challenges

282 - Timeless Principles For Handling a Changing World cover

282 – Timeless Principles For Handling a Changing World

Discover the timeless principles of Stoicism that can help you navigate the ever-changing world. Learn to focus on what doesn’t change, embrace change, seek growth over comfort, practice gratitude, live in the present moment, cultivate inner resilience, and practice compassion and understanding. These principles will empower you to handle whatever life throws your way. Join the Stoic Coffee House Community for further exploration of these principles.

280 - Interview with Author Ryan Bush cover

280 – Interview with Author Ryan Bush

This week’s episode features an interview with author Ryan Bush, who takes a design approach to structuring your thinking. In this conversation, they discuss topics such as changing how you think, self-esteem, and depression. Ryan shares insights from his book “Become Who You Are,” which explores the connection between happiness and embodying personal virtues. Tune in for an engaging discussion on personal growth and wisdom.

277 - Embracing the Unexpected: How to Handle Life's Plot Twists Like a Stoic cover

277 – Embracing the Unexpected: How to Handle Life’s Plot Twists Like a Stoic

“Life is a storm that will test you unceasingly. Don’t wait for calm waters that may not arrive. Derive purpose from resilience. Learn to sail the raging sea. — @TheStoicEmperor Do you fear the unexpected? Do you stress out when life throws you a curveball? Life is full of surprises. When we think that we’ve got things figured out and that things are going our way, something or someone pops up and throws a monkey wrench into our day to day that disrupts our lives and sends us spinning. Let’s talk about how to handle, appreciate, and even look forward to the unexpected events that life brings your way.

273 - The Four Types of Problems cover

273 – The Four Types of Problems

“We must not let the impressions carry us away so that we are not in control of ourselves, but we must receive them in such a way as to be in control of ourselves.” — Epictetus Understanding the different types of problems can help you face challenges more effectively. Learn about simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic problems and how to approach each one. #problemsolving #personaldevelopment

271 - Cultivating Connection: Stoic Insights on Loneliness cover

271 – Cultivating Connection: Stoic Insights on Loneliness

“As long as we live, let us cherish each other. For, when we die, the opportunity of aiding one another is lost for all eternity.” — Seneca Struggling with loneliness? The last few years have been tough, but it’s important to reach out and connect with others. Discover the insights on loneliness from a Stoic perspective in the latest episode. #StoicWisdom #Loneliness #Connection #StoicCoffeeBreak

260 - Suffer Well cover

260 – Suffer Well

“Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.” — Seneca Do you give up on things because they’re hard? How willing are you to suffer for the things that you truly want in your life? Today I want to talk about how to get what you want, and why it’s important to learn how to suffer well.

258 - Nothing Endures But Change cover

258 – Nothing Endures But Change

“Nothing endures but change.” — Heraclitus How do you handle change? Does it overwhelm you? Do you try to ignore it or do you embrace it? Today I want to talk about understanding change and how we can use stoicism to help us through some rocky times.

250 - When Life Has Other Plans cover

250 – When Life Has Other Plans

“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” — Epictetus. When life throws you curveballs, how do you handle them? Do you freak out? Do you roll with it? Do you look at it as an opportunity or a disaster? Today I want to about how to keep a perspective on life that helps you keep on moving when things don’t go as planned.

239 - Lessons Learned cover

239 – Lessons Learned

The universe is change; Our life is what our thoughts make of it. — Marcus Aurelius. This year has been an especially rough year for many of us. I can honestly say it has been for me. I want talk about what I have learned over the past year, and ask you about the most important things you have learned.

227 - Self Commitment cover

227 – Self Commitment

How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself? —Epictetus. How often do you find yourself starting something only to notice a few weeks or months later that you let it fall by the wayside?

212 - Friction

212 – Friction

“Anxieties can only come from your internal judgement.” — Marcus Aurelius We all have things in our lives that seems to stop us from completing things that we really want to do. Often, these things aren’t even all that big but end up being show stoppers nonetheless. Today I want to talk about why it’s important to pay attention to the things that get in your way, and some possible ways to get around them.

206 - The Long Ride

206 – The Long Ride

The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. — Epictetus Do you think that life is meant to be comfortable? Do you make choices in your life to take the easy path and avoid discomfort? If so, then you may not be living a life as full as you could.

