December 21, 2023 • 9 mins
Using lyrics from KRS-One and a quote from Ryan Holiday, Dramos explores the idea of recognizing the areas we need to improve on ourselves, especially when it comes to mental health.
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Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yes, Yes, I am Dramos and this is the Street
Stoic Podcast, bringing your daily dose of timeless stoic philosophy
remix for the hip hop generation. Now, with that in mind,
let's get things started with your daily shot of inspiration.
(00:36):
Now today for me talking all about the stoic idea
of diminishing your ego, right, and with this one, I
think it's about knowledge of self, right, It's about self
awareness at the end of the day. That's kind of
the conversation today. And I love this quote right here
from Chaos one where he says knowledge reigns supreme over
(00:59):
nearly everyone, and knowledge at the end of the day
is wisdom. Right, all that we know, all that we
know about ourselves at the end of the day is
the greatest gift in our greatest asset. I'm gonna follow
that up with a quote from Aristotle where he says
knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. And I
just think that that's such a powerful sort of piece
(01:21):
of information or vantage point to be able to look
at things from right understanding that everything starts within, of course,
and the better you know yourself, the more you're setting
yourself up for a successful life, a happy life, a
good career, good relationship, whatever it might be, right, it
all starts with the knowledge of self self awareness at
the end of the day. And I'm gonna put a
(01:43):
quote from not one of the Stokes, but he is
a foremost expert, Ryan Holliday, the author, and this is
a quote from his book Ego Is the Enemy, And
in it he says, one might say that the ability
to evaluate one's own ability is the most important skin
of all. Without it, improvement is impossible, and certainly ego
(02:05):
makes it difficult every step of the way. It is
certainly more pleasurable to focus on our talents and our strengths,
but where does that get us. Arrogance and self absorption
inhibit growth, so does fantasy and quote unquote vision. I
just threw a whole lot at you with that one.
But basically what he's saying here is that not being
too proud to recognize the fact that there is more
(02:27):
growth to be had. Right, you are not perfect as is,
and that doesn't mean that you are less for them,
doesn't mean you should be shaming yourself. None of us
are perfect, but we have to be humble enough to
know what we don't know and to accept it and
have the self awareness around where we can improve in
order to become the person that we want to be
right again, It's all that self awareness understanding where you
(02:50):
are falling short. And when you have that understanding, when
you're able to have that sort of recognition, that very
real conversation with yourself, that's when you're able to attack
anything that is holding you back. And to be honest,
you know, when I was thinking about this this quote,
what was top of mind was the idea of mental
health right and therapy. And I've been somebody who has
been very much out there in the front lines talking
(03:14):
about mental health and sort of bringing anybody who would
listen on my journey. And what I sort of have
recognized and what I'm proud of myself of is the
fact that I recently went back to therapy at the
beginning of this year, and after probably having about a
year or two of from having a regular therapist. And
I'm proud of myself because I had an awareness around
(03:37):
a cycle that kept coming up for me in my life.
I had the awareness around a pattern of behavior that
kept rearing its ugly head in my life, and that
wasn't you know, just going away on its own and
rather than being too proud or being arrogant in thinking
that I'm a good person, other people just have to
deal with it, deal with this, this sort of shortcoming
(03:58):
of mine. I made a conscious effort to say, nah,
I need to get help around this. I need to
work through some problems, some emotions. You know, no matter
how much work I've done on myself, no matter how
much inspiration I try to spread for other people, I
too still need to do the work. And me, you know,
picking up my phone and you know, re downloading my
therapist app and signing back up was me not being arrogant,
(04:21):
me putting my ego to the side and saying that
I need to become better at certain things. I need
to heal in certain places, and I can't do it
on my own. I need to get help, right And
that knowledge that then comes from the sort of deep
dive that happens when you go to therapy and you
learn about you know, where all of your patterns, your triggers,
all those things come from, where your behaviors come from.
