Daily Wisdom #11

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THE DAILY STOIC

By Ryan Holiday

SHOW ME HOW TO LIVE

“Show me that the good life doesn’t consist in its length, but in its use, and that it is possible—no, entirely too common—for a person who has had a long life to have lived too little.” —SENECA

There’s no need to show Seneca. Show yourself. That no matter how many years you’re ultimately given, your life can be clearly and earnestly said to have been a long and full one. We all know someone like that—someone we lost too early but even now, think, If I could do half of what they did, I’ll consider my life well lived.

The best way to get there is by focusing on what is here right now, on the task you have at hand—big or small. As he says, by pouring ourselves fully and intentionally into the present, it “gentle[s] the passing of time’s precipitous flight.”

THE DAILY LAWS

By Robert Greene

Don’t Always Believe Your Eyes

The CBS News reporter Lesley Stahl had been covering the 1984 presidential campaign, and as Election Day neared, she had an uneasy feeling. It wasn’t so much that Ronald Reagan had focused on emotions and moods rather than hard issues. It was more that the media was giving him a free ride; he and his election team, she felt, were playing the press like a fiddle. She decided to assemble a news piece that would show the public how Reagan used television to cover up the negative effects of his policies. A senior White House official telephoned her the evening it aired: “Great piece,” he said. “What?” asked a stunned Stahl. “Great piece,” he repeated. “Did you listen to what I said?” she asked. “Lesley, when you’re showing four and a half minutes of great pictures of Ronald Reagan, no one listens to what you say. Don’t you know that the pictures are overriding your message because they conflict with your message? The public sees those pictures, and they block your message. They didn’t even hear what you said. So, in our minds, it was a four-and-a-half-minute free ad for the Ronald Reagan campaign for reelection.” Most of the men who worked on communications for Reagan had a background in marketing. They knew the importance of telling a story crisply, sharply, and with good visuals. Each morning they went over what the headline of the day should be, and how they could shape this into a short visual piece, getting the president into a video opportunity. They paid detailed attention to the backdrop behind the president in the Oval Office, to the way the camera framed him when he was with other world leaders, and to having him filmed in motion, with his confident walk. The visuals carried the message better than any words could do. As one Reagan official said, “What are you going to believe, the facts or your eyes?”

Daily Law: Nonplayers are masters at visual effects, to distract from their manipulations. Guard yourself by paying more attention to the content and the facts than the form of their message.

A CALENDAR OF WISDOM

By Leo Tolstoy

We should be satisfied with the small things in life. The less we need, the less trouble we can have.

It is great happiness to have what you desire, but it is an even greater happiness not to want more than you already have. —MENEDEMUS

Who is a wise man?—He who studies all the time. Who is strong?—He who can limit himself. Who is rich?—He who is happy with what he has. —The TALMUD

Nature needs small things, but your imagination needs much. From pleasures appear sadness and fear. He who is free from pleasures does not have either fear or sadness. —BUDDHIST WISDOM

The initial joy on becoming free is better than being a king; it is more beautiful than going to heaven; it is more important than commanding whole worlds. —BUDDHIST WISDOM

The growth of your desires is not the way to perfection, as many people think. To the contrary, the more a person limits himself, the better he can understand his human dignity, and the more free, the more brave he becomes, and most importantly, the more capable of serving God and other people.

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