:09:48
trying to think about he doesn't want to
00:09:49
be emotional he doesn't want to let his
00:09:50
personal feelings into the mix and then
00:09:52
he comes back and he says look look this
00:09:53
is a chance for us to show he says to
00:09:55
show the Romans and to show the future
00:09:58
how a country can deal with civil Strife
00:10:01
he tried to do what he talks about in
00:10:03
meditations where he says the best
00:10:04
revenge is to not be like that he wanted
00:10:06
not to overreact he wanted not to be
00:10:09
broken by it he wanted to use it as an
00:10:11
opportunity always everything was an
00:10:14
opportunity to Marcus big and little
00:10:16
every the little experiences he had
00:10:18
throughout the day the big experiences
00:10:19
throughout the day was always an
00:10:21
opportunity to respond with ir and
00:10:23
virtue and decency as we said Marcus Ros
00:10:26
isn't all about business when he's not
00:10:28
doing his Hobbies he's not getting
00:10:29
getting out there getting active you
00:10:30
know strong mind and a strong body he is
00:10:32
focusing on reading and writing which he
00:10:33
saw as an essential part of his job in
00:10:36
in every facet we have the letters that
00:10:38
he writes to his his mentor and teacher
00:10:41
Cornelius fronto he's still writing
00:10:43
these lovely letters well into his Reign
00:10:46
he's debating philosophical things with
00:10:48
his teacher rusticus and we know that
00:10:50
Marcus read a lot both as a kid and as
00:10:53
an adult because his writings is are
00:10:56
full of these references that he's
00:10:57
making from memory to the play of Ides
00:11:00
he's directly quoting epicus and cipus
00:11:02
Zeno and all these other thinkers
00:11:04
because they're right there on top of
00:11:05
Mine He's reading and rereading he's
00:11:07
lingering on the works of the master of
00:11:09
thinkers as senica said what he had
00:11:10
learned from his teacher rusticus he
00:11:12
said is to never be satisfied just
00:11:15
giving the gist of things so when Marcus
00:11:17
relus reads he's he's diligent about it
00:11:20
he's focused about it he's taking notes
00:11:22
he's processing he's looking things up
00:11:24
he's not this casual reader he's not
00:11:26
just reading for fun or reading for
00:11:28
status he's reading to learn and to get
00:11:30
better and I would imagine that this
00:11:32
reading routine was probably part of his
00:11:33
evening routine right senica would talk
00:11:36
about a ritual he had that at the end of
00:11:38
the day he would put himself up for
00:11:39
review I think in the midnight dimness
00:11:41
as one of markus's biographers would say
00:11:43
he was putting himself up for review
00:11:45
that's what meditations is Marcus
00:11:47
aurelius's interrogation of himself his
00:11:49
review of himself what he could do
00:11:51
better how he could do better holding
00:11:52
him accountable what went right what
00:11:54
went wrong where can he improve because
00:11:56
look there's not a lot of people that
00:11:58
can do that for marks he doesn't have a
00:12:00
boss the Judgment of history is far off
00:12:02
he's trying to remind himself what's
00:12:04
important he has to be the final bit of
00:12:06
accountability philosophy was the final
00:12:08
bit of accountability he says fight to
00:12:10
be the person philosophy tried to make
00:12:12
you that's what he was doing throughout
00:12:13
the day but it's in the evening with the
00:12:15
journal and the reading and the thinking
00:12:17
and the quiet time that the lessons are
00:12:19
being learned there and we can imagine
00:12:21
that not a day goes by certainly not an
00:12:24
evening that goes by the Marcus realist
00:12:26
doesn't do the stoic practice of momento
00:12:28
Mor you could leave life right now
00:12:30
Markus says let that determine what you
00:12:32
do and say and think Markus tried to
00:12:35
spend lots of time with his family he
00:12:36
writes in one of his letters to fronto
00:12:38
how he would trade all of it to just
00:12:40
have more time with his wife he says as
00:12:42
you tuck your children in at night say
00:12:44
to yourself they will not make it to the
00:12:46
morning and this wasn't morbid he wasn't
00:12:48
like trying to PR practice his Monkish
00:12:50
Detachment from the people that he loved
00:12:52
he was trying to say why are you rushing
00:12:53
through this why are you not soaking
00:12:55
this in why are you not being present
00:12:56
for it and this practice of momento Mor
00:12:59
is is is an essential part of the stoic
00:13:01
daily routine and we can imagine not a
00:13:03
single day in Marcus ais's life going by
00:13:06
without it and we can imagine part of
00:13:08
Marcus's daily routine you know he just
00:13:10
spent the whole day being celebrated
00:13:11
being clapped for being told how
00:13:13
important and Powerful he was people
00:13:14
were saluting thousands of soldiers
00:13:16
appeared before him Kings of other
00:13:18
