The Daily Routine That Built Marcus Aurelius

2,000 years ago Marcus relius is the most powerful man on Earth he controls an Empire of tens of millions of square miles controls the lives of tens of millions of people he controls the most powerful Army on Earth he has the power of life and death over other people he could have done whatever he wanted he could have retreated to pleasure and indolence he could have easily descended into Insanity from stress and overwork yet he manages as as one biographer would say to prove himself worthy of all the responsibility and power placed upon him he

he manages I think just as impressively to manage it he isn't corrupted by it he doesn't break under the stress by it he acquits himself well so what's his secret what is the life of this guy look like how does Marcus Aurelius manage his debt well because of Marcus aurelius's meditations his his the private thoughts of of this totally unique singular man we have some idea and that's what I want to talk about to day the daily routine of Marcus Aurelius the philosopher king like all people it starts with the morning for Marcus aurelus we

know that Marcus Aurelius wakes up early we know this because he talks in meditations about struggling with this right he's a Mourning person but not by Nature he's a Mourning person by habit at dawn when you have trouble getting out of bed he says tell yourself I have to go to work as a human being is this what I was created for to huddle under the blankon state warm it's nice here and he says but are you made to feel nice no Marcus Aurelius attacks the dawn he gets up he gets after it as I

think most productive successful people do you start the day with a conscious Choice a choice to do the thing that isn't easy but starts the day off right and we can imagine he is doing some of his meditative work his study of philosophy his writing his journaling there in the morning before he was besed Ed by inquiries people who wanted favors before the bad news had been delivered before he had to get up and travel before the battle begun he was carving out a little time for Stillness and reflection what he's not doing is the

equivalent of what so many of us do in the morning which is we go straight to this thing before our feet Hit the Floor we're sucked into the phone we're sucked into the to-do list we're not cultivating that that stoic state of ataraxia of freedom from disturbance we're not being reflected we're not being intentional we're just putting out fires from the minute we wake up and it's very clear that Marcus aelius is using this little bit of time in the morning to be in a meditative philosophical intentional State this is how he opens book two

of meditations again he's talking about the morning here he says when you wake up in the morning tell yourself the people I deal with today will be meddling ungrateful arrogant dishonest jealous and Surly he's not saying hey the day sucks he's trying to think who are the kind of people that I'm going to meet today what are they going to be like and then he's saying look how can I be patient how can I be understanding how can I deal with this how can I anticipate this this is one of the stoic ideas senica says

that the unexpected blow lands heaviest if you expect everyone to be wonderful and awesome if you expect to get nothing but green lights all day you're going to be sorely disappointed Marcus is instead trying to anticipate due this idea of premeditation and then you know what he says In this passage he says look why are they like this and what is my job in relation to them he's saying don't lose your temper with them don't write them off try to find the good in them right so Marcus is trying to anticipate how the day is

going to go and set himself up for success but because Marcus Reis does have a difficult job because there is immense amount of responsibility on them he has to get to work that's what he's doing in that passage he said get up get after what were you put here to do right he tells himself throughout meditations concentrate on your tasks like a Roman he points out the example of antoninus his predecessor and beloved stepfather about how antoninus planned out his day how he even planned out his bathroom break so he wasn't wasting time he tried

to show up and when he was at work to be at work he didn't complain about this this is another thing Marcus Reus talks about he says never be overheard complaining at court not even to yourself what do I have to do today what are my responsibilities what are my jobs let's do them and for Marcus this would have been making decisions throughout the day this would have been hearing cases this would have been speaking to crowds this would have been travel this would s of in some cases been uh leading troops into battle right

but all the while he's having to be focused he he says get used to winnowing your thoughts he says if somebody asks you what you're thinking about you should be able to answer saying don't let your mind wander don't get distracted focus on what you're doing he's talking about what Cal Newport would call Deep work the ability to focus on the task in front of you to actually do it again not to be distracted by this thing or all the other things that you could be doing lock on to the task in front of you

that is a key part of Marcus aurelius's workstyle his his philosophical beliefs and his daily routine you can imagine that Marcus is sucked into meetings he's meeting with advisers and ministers and ambassadors he's getting briefed on strategy one of the things he says he learns from antoninus is is when to yield the floor to experts how to listen to other people's opinions how to take in feedback and criticism he says you know when somebody corrects me when they tell me that I've been wrong that I'm wrong he's like they're not harming me they're doing me

a favor he says the harm is to remain in air to not correct it so it there would have just been a lot coming at him his job would have been stressful it would have been exhausting it would have weighed on him but he tried to approach it with the might the right mindset and he tried to keep it contained this is I I think an important part because there has to be balance right we work very hard we throw ourselves at at what we have to do but if we're all about business that's one

