This is What Makes for a Good Life
The Amplified Impact Podcast
October 31st, 2023
I want to share a simple, yet powerful concept. We all seek a great life, right?
But what if a great life is just a sequence of great days?
I stumbled upon Stoicism in my quest for life’s meaning, particularly Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations.”
These ancient philosophers contemplated the same questions we do today. They were looking for fulfillment and purpose.
One lesson that resonates deeply is to focus on the present. What if today was your last day? How would you make it great? This is the key to a great life.
Zoom in on the moment, do less but better, and live with intention.
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“The great life is really just a series of great days.”
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Episode Transcript:
Anthony Vicino:
What’s up, everybody? Welcome back to the pod I spent a lot of time thinking about what’s it mean to live a good life. And in my pursuit of trying to answer this question or explore how other people have answered this question, I stumbled many years ago onto Stoicism. Stoicism is, you know, a philosophy of life that I think, in recent years was popularized a lot by Ryan Holiday. He has some really great books called what were they called? Obstacles. The way discipline is. Actually, I’ve read, I think, one Ryan Holiday book. It was very good. But I kind of stumbled into Stoicism through a little bit of a different route, which was just going direct to the source materials from guys like Marcus Aurelius in his book Meditations, which I’ve talked about so many times on this podcast.
Anthony Vicino:
It’s my favorite book of all time. It’s the one that I gift the most often. It has had the most profound effect on my life and my mindset and helping me get out of my own way and move my ego to the backseat so that I can move through life in a more effective way because I have a big ego. In addition to Marcus Ceruleus, there’s Epictetus. Epictetus. I don’t know how to pronounce that. Not Socrates. Seneca.
Anthony Vicino:
Those were the three guys that I read a lot of in this question of what’s the purpose of life? What’s the meaning, what’s it mean to live a good life? Because that, at its core, I think, is what Stoicism is really about, was exploring that question of, like, how do I live in alignment with my highest and best self and those guys. It’s really interesting when you read things that are, like, thousands of years old because you’re struck by the fact that they’re wrestling with all the same things that we’re wrestling with here today. We have first world problems in the sense of my air conditioning or my food, my car breaks down. Like, all these things, first world problems. But there’s, like, this deeper level of issue which we all deal with, which is feelings of anxiety about our place in the world, about our purpose, about our relationships, about envy and jealous and what’s it mean when our ego gets in the way, right? Like, those are things that, despite the fact that we have so many more cool, fancy toys at our disposal these days, we’re still at the base, just animals that are wrestling with all of the same biological and spiritual imperatives. And so reading how those guys approach the question of, like, what’s the purpose of life? What does it mean to live a good life? And having it resonate all these thousands of years later is really, really remarkable, first of all. And on a side note, I think that’s one of the reasons I so strongly encourage people to create content these days, to write out their thoughts, to journal, to share it on the Internet in a medium that is immortal, right? Like this video has a potential to reach somebody 10 00 20 00 30 00 years from right now, they could watch this video back and realize the things that I’m dealing with are likely very similar to the things that they’re dealing with. They might be jet setting across the galaxy and they might be terraforming new planets.
Anthony Vicino:
But at the core of it, they’re still trying to wrestle with the question of what’s it mean to be a good person in this infinite, expansive universe. And so creating content do that, definitely, so that you can leave an impact on the world. But number two, going back to the stoics in that question of what does it mean to live a good life, they have so many good answers for it. And this video today, this podcast, isn’t really about breaking those down. It’s about breaking down just one simple concept, one simple idea that’s helped me maybe more so than any other. And I don’t think I’ve really talked about it much on this podcast, so this will be new territory. The idea that we can live a big or great, fulfilling life is something that dominates my thought a lot, because I want to get to the end of this race and have felt like I made a meaningful contribution, that it was all for something that I played as hard as I could and I did the best that I had in me. I don’t want to get to the end and have regrets about not having gone all out.
Anthony Vicino:
And sometimes that stress of wanting that so badly and thinking so hard about that 10,000 foot view makes it so that you’re so far above the day to day that you lose sight of the fact that a good life is merely the result of good days. That’s all it is. A good life is the result of good days. And so when we operate on this higher level of seeing the forest and we never take the time to zoom in, I find that you can experience a lot of anxiety in that world. Well, you can experience one of two things. You can experience either a lot of anxiety or a lot of inaction. And a lot of times I think my anxiety at least stems from inaction because it’s very hard to operate from 10,000ft above. When you’re thinking about living your grandiose, awesome, great life, it can feel so overwhelming because it’s like, where do I start now? And the idea that’s been so helpful for me is just to recognize that the great life is really just a series of great days.
Anthony Vicino:
And so focusing where you are right now in this moment and asking, what would it look like for today to be a great day? What would that look like if this was the only day I ever had? And it might be it might be the last one that you have. What would you do to make this a fantastic day? Would you continue doing the things that you’re doing right now? Or would you approach your work differently? Would you approach what you’re doing differently? Would you do different things with different people? And if the question is, yes, I would do different things, then you really should wrestle with why you’re not doing that. Why aren’t you? Why aren’t you structuring your life in such a way that it is a series of fantastic great days? And it’s so easy to wake up and just kind of go through the motions of the day and then some period of time down the road, turn around and be like, where’d the week go? Where’d the month go? Where’d the year go? Where’d the decade go? And I don’t want that for you. I want you to be able to look back and be like, I know exactly where it went, and it went someplace awesome. And I think the only way that you can do that is by living in the moment with intention and bringing your full force of focus to this day and just accepting that this might be the last afternoon you have, this might be the last lunch that you have, this might be the last podcast that you ever get to listen to. And so what can you do to make that more impactful, to make it more memorable? And sometimes it’s just by shutting out all of the excess noise in the background and all of that, trying to zoom out higher and higher level to the big life and rather just focus in and say, what am I doing right now, right this instant? In a lot of cases, we’re multitasking. You’re maybe listening to this podcast while doing the dishes or driving a car or going for a walk, and you’re multitasking and you’re doing all these different things concurrently, but you’re not doing any one of them with your entire focus. And for me, at least, the times when I find the most fulfillment, the most purpose, most meaning, and what I would consider a great day is when I’m locked in to the singularity of what I’m doing in that instant.
Anthony Vicino:
So do less, but better with more focus and with less distraction. And I think if you do that on a long enough timescale, then you will have a great life. That is the secret. Or at least that is a secret, or it is not even that. I don’t know what it is. But hopefully this gives you a new perspective, gives you something to chew on today. I appreciate you tuning in, as always, guys and gals, I will see you back around these parts tomorrow, but until then, stay hyper focused, my friends.
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