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Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, I am Dramas and this is the Street

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Speaker 1: Stoic Podcast, bringing you your daily dose of timeless stone

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Speaker 1: philosophy remix for the hip hop generation. Now, with that

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Speaker 1: in mind, let's get things started with your daily shot

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Speaker 1: of inspiration. Now today we're gonna be focusing around the

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Speaker 1: stoic idea of focusing on what you can control, but

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Speaker 1: specifically the idea of avoiding having a scarcity mindset. And

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Speaker 1: a lyric that I was man listening to over over

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Speaker 1: the weekend or a song I should say, and it

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Speaker 1: just jumped out at me was was jay Z Heart

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Speaker 1: of the City and classic of course. And in that

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Speaker 1: that record, the line that jumped out of me in

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Speaker 1: regards to what we're talking about was Jay saying, what

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Speaker 1: you eat don't make me shit. And he's talking about,

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Speaker 1: you know, the idea of how the actions of others

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Speaker 1: don't have any effect on him, or at least they shouldn't, right,

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Speaker 1: And it's one of those lines that, like, when you're

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Speaker 1: listening to the record, it just jumps out at you.

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Speaker 1: Is as obviously funny, but so incredibly profound and such

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Speaker 1: a simplified, you know, message in a life that I

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Speaker 1: think we make far too complicated, right, because uh, this

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Speaker 1: this is advice that all of us, you know, should

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Speaker 1: be be listening to, right, like myself included, I think

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Speaker 1: we're all guilty of at times watching what others are

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Speaker 1: doing and thinking that their success or their idea. You know,

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Speaker 1: that it takes away from our ability to do something right,

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Speaker 1: you know, thinking that someone else's achievement, that it takes

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Speaker 1: away from your achievements or your ability to achieve something

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Speaker 1: in the first place. And of course you know this.

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Speaker 1: This relates directly to a stoic quote from Marcus Cerelius,

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Speaker 1: and he says, don't waste the rest of your time

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Speaker 1: worrying about other people unless it affects the common good.

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Speaker 1: It will keep you from doing anything useful. Right, And

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Speaker 1: Marcus is talking about, you know, not concerning yourself with

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Speaker 1: what someone else is doing because of the mere fact

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Speaker 1: that it drains your energy. Right, It takes your energy

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Speaker 1: away from something you could be doing and putting it

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Speaker 1: on on giving attention to what someone else is doing

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Speaker 1: that again has little to no effect on you. And

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Speaker 1: I love the stipulation that he puts in there, Right,

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Speaker 1: unless they are harming others, you know, unless it affects

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Speaker 1: the common good is what he specifically said. But you know,

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Speaker 1: of course it doesn't mean here's a free past to

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Speaker 1: you know, sort of not be a moral person and

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Speaker 1: to look past injustices because it doesn't directly affect you.

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Speaker 1: Of course, if there is something that is harming others,

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Speaker 1: you know you should be devoting time and energy towards

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Speaker 1: helping in whatever way you can. But anything other than that,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's not worth your time nor your energy.

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Speaker 1: You know, their success the the people out there who

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Speaker 1: were watching on social media, or the people we have

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Speaker 1: in our lives, you know, their successes do not take

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Speaker 1: away from yours. And this is something I have to

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Speaker 1: constantly check myself on, right, Like, I relate to this idea,

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Speaker 1: on this principle so much. You know, there have been

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Speaker 1: so many times where you know, I saw someone launch

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Speaker 1: an idea or find success, you know, occupying a similar

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Speaker 1: space to me, and then I thought to myself, shit,

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Speaker 1: I guess I got to give up on this idea, right,

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Speaker 1: I guess I was too slow to bring it to market.

