January 11, 2024 • 9 mins
Dramos focuses on the stoic idea of diminishing your ego. He uses lyrics from SAINt JHN and two quotes from Marcus Aurelius to ask us to push our ego aside and go for the things that make us happy.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yes, yes, I am Dramas and this is the Street
Stoic Podcast, bringing your daily dose of 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 we're gonna be focusing all around the stoic
idea of diminishing your ego and more particularly taking more
risks in this life and really living life to its fullest.
And a few lyrics that I pulled come from Saint
John and the record Best Part of Life, And in
it he says, who's scared? Who really afraid of where
(00:58):
this goes? Even though I know I know how it
ends up, ain't nobody scared. I put my hand up
in the air. You put your heart up in the air.
You gave it to me, made it very clear, this.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Is the ride of your life. I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
I think he's saying a few different sort of things
here in this, but I particularly love that line where
he talks about you just you put your heart up
in the air and essentially you're just putting yourself out
there to whatever life has to offer. That's about taking risks, right,
That is you being sort of open to whatever life
is sort of going to throw your way as a
(01:32):
result of you going after what it is that you want, right,
whatever is interesting to you, and your ego in this
sort of scenario oftentimes will make you second guess taking
that risk because your ego is scared of looking dumb.
Your ego is scared of being embarrassed, of being wrong. Right,
And what ends up happening when you listen to that
part of yourself too much is it holds you back
(01:53):
from living your life to its fullest. And listen, we've
all been there before. We've all sort of succumbed to
our own ego in this way where it is trying
to protect us at the end of the day, right,
protect us from any perceived harm. But again, in life,
we're only rewarded based upon the amount of risks that
we take. And this leads to a quote from one
(02:16):
of the stokes, Marcus Aurelius, that I absolutely love. Actually
two quotes I'm going to pull. But he says, it
is not death that a man should fear, but rather
he should fear never beginning to live. I love this
quote so damn much because it sort of slaps you
in the face with the notion that just because you're here, breathing, existing,
doesn't actually mean that you're truly living. There are so
(02:39):
many of us sort of just going through the motions
in life and playing it safe, taking the easy route,
accepting the bare minimum. That's not really living. You're not
really opening yourself up to all that this beautiful world
has to offer. Right, And of course you have to
take risks within reason. I'm not saying to throw your
whole life away and on a whim just you know,
(03:00):
go move to a BISA and try to become a
DJ with no real plan or anything like that, no money, right, obviously,
like there has to be calculated risks in this life.
But you have to allow yourself to dream big. You
have to be fearless in dreaming big, in putting yourself
out there. And that kind of leads to the second
quote I pulled from Marcus Aurelius, where he says, to
be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over,
(03:23):
it stands unmoved, and the raging of the sea falls
still around it. You are the rock in this scenario, right,
no matter how much nonsense life might throw your way
through the ups and downs, whatever it might be you're
committed to standing strong and just taking on life, and
I really think that's the only way to truly live
(03:44):
and man like. That's what my life really has has
been a series of you know, a series of just risks,
I mean, calculated risks. But like everything I've done has
been said to be crazy by somebody in my life
at one point or another. Right, But it's it's me
sort of refusing to accept what's considered to be the standard,
(04:04):
understand that there's more out there for me, and pushing
and pushing to really get the fullness out of this
thing called life. It hasn't always worked out the way
that I planned. I've fallen on my face, I've been embarrassed,
you know what people have told me. I told you
so before. But at the same time, the rewards on
the other side of those failures, on the other side
of those risks, have been greater than any of the
(04:26):
negative Right, The positive outcomes that have come in my
life as a result of the risks I've taken have
far outweighed the failures that came along with them. Right,
And it wasn't always immediate, but eventually those risks paid
off in a far better way. You know, I say
this as as somebody who left the world of radio
to go into the wild West of podcasting, right where
(04:47):
the zero consistency.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Right, I was under a contract, I was full time.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You know, I had the stability that we are all
looking for, particularly when you work in the industry like
media and entertainment where there isn't real stability. And I
decided to take that risk. And it was scary, and
there I fell on my face a few times. But
now looking back, I'm so grateful for the version of
me that that decided to ride that out, decided to
sort of jump ship and be okay with the waves
(05:12):
crashing around me, understanding that it was going to produce
a far more exciting experience in this thing called life.
