{"id":1542,"date":"2017-11-01T21:34:40","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T21:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/?p=1542"},"modified":"2017-11-01T21:45:28","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T21:45:28","slug":"you-must-take-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/you-must-take-action\/","title":{"rendered":"The Thing Is…You Must Take Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

In\u00a0The Pocket Guide to Action<\/em><\/a>, Kyle Eschenroeder describes a modern but essentially timeless problem. We are over-stimulated, untrusting, feeling a sort of \u201clistless, restless, low-grade anxiety.\u201d Should we do this? Should we do that? Which path is right, which path is better? But what if I don\u2019t succeed?<\/p>\n

Today we face what man has always faced\u2014the battle between \u201cover-abstraction\u201d and\u00a0action\u2014<\/em>not just any action, or activity, obviously, but right action. As Kyle writes in the book, \u201cright actions aren\u2019t usually grand. They can be small. Brushing your teeth is an action. Brushing your teeth mindfully is right action.\u201d And over-abstraction, well, we know what that is\u2014that\u2019s the thinking, mulling, contradictory, whose-fault-is-this? or what\u2019s-the-perfect-solution trap we often fall into.<\/p>\n

This is why you hear\u00a0Epictetus<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Marcus Aurelius<\/a>\u00a0say over and over again: It doesn\u2019t matter what they do. It doesn\u2019t matter what they say. It doesn\u2019t matter what you think.\u00a0It only matters what you\u00a0<\/em>do<\/em>.\u00a0<\/em>Right now. Even if it\u2019s just a small step in the right direction.<\/p>\n

Give Kyle\u2019s book a read because it is a paean to\u00a0action.<\/em>\u00a0To getting up off our asses and\u00a0doing.<\/em>\u00a0To winning the battle between abstraction and right action. That\u2019s what\u00a0this philosophy of Stoicism<\/a>\u00a0is about at the end of the day. Putting aside the endless debates on internet message boards, turning off the voice in your head and getting to work\u2014on yourself, on your duties, on the world.<\/p>\n

P.S. Sign up today for\u00a0the Daily Stoic\u2019s email<\/a>\u00a0and get our popular free 7-day course on Stoicism.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In\u00a0The Pocket Guide to Action, Kyle Eschenroeder describes a modern but essentially timeless problem. We are over-stimulated, untrusting, feeling a sort of \u201clistless, restless, low-grade anxiety.\u201d Should we do this? Should we do that? Which path is right, which path is better? But what if I don\u2019t succeed? Today we face what man has always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Thing Is...You Must Take Action<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/you-must-take-action\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Thing Is...You Must Take Action\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In\u00a0The Pocket Guide to Action, Kyle Eschenroeder describes a modern but essentially timeless problem. We are over-stimulated, untrusting, feeling a sort of \u201clistless, restless, low-grade anxiety.\u201d Should we do this? Should we do that? Which path is right, which path is better? But what if I don\u2019t succeed? Today we face what man has always […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/you-must-take-action\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daily Stoic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/dailystoic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-01T21:34:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-11-01T21:45:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/ferdinand-stohr-185484.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2418\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1646\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@dailystoic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@dailystoic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ryan Holiday\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Daily Stoic\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/dailystoic\",\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/dailystoic\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/dailystoic\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dailystoic\"],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/daily-stoic.png\",\"width\":351,\"height\":121,\"caption\":\"Daily Stoic\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/\",\"name\":\"Daily Stoic\",\"description\":\"Stoic Wisdom For Everyday Life\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/you-must-take-action\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/ferdinand-stohr-185484.jpg\",\"width\":2418,\"height\":1646},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/you-must-take-action\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/you-must-take-action\/\",\"name\":\"The Thing Is...You Must Take Action\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/you-must-take-action\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-01T21:34:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-11-01T21:45:28+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/you-must-take-action\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/you-must-take-action\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/you-must-take-action\/#webpage\"},\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/#\/schema\/person\/62049dc1c11ca8e9b9d773a83783983f\"},\"headline\":\"The Thing Is…You Must Take Action\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-01T21:34:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-11-01T21:45:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/you-must-take-action\/#webpage\"},\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/you-must-take-action\/#primaryimage\"},\"articleSection\":\"Email Archives\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/#\/schema\/person\/62049dc1c11ca8e9b9d773a83783983f\",\"name\":\"Ryan Holiday\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}