204 - Blame and Responsibility

204 – Blame and Responsibility

“If change is forced upon you, you must resist the temptation to overreact or feel sorry for yourself.” — Robert Greene How often do you feel that life is unfair? That something happened that you think should not have happened to you? Maybe someone hurt you and you want them to fix it? In this episode, I want to talk about blame and responsibility.

189 - What You Are Capable Of

189 – What You Are Capable Of

“I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent — no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.” – Seneca Have you ever thought about how much energy and effort we as humans put into seeking comfort and avoiding challenging things? So many things that we spend money on in our lives revolve around making things easier or more comfortable. Part of human evolution has been to seek comfort. We try to make things easier for ourselves. But in doing so, are we robbing ourselves of a chance to grow? In our search for convenience, do we end up weakening ourselves?

179 - Do Hard Things

179 – Do Hard Things

One thing that fascinates me about humans is our desire to find the easy way to do almost anything. So many of the things that we think of as necessities in our modern lives are simply things that make our lives easier. None of these things are good or bad. They are simply tools to accomplish things in a shorter span of time. But just like everything, it comes with a cost. As we get used to the comfort and ease these tools bring to our lives, it gets easy to become complacent.

156 – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

“How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life” — Marcus Aurelius What could possibly go wrong? One of the biggest mistakes that we as humans make is that we are far too optimistic about how something we’re planning might go. In doing so we often fool ourselves into believing that it will work as planned, and overlook what could go wrong. In this weeks episode, we’ll discuss how we can take steps to avoid the blind spots that can easily derail us.

155 – Interview with Jeff Emtman of Here Be Monsters

This weeks episode is an interview with Jeff Emtman from the Here Be Monsters podcast. This is my first time interviewing someone, and Jeff is a very interesting and thoughtful guest. We talk about life challenges, creative challenges, and what it’s like to drag main. Enjoy!

154 – The Paradox of Change

One of the weirdest things about being a human is how we get comfortable with our habits, and resist change, while at the same time we get bored when things stay the same. In this weeks episode will talk about how to deal with the paradox of change.

141 – Motivation and Willpower

I’ve been thinking a lot about motivation and how we accomplish the goals that we set out to do. And I think there’s a bit a confusion about motivation and how it helps us get things done. Let’s take a look at the definition of motivation: The state or condition of being motivated or having a strong reason to act or accomplish something And let’s look at the definition of willpower: Control of one’s impulses and actions; self-control. Motivation is the reason why you want to do something. It’s the fuel that gets going. It is not the thing that...

140 – Circumstances Don’t Make The Man

  “Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself.” – Epictetus How do we deal with difficulties? Do we see them as challenges or opportunities? As something that is to be suffered through, or something that teaches us who we are? In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about difficult circumstances and how they are the things we should be most grateful for. Show Notes: What does that mean? Aren’t tough challenges supposed to make us stronger?The stoics remind us that circumstances in and of themselves are neutral. They are not good or bad unless we label...

137 – Worthy of Your Potential

  “Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes. Therefore, give yourself fully to your endeavors. Decide to construct your character through excellent actions and determine to pay the price of a worthy goal. The trials you encounter will introduce you to your strengths. Remain steadfast…and one day you will build something that endures: something worthy of your potential.” ― Epictetus Show Notes: One of most important habits to cultivate is a strong work ethic. Time and dedicated effort make it more fulfilling. There’s a saying: “How you do one thing is how you do everything.” Often, trying to take shortcuts, we’re...

132 – Anything Can Happen

  “How ridiculous and unrealistic is the man who is astonished at anything that happens in life.” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Book 12 Show Notes: – How often do we think that something in life shouldn’t happen to us?– As if we are somehow immune to the things that happen to anyone else in life.– How often do we think that we are owed something?– As if we are somehow privileged above others, that we deserve something– We may think it’s unfair when something we worked hard for fails to materialize.– We may think it’s unfair that someone we love...

112 – Anger Always Outlasts Hurt

  “How much better to heal than seek revenge from injury. Vengeance wastes a lot of time and exposes you to many more injuries than the first that sparked it. Anger always outlasts hurt. Best to take the opposite course. Would anyone think it normal to return a kick to a mule or a bite to a dog?” — Seneca Transcript I was talking with a friend the other day about how to deal with anger. He asked me specifically about how to deal with anger in life, so I felt it only appropriate to talk about anger today. Anger...