Now we've heard from Saint John, we have heard from
one of the Stokes, Marcus Aurelius, on this topic of
diminishing your ego. Now, let's talk about how you can
make it your mantra for today.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
First, let's take a quick break and then we'll be.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
So today we've been talking all about the stoic idea
of diminishing your ego. Right, we've heard from Saint John,
we have heard from one of the stokes, Marcus Aurelius.
I've talked about it myself, how I implement this into
my own life. Now let's talk about how you can
make it your mantra for today. And I think first
and foremost, it's just a reminder that life is meant
to be indulged in right and of course within reason.
But this world has so much to offer each and
(06:01):
every one of us, yet so many of us refuse
to take real advantage of it. We refuse to challenge ourselves,
we refuse to put ourselves out there to new experiences,
and we're just missing out on the sort of endless
potential of just happiness that is out there for us
if we just push a little bit harder past that
fear and don't allow our ego to make us live
(06:23):
in the fear of failure. I mean, think about even
the most trivial things that we could.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Tastrifize, right.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I think this is a good example to kind of
bring it home for you. Think about like approaching somebody
you find attractive at a bar. That's talked about as
one of the sort of biggest fears, like alon like
public speaking and things like that. One of the biggest
fears that we as human beings inherently have. But what's
the worst case scenario?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Right there?
Speaker 1 (06:49):
You approach somebody that you find attractive at a bar,
you tell them you find them attractive, whatever it is,
they're not interested.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Life goes on.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Literally, it's not like you die, you know, It's not
like you know, you lose all your money, everything you've
worked for in this moment because you took this risk.
It's literally the lowest level risk.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Of human being.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
A pride take is just literally going and having a
conversation with another person. Yet we build it up to
be the most difficult thing in our minds. Right, So
many of us do it, and we do this with
so many different aspects of our life.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
And that's the ego talking.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Right, Because my ego doesn't want me to go up
and approach this person and then get shut down, and
then now I think lesser of myself because.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
My ego gets bruised. Right.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
My ego wants to maintain the facade of confidence, right,
rather than potentially having to have my confidence shaken in
a moment of somebody not being interested in me the
same way I'm interested in them. But is that really
living life. Do I really want to look back and say,
what if I would have gone up to that person,
what would my life look like? And that's sort of
(07:49):
the thing that holds us back when you know, kind
of recapping what we're talking about. What Marcus Aurelius talked
about is you should fear never beginning to live. And
that's what moments like that one are, right You living
in regret because you didn't actually live this moment to
its fullest potential. You left something on the table, and
(08:09):
now you have to live with that.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
And that's why I love the.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Quote from Saint John, and he's sort of talking about
how this situation might end up badly. He says, even
though I know how it ends up, ain't nobody scared, right,
He's saying, even if this thing crashed and burns, which
it probably will, I'm putting myself out there for the experience.
I'm putting myself out there to live this in its
fullest way. Hand is up, you know, you put your
(08:32):
heart up in the air, like I'm laying it all
out there, even if it ends badly. I'm trying to
get the fullest experience out of this thing called life.
And I think that's just such a beautiful kind of
proclamation and something we should all be striving for, and
even for me. You know, this is the thing that
I'm the most grateful for. As far as when I
sit back and thank myself for all that I've done,
it is for taking those.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Risks, calculated risks, but risks.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Nonetheless, I'm so grateful that I decided to challenge myself
to not play it safe, to not accept the bare minimum,
and to really say, I want to get the most
out of every situation that I possibly can. Right I
want to be as fulfilled and happy and have as
much experience as I possibly can. And I'm going to
follow my face sometimes It's gonna be difficult at other times,
(09:18):
but at the end of the day, I know I'm
really getting the most out of this thing called life,
and that's all that I could ever hope for all
of you listening to this podcast. Now, with that said,
thank you so much for listening to.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
The Street Stoic. Do your best to apply these.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Constants we discussed into your everyday life, and I'll catch
you next time. The Street Stoke Podcast is a production
of Iheart's michaela podcast Network
Yes, yes, I am Dramas and this is the Street
Stoic Podcast, bringing your daily dose of 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 we're gonna be focusing all around the stoic
idea of diminishing your ego and more particularly taking more
risks in this life and really living life to its fullest.
