Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yes, Yes, I am Dramos and this is the Street
Stoic Podcast, bring you your daily dose of timeless stoke
philosophy remix for the hip hop generation. We are combining
in ancient philosophy with lyrics and quotes from some of
the greatest who ever grace a microphone. Now, with that
in mind, let's get things started with your daily shot
of inspiration. Now today, we're gonna be focusing all around
(00:44):
the stoic idea of focusing on what you can control.
And fair warning, we're gonna get a little bit dark
on today's show. We're gonna talk about death just a bit.
And Man, the quote that I had kind of come
to mind or had come across I should say when
Prepam was from Tupac and he says death is not
(01:08):
the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what
dies inside while still alive. Never surrender. And I think,
obviously because it's coming from someone like Pac, he's no
longer with us, and he sort of lived his life
with this notion that he wasn't going to be with
us for very long, right, that was kind of the
(01:30):
way that he operated. He's kind of had this premonition
if you will right, And I think it's interesting coming
from him accepting the idea of death and talking about
the part that he's in control of. Right. Talks about,
you know, the greatest loss being what dies inside of
you while you're still alive, you know, and recognizing that
(01:51):
that part you're in control of, that part of yourself
you can fight to keep alive. Right. We all have
this sort of fear of death, yet we don't realize
how often we are killing off parts of ourselves by
not doing what makes us happy. Right. And this leads
to a quote from one of the Stokes Epictetus, where
he says, I cannot escape death, but at least I
can escape fear of it. And again we're talking about
(02:15):
this thing that we have zero control over when it
comes to death. And I think not living in fear
of death is the idea of acceptance. And when you
accept it and when you recognize that your time is limited,
it allows you to sort of begin to recognize life
for how precious it really is. Right, how precious the
present moment is, the time that you do have with
(02:37):
loved ones, the time that you have here on this
earth to experience as much as you possibly can, to
potentially help as many people as you can. Right, all
of that needs to be done with immediacy, because again,
tomorrow is not promised. And this is something I relate
to on such a deep level because it's something I'm
so sort of cognizant, unaware of the way that I work,
(02:58):
the way that I sort of am am is active
in doing something. You know, it's me making sure that
I'm taking advantage of this, this sort of gift of life.
And I also think in terms of legacy and what
do I want sort of my impact on the world
to be. And for me, it's really important to sort
(03:18):
of leave behind something for for for any person that
is in need of maybe inspiration or any person that
is looking for more from me. I want to make
sure that I've done my part. I've you know, left
my mark in that way where I've I've sort of
left these things behind that can hopefully inspire others to
come long after I'm gone. Right, And even Tubac is
(03:40):
a great example of that, right, the way that he
recorded music, you know, in such an intense way. He
has so much content out there, you know, after his
death as far as musicals, there's somebody like Nipsey Hustle,
who I look up to, you know. I read how
Nipsey used to always kind of say yes to any
and every interview just so he can sort of always
have that content out there that he can leave behind
(04:01):
sort of something for anybody who wanted to find it.
And I know for me it's been incredible inspiration. And
every time I'm lacking inspiration, I can go back and
find one of those old interviews or dig up one
that I've never seen before, because he did so much.
And that's the way that I operate. I want to
make sure I leave behind as much as humanly possible
that can hopefully impact the world to come. And in
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doing that, I have to be hyper present in how
I spend my time. I have to be making sure
that I am prioritizing what makes me happy, right, that
I am making time for it, that I am putting
in the work, putting in the time, putting in the effort,
and that I'm not thinking that tomorrow is promised right.
And I think that's sort of the idea of focusing
on what we can control when it comes to our
(04:43):
relationship with death and how it should inspire us, rather
than sort of cause a sense of fear within us.
Right now, we have heard the words of Tupac, you've
heard from one of the Stokes epictetis. I've sort of
giving you an insight into just my thought process when
it comes to creation and how I attack each and
every day. Now, let's talk about how you can make
it your mantra for today. But first it's take a
(05:06):
quick break and then we'll be right back. So today
we are focusing on the Stoic idea of focusing on
what you can control. And we've heard the words of Tupac,
(05:26):
you've heard from one of the Stokes Epictetus. I've given
you some insight into my own mindset when it comes
to this idea around death and the parts of it
that we can sort of learn and and you know,
take back our control from. Now let's talk about how
you can make it your mantra for today. And I
think first and foremost we have heard this this quote
(05:46):
over and over again right in some way, shape or form.
But it's just an important reminder that we need to
stop living like tomorrow is promised. It's just not. There
are so many people who are are going to bed
and thinking that they have a whole nother day ahead
of them, a whole life ahead of them, and in fact,
(06:06):
is going to be the last time that they lay
their head on that pillow. And eventually, one day that's
neverbly going to be all of us, And we can't
control the fact that one day we will no longer
be here. But with all of that information in mind, right,
knowing that our time is limited here, what are we
going to now do with that information? That's sort of
(06:27):
blessing of knowing that every moment counts. What are we
going to do with that piece of information? And that's
the part that you are in control of. You can
either succumb to the fear of death and the fear
of life itself, or you can recognize that because your
time is precious, because your time is limited here, that
(06:48):
means that you need to take advantage of it and
you need to allow yourself to take the risks necessary
in order to live a happy life. Right understanding that
each moment could be your last, So why the hell
would you waste any of it? And I think that's
sort of the greater idea that we are talking about here, right,
to recap all we've been saying, I mean, Tupac is
(07:10):
talking about how death isn't even the greatest loss in life, right. Instead,
it's the people who allow themselves to die on the
inside by not living up to their full potential, by
not seizing the day. Those people are living the greatest
loss in this life. That they are given this gift
of being alive, of being able to fight another day,
(07:32):
yet they choose to waste it by doing things that
don't make them happy, by living a life that is
not worthy of them, right, by just simply wasting their
time here on this earth. And I love that last
part in the line where he says, never surrender the
idea that you keep fighting for yourself each and every
day until you literally are not here to fight anymore,
(07:53):
and that's all you're in control of at the end
of the day. Again, we talk about focusing on what
you can control. You cannot control when the battle is
a nettedly over right, when this battle of life is done,
you can't control that. But what you can control is
the fact that you got up each and every day
ready to fight for what makes you happy. And that's
(08:14):
all that we can ask for in this life. And
epictetis talking about the idea of not being able to
escape death right again, it is the faith that all
men face, but at least he can escape his fear
of it, right, and rather than living in fear of it,
use it as motivation to live a life worth living. Right,
and even for me, the way that I view all
(08:36):
of these things, you know, I'm very cognizant of the
fact that I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring.
I don't know if there's even going to be a tomorrow,
And that's why I operate the way that I do
on a daily basis, where I try to make the
most of it. I try and do all the things
that I love doing each and every day. I try
to surround myself by people that I love. I do
my best to just keep creating with the goal of
(08:58):
knowing that one day I'm not going to be here
to do that anymore. So I need to take advantage
of the time that I have now and also knowing
that while I may not live forever, I could create
work that goes on to inspire others long after I'm gone,
And to me that is so energizing and so damn inspiring,
and it keeps me motivated to make the most of
each and every day. Again, we are not in control
(09:21):
of when our time is up, but what we are
in control of is what we do with that information.
If we can use it as motivation to live the
life that we were meant to live. You know that
part we are in control of, so that choice is
yours at the end of the day. And with that said,
thank you so much for checking out the Street stokee podcast.
Do your best to apply this concept that we discussed
(09:43):
INTOA everyday life and I will catch you next time.
The Street Stoke Podcast is a production of Iheart's Micatura
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