of the things Marcus says in meditation say remind yourself not to be all about business and we know that Marcus was not all about business we know that he he was active in physical exercise right we know that he enjoyed boxing and wrestling and hunting and horseback riding we know that he would take walks right we we see all these fascinating observations in meditations about nature right he's walking through the fields like that scene in Gladiator he's dragging the hand there's a passage in meditations about grain bending low under its weight he talks about you

know the flex of foam on a Boar's mouth the brow of the lion right he he's getting outside he's enjoying nature the stoic said that the whole world is a temple of the Gods Markus is going out there and having this spiritual experience a hobby he was not into that many Romans shared was the Carnage of the Coliseum we know Marcus didn't like this he liked getting away from his Imperial duties but he hated the violence of it he hated the the the pointlessness of it and so it's funny he was often seen doing his

philosophical work or reading papers or thinking he he was he was there he had to be there but but mentally he was somewhere else because he wanted peace and relaxation he says look it doesn't matter where you are he says people long to get away from it all right they want to travel they want to just leave all their work behind he says but you can Retreat inwards to your own soul at any moment and that's what Marcus was doing there at the Coliseum it didn't matter how horrifying and violent and gory and loud what

was going on on the floor was he was reading Ides he was reading escalus he was reading the Odyssey he was reading cleanthes or Zeno or epicus he was studying philosophy he was getting out of the dustiness of Rome getting somewhere clean and better and he probably visited the baths every day he talks about washing off the dirt of of Earthly life and I think he means this phys figuratively and literally the Romans uh one of the things part big part of Roman culture was the gymnasia and then and then the baths so you'd work

out and then the cold plunge or a hot bath and if if you visit a quinam which is a little Roman Camp outside buddhafest where Markus probably wrote Some of meditations you can actually go in one of the hot springs that Marcus probably visited right so so Marcus isn't all about business he does find relaxation and pleasure he is washing off the dirt and dustiness of life so he can get back to what he needs to do and look Marcus's Imperial duties would have been overwhelming to even the strongest of people in Marcus re's Reign

there's a series of historic floods there's a devastating plague the antonine plague there's Wars there's an invasion there's coups he has health issues he has family issues one ancient historian say Marcus doesn't have the good fortune that he deserves his whole Reign is involved in a series of trouble the stress would have been unimaginable the difficulty would have been overwhelming there must have been moments where Marcus r fell to his knees and he said look I just can't do it but first off he believed he had to do it it was his responsibility people were

counting on him and also he realized he had to have helpful coping mechanisms to deal with this stress that's part of what his journaling practice is that's what stoicism was helping him with amidst all of this difficulty and stress what what he's trying to do is stay calm stay centered to avoid anger and destructive emotions to to not be reactive but to be intentional and the idea the obstacles is the way comes from this like he's dealing with difficult people he's dealing with difficult situations he's dealing with things that are that that bad news but

he's trying to see it all as an opportunity to practice virtue famously when when Marcus is betrayed by aidus Casas his most trusted General he doesn't immediately react he steps back he he he doesn't say anything he's just trying to think about he doesn't want to be emotional he doesn't want to let his personal feelings into the mix and then he comes back and he says look look this is a chance for us to show he says to show the Romans and to show the future how a country can deal with civil Strife he tried

to do what he talks about in meditations where he says the best revenge is to not be like that he wanted not to overreact he wanted not to be broken by it he wanted to use it as an opportunity always everything was an opportunity to Marcus big and little every the little experiences he had throughout the day the big experiences throughout the day was always an opportunity to respond with ir and virtue and decency as we said Marcus Ros isn't all about business when he's not doing his Hobbies he's not getting getting out there getting

active you know strong mind and a strong body he is focusing on reading and writing which he saw as an essential part of his job in in every facet we have the letters that he writes to his his mentor and teacher Cornelius fronto he's still writing these lovely letters well into his Reign he's debating philosophical things with his teacher rusticus and we know that Marcus read a lot both as a kid and as an adult because his writings is are full of these references that he's making from memory to the play of Ides he's directly

quoting epicus and cipus Zeno and all these other thinkers because they're right there on top of Mine He's reading and rereading he's lingering on the works of the master of thinkers as senica said what he had learned from his teacher rusticus he said is to never be satisfied just giving the gist of things so when Marcus relus reads he's he's diligent about it he's focused about it he's taking notes he's processing he's looking things up he's not this casual reader he's not just reading for fun or reading for status he's reading to learn and to

