The Strong Stoic Podcast

Self-improvement is obviously a good thing... or is it? I mean, if it's such a good thing, then why isn't everyone doing it? Why do many people live their comfortable lives, never concerned about getting better at anything? The truth is that self-improvement, by definition, is done by oneself. And so, in order to truly self-improve, you have to be willing to judge yourself. You have to b...

Have you ever gone down a path in life only to realize at some point on that path that it was simply the wrong one? Sometimes we go down a path because we think it will be easier; other times, because we truly feel it is the right one. Given the difficulty of staying on your "optimal life path" without ever veering off, this is a common human experience. With that being said, why do we g...

It's everyone's favourite (or least favourite) season: let's pay our taxes! Or, as many do, you can choose to complain about taxes. The government is stealing your money, right? Well yes, but perhaps there is a benefit to this. Complaining about taxes is like complaining about a lot of things in life: we don't like the cost associated with it, but we reap the benefits, even if...

Having good mentors and role models in our lives is a necessary part of self-improvement. It is difficult, after all, to get somewhere if you don't have an idea of where you want to go! But mentors are human beings, not Gods, and so they come with inherent flaws. These flaws are hard to accept and deal with, in a similar way that our own flaws are. What is interesting is how many people idoli...

When people are given power, especially absolute power, something seems to psychologically click in their brain. There are numerous historical examples of this - the "Organs" in the Gulag example, or those minorities in Nazi Germany who were responsible for rounding the other minorities up for slaughter. There is even a well-known study on this phenomenon - the Stanford Prison Experiment...

So, you've fallen off the bandwagon and are looking to get back on the horse? You've come to the right episode! Failing is a natural part of the process leading towards success, but it still sucks every time. However, like all negative aspects of life, there are ways in which to make the fall hurt less and to change our perspective to a more productive one. This episode will talk about h...

Everyone wants to play the guitar like Hendrix, or have the peace of mind like the Buddha. These masters - and masters they are - motivate us to improve at what we enjoy with the ultimate goal of becoming a master ourselves. Is being a master all fun and games, though, or is there a side most people don't see? In fact, becoming really good at something places a large burden on our shoulders....

Believing in equality is seen as a noble thing, and for good reason. Inequality has been present for as long as anyone can remember. The definition of equality is clear enough, but what does it practically mean? And what exactly are we talking about in terms of equality? Income? Vacation days? Opportunity? Height? Weight? The discussion gets quite tangly really quick, especially if we add in the d...

I'm going through a tough time right now. Let's talk about how I personally deal with such things. Hopefully, you'll be pleased to hear that many of the things I preach on this podcast I actually DO. That doesn't make it any easier; no, in fact it's always difficult. This episode isn't perfect or complete, but it is real. I'm sure there are a few things worth lea...

How would you define a good job? Would it be how high you are in the corporate hierarchy? Or, perhaps, it would be how much money make. Another option is how much good you do for the world. The wonderful thing about that third option is that it is available to all of us. Regardless of what job we work, we can find meaning in it and do a good job or a poor job. We can give off the feeling of misery...

Have you ever had a mantra? That is, have you ever meditated on a short phrase with the goal of improving your life in some way? Mantras are great for self-improvement. They can help change your perspective as you need it but embedding an idea repeatedly in your head. What's great about mantras, also, is that you can have more than one! That's right; you can have several for different si...

Many (if not most) celebrities have an issue with ego. They are proud and sometimes arrogant.  This seems to be worse, though, with child celebrities. Harry Potter - though fictional - was a child celebrity, however, he was actually quite humble. How is it that he was able to acquire and maintain his humility amongst such fame while others seem to fall into the abyss of it? Humility is a tough thi...

"You can be whatever you want to be". Many people in my generation have heard such a thing constantly and consistently while growing up. Certainly, we all have unique strengths and weaknesses, but there is something to be said about hard work and passion. However, what happens shockingly often is we end up accomplishing much less in life than we thought that we would. We graduate high sc...

Are most people good? Are interactions between two people who do not know each other predominantly positive or negative? Perhaps put in a more practical question, should you assume that strangers you meet are good? Of course, there is no easy answer. After all, many interactions between people (most, in fact) are positive. However, there are those few interactions that result in catastrophe, or at...

Corruption is bad, right? If people were to only stay true to who they are, the world would be better... wouldn't it? Though I've argued this very point in the past, the truth is that this viewpoint - though correct under a certain reference frame - is actually incomplete. If you really think about it, any socio-cultural affects on our personality are essentially corruption to our "...

Talk about self-improvement is all over social media, however, what does it really mean to improve? And, perhaps even deeper, why is it even important to us to improve in the first place? Sure, most people would agree that self-improvement is a good thing, but few actually work on it. Many of us spend our days in quiet desperation, no challenge and no improvement. Imagine the best possible person...

We all value freedom, especially in our Westernized world. As a result, we all tend to believe that more freedom is always better, but is this really the case? Is there such a thing as "too much freedom"?For example, what about commitment? By committing to some endeavour or person you are essentially voluntarily enslaving yourself to it. In other words, you are taking away your own freed...

A question that every person struggles with is: is life worth living? We can easily extend this to those considering having children: is it ethical to bring children into this cruel world? Such is a question that each must answer themselves; no one can answer it for you. However, this thought pattern can be dangerous, as it is the same one that leads to genocide and mass killing. Listen in today a...

Cancel culture is running wild in the 21st century, especially in the USA! We can think about this as a modern form of ostracism, in which your tribe kicks you out for being a weirdo. However, cancel culture isn't good, and it is actually a manifestation of the polarizing of America - left vs. right, maskers vs. anti-maskers. It seems rather odd to cancel people just because they offer a diff...

If you want to get better at something, there are certainly specific things you must consider depending on what it actually is. However, the essence of how to improve is actually the same no matter what you are considering. This is because everything is a skill. What this means is that you can really improve on anything you want given that you practice it. Many think about things like carpentry sk...

We all love to play the blame game. Whether it's pointing the finger at our coworker who delayed the project, or at our parents for putting us through too much trauma, "it's not my fault" is something we all think and say probably a bit too much. The unfortunate thing is that this is true - a lot of the situations we are in are not our fault. However, just because something isn...

Learning to enjoy the process is something that is commonly said in the fitness industry as well as in the entrepreneurial world. What this essentially means is that you should learn to focus on the process itself as opposed to achieving a specific goal. Goals are important, however, if you only allow yourself to be happy upon realizing a goal, then you will find yourself deeply unhappy throughout...

Life is imperfect. People are imperfect. Every situation is imperfect. The flawed reality we live in can be very hard for us to accept. What makes it worse is that we tend to focus on the negative, since our brains are always looking for ways to make things better. This is a good thing! However, it has its drawbacks. Because everything is imperfect and inherently has flaws, even the best life, per...

From the time we are a child, we become mesmerized by stories. In our cavemen days, these stories would be told over a camp fire, perhaps with some graffiti on the cave walls. Now, many kids get it from Disney movies. In either case, stories seem to teach us how to act in the world (and also how not to act). Of all the various ways we can consume media, reading has its own benefits. Join me today...

It is no simple thing to know what people deserve and if what they deserve is in alignment with what they think they deserve. What does seem to be true is that on some deep level we all want to get what (we think) we deserve. We either want to be recognized by our boss for working late on a Friday or, and possibly simultaneously, we want to suffer for the wrong things we've done. Sometimes, t...