(04:43):
That now gives me a far greater sort of vantage
point of of who I am as a person, What
makes me tick? What makes me better? Where can I improve?
How can I show up better for the people around me? Right?
And that again leads to the idea of wisdom. Now
we've talked about the idea of ego with a quote
from KRS one. I snuck an Aristotle quote in there.
(05:03):
We had a quote from Ryan Holiday, the author, talk
a bit about my own journey with putting my ego
aside and getting back into therapy. Now let's talk about
how you can make the idea of diminishing your ego
your mantra for today. But first it's take a quick
break and then we'll be right back. All right, So
(05:27):
we're talking about the idea of diminishing your ego. We
have heard from krs one. I've given you some Aristotle
quote in there. Give you a quote from the author
Ryan Holiday from his book Ego Is the Enemy. He
literally wrote the book on diminishing your ego. I've given
you some insight into my own journey with this. Now
let's talk about how you can make it your mantra
for today. And you know, I think we all just
(05:49):
have to a do a better job of slowing down
and having conversations with ourselves and having honest conversations. I
think recognizing that we really have to take a long,
hard look in the mirror. You know, at the end
of the day, if there are certain patterns that keep
showing up in our lives, if we keep falling short
(06:11):
in in certain areas over and over again, we have
to look in the mirror and recognize that we are
a part of that and we have to do something
to correct that. It's about recognizing that you don't know everything,
that just because you've accomplished X, Y, and Z, it
doesn't mean that you have everything figured out, and there
aren't going to be times where you have to recognize
(06:32):
your own shortcomings and figure out a way to grow,
be it reaching out for help in a certain area
of expertise or with your mental health like I was
talking about with therapy, right, just understanding that you can't
do everything on your own, and your ego is going
to try and make you feel like you're lesser than
it's going to tell you that you know you don't
(06:54):
need anybody else. It's going to shame you for thinking
that you need anybody else, but anybody who is smart,
anybody who who is truly trying to evolve in this
life and also trying to find success, understands that they're
not going to do it on their own, and they
recognize that when they can let their guard down, and
when they can admit that they need help in a
(07:14):
particular area or they need to focus attention on a
particular area and educate themselves. When they can have that
admission and not, you know, let ego sort of block
them from making that decision, that's when you open yourself
up to real growth, and real growth leads to gaining
further knowledge. That leads to to wisdom, right, that leads
to expertise. But it all starts with first the acknowledgment
(07:36):
that there is something to be learned here, there is
some sort of growth to be had here, whatever your
particular situation is that's coming to mind. You first have
to acknowledge that you are falling short in a particular area.
And again, we all do as human beings. None of
us are every single thing. So to recap all we've
been talking about today on the stoic idea of diminishing
(07:56):
your ego, you have kras One saying knowledge brainsuit preme
over nearly everyone and at the end of the day,
like Aristotle says, quote, knowing yourself is the beginning of
all wisdom. Right, It all starts from within. The greatest
knowledge that you can have in this life is knowledge
of self, is self awareness, right, is being able to
(08:17):
have honest conversations with yourself about what needs to be
done where you can improve at the end of the day. Right.
And that's what Ryan Holliday is talking about here in
the book Ego is the Enemy, right, talking about the
idea that improvement is only possible when you acknowledge that
there is some sort of problem or there's some sort
of shortcoming. That's the only way to get better. If
(08:38):
you think you have it all figured out already, you
think that you're perfect, you're never going to improve beyond
where you are right now. And for me personally on
my own journey talking about mental health, recognizing that I
don't have all the answers and that even though I've
gone through extensive man just different programs and reading about
things and challenging myself to learn, I still don't have
(08:59):
all the answers. And there's no shame in recognizing patterns
and then asking someone you know who's a professional for
help to kind of break through that ceiling that's been
holding me back. Right And with that said, thank you
so much for checking out the Street Stoke Podcast. Be
your best to apply these concepts that we discussed into
your everyday life, and I'll catch you next time. The
(09:23):
Street Stoke Podcast is a production of Iheart's Michael Tura
Podcast Network
Yes, Yes, I am Dramos and this is the Street
Stoic Podcast, bringing your daily dose of timeless stoic philosophy
remix for the hip hop generation. Now, with that in mind,
let's get things started with your daily shot of inspiration.