nations you know gave him gifts he he
00:13:20
tried to actively remind himself that he
00:13:23
wasn't that important that posum his
00:13:25
Fame was worthless he tried to stay
00:13:27
humble with it he says be careful not
00:13:29
not to be Caesar fied right not to be
00:13:31
stained purple he would look out at the
00:13:33
fancy feasts or the honors or the
00:13:35
jewelry they put on him and he he would
00:13:37
say look at look at this this is a dead
00:13:39
pig this is a rock pulled out of a mine
00:13:41
this is a silly metal he's trying to not
00:13:43
be changed or transformed or made to
00:13:47
feel better then as a result of this
00:13:50
very unusual strange surreal existence
00:13:54
that he had and each of us should have
00:13:56
some version of this practice in our own
00:13:57
life too because success can can go to
00:14:00
your head because busyness can make you
00:14:03
feel important being at the center of
00:14:05
things can make you feel like you're the
00:14:06
center of the universe but you're not
00:14:07
right and part of the philosophical
00:14:09
practice is to zoom out Mark sh talks
00:14:11
about looking at things from above look
00:14:13
at this Army not how powerful it is up
00:14:15
close but how it resembles ants from far
00:14:18
away he's trying to get perspective
00:14:20
always I think this is a key part of
00:14:22
Marcus's routine and I imagine that
00:14:24
throughout the day but especially at
00:14:25
night as he's just thinking about how he
00:14:27
just spent these last few hours Mar R is
00:14:29
asking this question we see in
00:14:30
meditations he says whenever you are
00:14:32
afraid of death whenever you want to
00:14:34
live forever he says ask yourself am I
00:14:36
afraid of death because I won't be able
00:14:37
to do this anymore we so value our time
00:14:40
but he was talking about how frivolously
00:14:42
we spend it right we waste it on things
00:14:43
we act as if we have forever but we
00:14:45
don't the stoics knew that death wasn't
00:14:47
a thing that was happening in the future
00:14:48
but the death was happening now dying
00:14:50
every minute we're dying every day mark
00:14:52
relus would have seen the passage of
00:14:54
each day per stoic philosopy as a kind
00:14:56
of death so at the end of the day he's
00:14:59
he asking himself what do I have to show
00:15:00
for the hours that I just spent and if
00:15:02
this was the last day of my life he's
00:15:04
trying to imagine going to bed and not
00:15:06
waking up if I wake up in the morning I
00:15:08
get a second chance tomorrow how am I
00:15:10
going to do better how am I going to
00:15:11
grow what am I going to learn how am I
00:15:13
not going to take that time for granted
00:15:14
a day in the life of Marcus Rus on the
00:15:16
one hand his his life is experience
00:15:18
should be totally unrelatable to us
00:15:19
unimaginable unfathomable to us the most
00:15:22
powerful man in the world 2,000 years
00:15:24
ago speaking languages we don't speak
00:15:26
anymore living in ways we we we would
00:15:29
never live anymore and yet as we see in
00:15:31
meditations as we see in his routine he
00:15:33
was like us the past is a foreign
00:15:35
country and yet human beings are human
00:15:37
beings are human beings and the more
00:15:39
things change the more they stay the
00:15:40
same and from Marcus we can see so many
00:15:42
great habits and practices that we
00:15:45
should apply in our own life and
00:15:46
circling back here after these
00:15:48
meditations after all this thinking is
00:15:50
he's got to get to bed right it's easy
00:15:52
to talk about waking up early but if
00:15:54
you're not protecting your sleep if you
00:15:56
don't have discipline before bed again
00:15:58
if you're rolling this phone thing until
00:16:00
3:00 in the morning and then trying to
00:16:02
get up with the Dawn you're going to
00:16:03
have trouble and we know Marcus re was a
00:16:05
bit of an insomniac probably the stress
00:16:07
and and the health issues kept him up
00:16:08
but he tried to get to bed he tried to
00:16:10
take care of himself and you have to do
00:16:12
that
00:16:15
also when I wrote The Daily stok 8 years
00:16:18
ago I had this crazy idea that I would
00:16:19
just keep it going the book was 366
00:16:21
meditations but I'd write one more every
00:16:24
single day and i' give it away for free
00:16:25
as an email I thought maybe a few people
00:16:27
would sign up couldn't have even
00:16:29
comprehended a future in which 34 of a
00:16:31
million people would get this email
00:16:33
every single day and would for almost a
00:16:35
decade if you want to get the email if
00:16:37
you want to be part of a community that
00:16:38
is the largest group of stoics ever
00:16:40
assembled in human history I'd love for
00:16:42
you to join us you can sign up and get
00:16:44
the email totally for free no spam you
00:16:45
can unsubscribe whenever you want at
00:16:47
Daily stoic.com
00:16:50
[Music]
00:16:53
[Applause]
00:16:54
[Music]