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Speaker 1: You know, somebody else has that idea, and now I

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Speaker 1: just have to move on from it, right, And it

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Speaker 1: took me a long time to realize and to you know,

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Speaker 1: come up with the fact that I don't have to

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Speaker 1: be the first to do something right. And that's because,

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Speaker 1: just by proxy of my own life experience, whatever I

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Speaker 1: do will be different from anyone else, right, because no

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Speaker 1: two people think the exact same way. So as long

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Speaker 1: as I'm being authentic in whatever I do or create,

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Speaker 1: it will inherently be original and new because once again,

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Speaker 1: nobody is going to think exactly like I do. No

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Speaker 1: one is going to interpret a concept or an idea

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Speaker 1: the exact same way that I do, right, and no

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Speaker 1: one else is going to have the same exact vision

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Speaker 1: as I do. Right. And I think even diving further

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Speaker 1: into this, you know, I would, I would take it

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Speaker 1: even a step further, you know, like for a long time,

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Speaker 1: I would kind of create these like these these like

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Speaker 1: villains in my head, right, and it would be people

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Speaker 1: that I would I would kind of name as my

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Speaker 1: arch nemesis, right. And the irony is that some of

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Speaker 1: those people I didn't even know, you know, or if

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Speaker 1: I did, like, we had no actual problem with one another, right,

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Speaker 1: we had a cordial relationship, But in my head I

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Speaker 1: built them up to be this arch nemesis of mine

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Speaker 1: because they they occupied a space that was similar to me,

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Speaker 1: or or they were doing something that was similar, and

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Speaker 1: they were automatically my nemesis as a result. Right, we

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Speaker 1: are automatically in competition with one another because we have

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Speaker 1: some sort of common interest or common goals. And then

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Speaker 1: the result of that was that every time I would

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Speaker 1: see them post about a new accomplishment, you know, a

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Speaker 1: new achievement, a new door that they are locked, I

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Speaker 1: would then inherently feel bad about myself, thinking that this

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Speaker 1: was somehow harming me and what I do, you know,

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Speaker 1: And it took me a long time to realize just

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Speaker 1: how toxic this mentality is, especially in the world that

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Speaker 1: we live in with social media and everybody is giving

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Speaker 1: you their highlight reel, right, And if you have this

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Speaker 1: negative mindset of thinking that you know what others are

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Speaker 1: doing has some sort of direct effect on you, it

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Speaker 1: is an incredibly toxic and just hellish place to live

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Speaker 1: when everyone is laying out their their accomplishments and you're

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Speaker 1: continuing to kind of be hit with this feeling of man,

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Speaker 1: I can't do what I want to do because someone

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Speaker 1: else has already thought of it, or they're doing it

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Speaker 1: right again. We have to kind of let go of

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Speaker 1: that notion and realize that our authenticity are our ability

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Speaker 1: to think of something in a very specific way, will

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Speaker 1: always be unique. And that means that we should never

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Speaker 1: stop doing or never stop striving for the things that

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Speaker 1: we want just because someone else maybe has achieved something similar,

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Speaker 1: or someone else has a similar idea. Right, what they

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Speaker 1: do does not affect us directly. Now you have heard

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Speaker 1: some of how this mindset and this idea have affected

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Speaker 1: my own personal life. Of course, we kick things off

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Speaker 1: with jay Z and Marcus Surreally as one of the Stoics. Now,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about how you can actually adapt this right,

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Speaker 1: How can you apply this practically and shift your mindset

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Speaker 1: in your everyday life. How you can make it your

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Speaker 1: mantra for today. But first let's take a quick break

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Speaker 1: and then we'll be right back. All right, So we

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Speaker 1: have heard the words of jay Z, we have heard

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Speaker 1: from one of the stoics, Markers Surreally is. I've given

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Speaker 1: you my own take and my own personal attachment to

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Speaker 1: the Stoic idea of focusing on what you can control,

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Speaker 1: more specifically, avoiding having this sort of scarcity mindset that

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Speaker 1: plagues you know, so many of us, right, And I

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Speaker 1: think we have to first and foremost realize that it's

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Speaker 1: not about being first, you know, it's more so about

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Speaker 1: being great. And a part of greatness is being unique, right,

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Speaker 1: and that is your authenticity once again, the way that

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Speaker 1: you think is unique, and that is what inherently makes

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Speaker 1: something great. And let's take like a real world example.

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Speaker 1: You know, something as simple as soda. Right, that's something

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Speaker 1: you know, we've all grown up probably drinking. It's a

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Speaker 1: part of our everyday lives. And of course, you know,

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Speaker 1: Coke is arguably the most recognized brand in the entire

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Speaker 1: world for soda. Right. We even call other things coke,

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Speaker 1: even if they're not actually Coca Cola. Right, When you

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Speaker 1: go to a restaurant, you say, can I have a Coke?