(00:36):
Now today for me talking all about the stoic idea
of diminishing your ego, right, and with this one, I
think it's about knowledge of self, right, It's about self
awareness at the end of the day. That's kind of
the conversation today. And I love this quote right here
from Chaos one where he says knowledge reigns supreme over
(00:59):
nearly everyone, and knowledge at the end of the day
is wisdom. Right, all that we know, all that we
know about ourselves at the end of the day is
the greatest gift in our greatest asset. I'm gonna follow
that up with a quote from Aristotle where he says
knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. And I
just think that that's such a powerful sort of piece
(01:21):
of information or vantage point to be able to look
at things from right understanding that everything starts within, of course,
and the better you know yourself, the more you're setting
yourself up for a successful life, a happy life, a
good career, good relationship, whatever it might be, right, it
all starts with the knowledge of self self awareness at
the end of the day. And I'm gonna put a
(01:43):
quote from not one of the Stokes, but he is
a foremost expert, Ryan Holliday, the author, and this is
a quote from his book Ego Is the Enemy, And
in it he says, one might say that the ability
to evaluate one's own ability is the most important skin
of all. Without it, improvement is impossible, and certainly ego
(02:05):
makes it difficult every step of the way. It is
certainly more pleasurable to focus on our talents and our strengths,
but where does that get us. Arrogance and self absorption
inhibit growth, so does fantasy and quote unquote vision. I
just threw a whole lot at you with that one.
But basically what he's saying here is that not being
too proud to recognize the fact that there is more
(02:27):
growth to be had. Right, you are not perfect as is,
and that doesn't mean that you are less for them,
doesn't mean you should be shaming yourself. None of us
are perfect, but we have to be humble enough to
know what we don't know and to accept it and
have the self awareness around where we can improve in
order to become the person that we want to be
right again, It's all that self awareness understanding where you
(02:50):
are falling short. And when you have that understanding, when
you're able to have that sort of recognition, that very
real conversation with yourself, that's when you're able to attack
anything that is holding you back. And to be honest,
you know, when I was thinking about this this quote,
what was top of mind was the idea of mental
health right and therapy. And I've been somebody who has
been very much out there in the front lines talking
(03:14):
about mental health and sort of bringing anybody who would
listen on my journey. And what I sort of have
recognized and what I'm proud of myself of is the
fact that I recently went back to therapy at the
beginning of this year, and after probably having about a
year or two of from having a regular therapist. And
I'm proud of myself because I had an awareness around
(03:37):
a cycle that kept coming up for me in my life.
I had the awareness around a pattern of behavior that
kept rearing its ugly head in my life, and that
wasn't you know, just going away on its own and
rather than being too proud or being arrogant in thinking
that I'm a good person, other people just have to
deal with it, deal with this, this sort of shortcoming
(03:58):
of mine. I made a conscious effort to say, nah,
I need to get help around this. I need to
work through some problems, some emotions. You know, no matter
how much work I've done on myself, no matter how
much inspiration I try to spread for other people, I
too still need to do the work. And me, you know,
picking up my phone and you know, re downloading my
therapist app and signing back up was me not being arrogant,
(04:21):
me putting my ego to the side and saying that
I need to become better at certain things. I need
to heal in certain places, and I can't do it
on my own. I need to get help, right And
that knowledge that then comes from the sort of deep
dive that happens when you go to therapy and you
learn about you know, where all of your patterns, your triggers,
all those things come from, where your behaviors come from.
(04:43):
That now gives me a far greater sort of vantage
point of of who I am as a person, What
makes me tick? What makes me better? Where can I improve?