get better and I would imagine that this reading routine was probably part of his evening routine right senica would talk about a ritual he had that at the end of the day he would put himself up for review I think in the midnight dimness as one of markus's biographers would say he was putting himself up for review that's what meditations is Marcus aurelius's interrogation of himself his review of himself what he could do better how he could do better holding him accountable what went right what went wrong where can he improve because look there's not

a lot of people that can do that for marks he doesn't have a boss the Judgment of history is far off he's trying to remind himself what's important he has to be the final bit of accountability philosophy was the final bit of accountability he says fight to be the person philosophy tried to make you that's what he was doing throughout the day but it's in the evening with the journal and the reading and the thinking and the quiet time that the lessons are being learned there and we can imagine that not a day goes by

certainly not an evening that goes by the Marcus realist doesn't do the stoic practice of momento Mor you could leave life right now Markus says let that determine what you do and say and think Markus tried to spend lots of time with his family he writes in one of his letters to fronto how he would trade all of it to just have more time with his wife he says as you tuck your children in at night say to yourself they will not make it to the morning and this wasn't morbid he wasn't like trying to

PR practice his Monkish Detachment from the people that he loved he was trying to say why are you rushing through this why are you not soaking this in why are you not being present for it and this practice of momento Mor is is is an essential part of the stoic daily routine and we can imagine not a single day in Marcus ais's life going by without it and we can imagine part of Marcus's daily routine you know he just spent the whole day being celebrated being clapped for being told how important and Powerful he was

people were saluting thousands of soldiers appeared before him Kings of other nations you know gave him gifts he he tried to actively remind himself that he wasn't that important that posum his Fame was worthless he tried to stay humble with it he says be careful not not to be Caesar fied right not to be stained purple he would look out at the fancy feasts or the honors or the jewelry they put on him and he he would say look at look at this this is a dead pig this is a rock pulled out of a

mine this is a silly metal he's trying to not be changed or transformed or made to feel better then as a result of this very unusual strange surreal existence that he had and each of us should have some version of this practice in our own life too because success can can go to your head because busyness can make you feel important being at the center of things can make you feel like you're the center of the universe but you're not right and part of the philosophical practice is to zoom out Mark sh talks about looking

at things from above look at this Army not how powerful it is up close but how it resembles ants from far away he's trying to get perspective always I think this is a key part of Marcus's routine and I imagine that throughout the day but especially at night as he's just thinking about how he just spent these last few hours Mar R is asking this question we see in meditations he says whenever you are afraid of death whenever you want to live forever he says ask yourself am I afraid of death because I won't be

able to do this anymore we so value our time but he was talking about how frivolously we spend it right we waste it on things we act as if we have forever but we don't the stoics knew that death wasn't a thing that was happening in the future but the death was happening now dying every minute we're dying every day mark relus would have seen the passage of each day per stoic philosopy as a kind of death so at the end of the day he's he asking himself what do I have to show for the

hours that I just spent and if this was the last day of my life he's trying to imagine going to bed and not waking up if I wake up in the morning I get a second chance tomorrow how am I going to do better how am I going to grow what am I going to learn how am I not going to take that time for granted a day in the life of Marcus Rus on the one hand his his life is experience should be totally unrelatable to us unimaginable unfathomable to us the most powerful man

in the world 2,000 years ago speaking languages we don't speak anymore living in ways we we we would never live anymore and yet as we see in meditations as we see in his routine he was like us the past is a foreign country and yet human beings are human beings are human beings and the more things change the more they stay the same and from Marcus we can see so many great habits and practices that we should apply in our own life and circling back here after these meditations after all this thinking is he's got

to get to bed right it's easy to talk about waking up early but if you're not protecting your sleep if you don't have discipline before bed again if you're rolling this phone thing until 3:00 in the morning and then trying to get up with the Dawn you're going to have trouble and we know Marcus re was a bit of an insomniac probably the stress and and the health issues kept him up but he tried to get to bed he tried to take care of himself and you have to do that also when I wrote The

Daily stok 8 years ago I had this crazy idea that I would just keep it going the book was 366 meditations but I'd write one more every single day and i' give it away for free as an email I thought maybe a few people would sign up couldn't have even comprehended a future in which 34 of a million people would get this email every single day and would for almost a decade if you want to get the email if you want to be part of a community that is the largest group of stoics ever assembled

in human history I'd love for you to join us you can sign up and get the email totally for free no spam you can unsubscribe whenever you want at Daily stoic.com [Music] [Applause] [Music]