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Speaker 1: And you're not concerned necessarily if it's actually Coca Cola? Right,

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Speaker 1: But they know what you mean. But did you actually

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Speaker 1: know that you know historically when you go back, I

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Speaker 1: did a little bit of research on this that Doctor

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Speaker 1: Pepper is actually recognized as one of the first soda

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Speaker 1: brands in the world and Coca Cola wasn't even made

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Speaker 1: for a year after Doctor Pepper launched, Right, So had

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Speaker 1: you know, the founders of Coca Cola thought to themselves,

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Speaker 1: oh man, somebody already came up with the soda idea.

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Speaker 1: I guess we should pack it up. They would have

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Speaker 1: deprived the world and themselves of one of the most famous,

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Speaker 1: you know, man items suits to ever be invented, right,

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Speaker 1: And that's what we have to remember when it comes

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Speaker 1: to all of our ideas and all of our concepts. Again,

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Speaker 1: it's not about being first. It's about creating something great.

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Speaker 1: At the end of the day, the marketplace, the world,

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Speaker 1: you know, your your life, the people in it will

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Speaker 1: always create space for something or someone who is great. Again,

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Speaker 1: it's not about being first, you know. We need to

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Speaker 1: adapt a new mindset and get rid of the scarcity

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Speaker 1: mindset that so many of us are plagued with. And

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Speaker 1: I think that rather than seeing someone else's success as

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Speaker 1: asking away from yours, you have to begin to retrain

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Speaker 1: your mind to instead view it as confirmation that what

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Speaker 1: you want is actually possible, right, Like, that's the ultimate motivation,

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Speaker 1: you know. And that's what I've begun to do and adapt,

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Speaker 1: you know, And it's been incredibly freeing for me, right

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Speaker 1: because if I see somebody else doing something similar to

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Speaker 1: what I want to do or occupying a similar space. Again,

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Speaker 1: that is tangible proof that the idea that I have,

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Speaker 1: the dream that I have, the goal that I'm chasing

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Speaker 1: after isn't all that crazy because I'm seeing somebody else

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Speaker 1: able to do so and do something at least similar

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Speaker 1: to that. Right now, to summarize, you know, we have

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Speaker 1: one of the goats, jay Z you know, point blank

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Speaker 1: period talking about what you eat. Don't make me shit,

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Speaker 1: you know. And it's him declaring that he's not concerned

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Speaker 1: with what others are doing because it has no tangible

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Speaker 1: effect on him. Right And and Marcus Aurelius, you know,

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Speaker 1: talking about the idea of you focusing or worrying about

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Speaker 1: other people, you know, takes you away from doing anything useful.

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Speaker 1: And again the caveat of of course, if somebody is

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Speaker 1: doing harm to the common good of people, you should

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Speaker 1: push back and do something against that. But that is

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Speaker 1: the only exception other than that what someone else is

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Speaker 1: doing is not worth your time nor your energy. And

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Speaker 1: for me, you know, I created these villains. I created

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Speaker 1: these problems in my mind based upon what someone else

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Speaker 1: was doing. And the second that I realized that nobody

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Speaker 1: can recreate the way that my mind thinks, the way

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Speaker 1: that I see the world. And as long as I

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Speaker 1: view and man put myself out there authentically and put

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Speaker 1: you know, my heart and my honest self into whatever

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Speaker 1: I do, it will inherently be unique. Right. As long

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Speaker 1: as I realize that I'm good to go, I don't

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Speaker 1: have to worry about anyone else. Right, So it's not

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Speaker 1: about being first, It's about being great. And what makes

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Speaker 1: you great is being authentically you. No one else can

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Speaker 1: truly replicate that. Remember that. Now. With that said, thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for checking out the Street Stove Podcast.

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Speaker 1: Do your best to apply these concepts that we've discussed

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Speaker 1: into your everyday life, and I will catch you next time.

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Speaker 1: The Street Stoke Podcast is a production of Ihearts Michael

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Speaker 1: Tura Podcast Network