And a few lyrics that I pulled come from Saint
John and the record Best Part of Life, And in
it he says, who's scared? Who really afraid of where
(00:58):
this goes? Even though I know I know how it
ends up, ain't nobody scared. I put my hand up
in the air. You put your heart up in the air.
You gave it to me, made it very clear, this.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Is the ride of your life. I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
I think he's saying a few different sort of things
here in this, but I particularly love that line where
he talks about you just you put your heart up
in the air and essentially you're just putting yourself out
there to whatever life has to offer. That's about taking risks, right,
That is you being sort of open to whatever life
is sort of going to throw your way as a
(01:32):
result of you going after what it is that you want, right,
whatever is interesting to you, and your ego in this
sort of scenario oftentimes will make you second guess taking
that risk because your ego is scared of looking dumb.
Your ego is scared of being embarrassed, of being wrong. Right,
And what ends up happening when you listen to that
part of yourself too much is it holds you back
(01:53):
from living your life to its fullest. And listen, we've
all been there before. We've all sort of succumbed to
our own ego in this way where it is trying
to protect us at the end of the day, right,
protect us from any perceived harm. But again, in life,
we're only rewarded based upon the amount of risks that
we take. And this leads to a quote from one
(02:16):
of the stokes, Marcus Aurelius, that I absolutely love. Actually
two quotes I'm going to pull. But he says, it
is not death that a man should fear, but rather
he should fear never beginning to live. I love this
quote so damn much because it sort of slaps you
in the face with the notion that just because you're here, breathing, existing,
doesn't actually mean that you're truly living. There are so
(02:39):
many of us sort of just going through the motions
in life and playing it safe, taking the easy route,
accepting the bare minimum. That's not really living. You're not
really opening yourself up to all that this beautiful world
has to offer. Right, And of course you have to
take risks within reason. I'm not saying to throw your
whole life away and on a whim just you know,
(03:00):
go move to a BISA and try to become a
DJ with no real plan or anything like that, no money, right, obviously,
like there has to be calculated risks in this life.
But you have to allow yourself to dream big. You
have to be fearless in dreaming big, in putting yourself
out there. And that kind of leads to the second
quote I pulled from Marcus Aurelius, where he says, to
be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over,
(03:23):
it stands unmoved, and the raging of the sea falls
still around it. You are the rock in this scenario, right,
no matter how much nonsense life might throw your way
through the ups and downs, whatever it might be you're
committed to standing strong and just taking on life, and
I really think that's the only way to truly live
(03:44):
and man like. That's what my life really has has
been a series of you know, a series of just risks,
I mean, calculated risks. But like everything I've done has
been said to be crazy by somebody in my life
at one point or another. Right, But it's it's me
sort of refusing to accept what's considered to be the standard,
(04:04):
understand that there's more out there for me, and pushing
and pushing to really get the fullness out of this
thing called life. It hasn't always worked out the way
that I planned. I've fallen on my face, I've been embarrassed,
you know what people have told me. I told you
so before. But at the same time, the rewards on
the other side of those failures, on the other side
of those risks, have been greater than any of the
(04:26):
negative Right, The positive outcomes that have come in my
life as a result of the risks I've taken have
far outweighed the failures that came along with them. Right,
And it wasn't always immediate, but eventually those risks paid
off in a far better way. You know, I say
this as as somebody who left the world of radio
to go into the wild West of podcasting, right where
(04:47):
the zero consistency.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Right, I was under a contract, I was full time.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You know, I had the stability that we are all
looking for, particularly when you work in the industry like
media and entertainment where there isn't real stability. And I
decided to take that risk. And it was scary, and
there I fell on my face a few times. But
now looking back, I'm so grateful for the version of
me that that decided to ride that out, decided to
sort of jump ship and be okay with the waves
(05:12):
crashing around me, understanding that it was going to produce
a far more exciting experience in this thing called life.