How can I show up better for the people around me? Right?
And that again leads to the idea of wisdom. Now
we've talked about the idea of ego with a quote
from KRS one. I snuck an Aristotle quote in there.
(05:03):
We had a quote from Ryan Holiday, the author, talk
a bit about my own journey with putting my ego
aside and getting back into therapy. Now let's talk about
how you can make the idea of diminishing your ego
your mantra for today. But first it's take a quick
break and then we'll be right back. All right, So
(05:27):
we're talking about the idea of diminishing your ego. We
have heard from krs one. I've given you some Aristotle
quote in there. Give you a quote from the author
Ryan Holiday from his book Ego Is the Enemy. He
literally wrote the book on diminishing your ego. I've given
you some insight into my own journey with this. Now
let's talk about how you can make it your mantra
for today. And you know, I think we all just
(05:49):
have to a do a better job of slowing down
and having conversations with ourselves and having honest conversations. I
think recognizing that we really have to take a long,
hard look in the mirror. You know, at the end
of the day, if there are certain patterns that keep
showing up in our lives, if we keep falling short
(06:11):
in in certain areas over and over again, we have
to look in the mirror and recognize that we are
a part of that and we have to do something
to correct that. It's about recognizing that you don't know everything,
that just because you've accomplished X, Y, and Z, it
doesn't mean that you have everything figured out, and there
aren't going to be times where you have to recognize
(06:32):
your own shortcomings and figure out a way to grow,
be it reaching out for help in a certain area
of expertise or with your mental health like I was
talking about with therapy, right, just understanding that you can't
do everything on your own, and your ego is going
to try and make you feel like you're lesser than
it's going to tell you that you know you don't
(06:54):
need anybody else. It's going to shame you for thinking
that you need anybody else, but anybody who is smart,
anybody who who is truly trying to evolve in this
life and also trying to find success, understands that they're
not going to do it on their own, and they
recognize that when they can let their guard down, and
when they can admit that they need help in a
(07:14):
particular area or they need to focus attention on a
particular area and educate themselves. When they can have that
admission and not, you know, let ego sort of block
them from making that decision, that's when you open yourself
up to real growth, and real growth leads to gaining
further knowledge. That leads to to wisdom, right, that leads
to expertise. But it all starts with first the acknowledgment
(07:36):
that there is something to be learned here, there is
some sort of growth to be had here, whatever your
particular situation is that's coming to mind. You first have
to acknowledge that you are falling short in a particular area.
And again, we all do as human beings. None of
us are every single thing. So to recap all we've
been talking about today on the stoic idea of diminishing
(07:56):
your ego, you have kras One saying knowledge brainsuit preme
over nearly everyone and at the end of the day,
like Aristotle says, quote, knowing yourself is the beginning of
all wisdom. Right, It all starts from within. The greatest
knowledge that you can have in this life is knowledge
of self, is self awareness, right, is being able to
(08:17):
have honest conversations with yourself about what needs to be
done where you can improve at the end of the day. Right.
And that's what Ryan Holliday is talking about here in
the book Ego is the Enemy, right, talking about the
idea that improvement is only possible when you acknowledge that
there is some sort of problem or there's some sort
of shortcoming. That's the only way to get better. If
(08:38):
you think you have it all figured out already, you
think that you're perfect, you're never going to improve beyond
where you are right now. And for me personally on
my own journey talking about mental health, recognizing that I
don't have all the answers and that even though I've
gone through extensive man just different programs and reading about
things and challenging myself to learn, I still don't have
(08:59):
all the answers. And there's no shame in recognizing patterns
and then asking someone you know who's a professional for
help to kind of break through that ceiling that's been
holding me back. Right And with that said, thank you
so much for checking out the Street Stoke Podcast. Be
your best to apply these concepts that we discussed into
your everyday life, and I'll catch you next time. The
(09:23):
Street Stoke Podcast is a production of Iheart's Michael Tura
Podcast Network
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