Now we've heard from Saint John, we have heard from
one of the Stokes, Marcus Aurelius, on this topic of
diminishing your ego. Now, let's talk about how you can
make it your mantra for today.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
First, let's take a quick break and then we'll be.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
So today we've been talking all about the stoic idea
of diminishing your ego. Right, we've heard from Saint John,
we have heard from one of the stokes, Marcus Aurelius.
I've talked about it myself, how I implement this into
my own life. Now let's talk about how you can
make it your mantra for today. And I think first
and foremost, it's just a reminder that life is meant
to be indulged in right and of course within reason.
But this world has so much to offer each and
(06:01):
every one of us, yet so many of us refuse
to take real advantage of it. We refuse to challenge ourselves,
we refuse to put ourselves out there to new experiences,
and we're just missing out on the sort of endless
potential of just happiness that is out there for us
if we just push a little bit harder past that
fear and don't allow our ego to make us live
(06:23):
in the fear of failure. I mean, think about even
the most trivial things that we could.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Tastrifize, right.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I think this is a good example to kind of
bring it home for you. Think about like approaching somebody
you find attractive at a bar. That's talked about as
one of the sort of biggest fears, like alon like
public speaking and things like that. One of the biggest
fears that we as human beings inherently have. But what's
the worst case scenario?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Right there?
Speaker 1 (06:49):
You approach somebody that you find attractive at a bar,
you tell them you find them attractive, whatever it is,
they're not interested.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Life goes on.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Literally, it's not like you die, you know, It's not
like you know, you lose all your money, everything you've
worked for in this moment because you took this risk.
It's literally the lowest level risk.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Of human being.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
A pride take is just literally going and having a
conversation with another person. Yet we build it up to
be the most difficult thing in our minds. Right, So
many of us do it, and we do this with
so many different aspects of our life.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
And that's the ego talking.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Right, Because my ego doesn't want me to go up
and approach this person and then get shut down, and
then now I think lesser of myself because.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
My ego gets bruised. Right.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
My ego wants to maintain the facade of confidence, right,
rather than potentially having to have my confidence shaken in
a moment of somebody not being interested in me the
same way I'm interested in them. But is that really
living life. Do I really want to look back and say,
what if I would have gone up to that person,
what would my life look like? And that's sort of
(07:49):
the thing that holds us back when you know, kind
of recapping what we're talking about. What Marcus Aurelius talked
about is you should fear never beginning to live. And
that's what moments like that one are, right You living
in regret because you didn't actually live this moment to
its fullest potential. You left something on the table, and
(08:09):
now you have to live with that.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
And that's why I love the.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Quote from Saint John, and he's sort of talking about
how this situation might end up badly. He says, even
though I know how it ends up, ain't nobody scared, right,
He's saying, even if this thing crashed and burns, which
it probably will, I'm putting myself out there for the experience.
I'm putting myself out there to live this in its
fullest way. Hand is up, you know, you put your
(08:32):
heart up in the air, like I'm laying it all
out there, even if it ends badly. I'm trying to
get the fullest experience out of this thing called life.
And I think that's just such a beautiful kind of
proclamation and something we should all be striving for, and
even for me. You know, this is the thing that
I'm the most grateful for. As far as when I
sit back and thank myself for all that I've done,
it is for taking those.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Risks, calculated risks, but risks.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Nonetheless, I'm so grateful that I decided to challenge myself
to not play it safe, to not accept the bare minimum,
and to really say, I want to get the most
out of every situation that I possibly can. Right I
want to be as fulfilled and happy and have as
much experience as I possibly can. And I'm going to
follow my face sometimes It's gonna be difficult at other times,
(09:18):
but at the end of the day, I know I'm
really getting the most out of this thing called life,
and that's all that I could ever hope for all
of you listening to this podcast. Now, with that said,
thank you so much for listening to.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
The Street Stoic. Do your best to apply these.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Constants we discussed into your everyday life, and I'll catch
you next time. The Street Stoke Podcast is a production
of Iheart's michaela podcast Network
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