In this video, Shawn from the Tactical Empire discusses a profound reading from 'The Daily Stoic,' particularly the passage titled 'Spendthrifts of Time.' He highlights the teachings of Seneca on the significance of protecting one’s time, contrasting it with how people typically guard their physical property. Shawn shares his personal experience on managing time while running a new fitness business and emphasizes the importance of minimizing distractions, setting boundaries, and being present for family. He offers practical advice, like turning off phone notifications and limiting social media consumption, to help viewers reclaim their time and focus on what truly matters.
In this episode, Shawn from the Tactical Empire shares impactful lessons from his morning reading of The Daily Stoic. Highlighting a passage by Seneca titled 'Spendthrifts of Time,' Shawn discusses the importance of valuing and protecting our time. He reflects on personal time management strategies, including minimizing notifications, limiting social media consumption, and prioritizing family commitments. Shawn urges listeners to contemplate how they can prevent others from encroaching on their time and emphasizes the crucial nature of time as our most irreplaceable asset.
00:00 Introduction and Book Recommendation
00:45 Daily Stoic: December 9th Entry
02:07 Reflections on Time Management
04:41 Personal Strategies to Protect Time
09:03 The Importance of Daily Interactions
09:45 Conclusion: Value Your Time
EPISODE 186
Shawn Rider: [00:00:00] Hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen is
Shawn
from the Tactical Empire. I had a really good reading this morning in the Daily Stoic and even though most of the readings strike me in some way, some of them hit at the right moment and they hit a little bit deeper and they're good reminders of what it is that I'm going through.
So even though every passage is a good reminder, Sometimes they hit deeper. This is my number one recommended book. When people ask me, what is the most impactful book in my life? What is the number one book I recommend? What is the number one book I've gifted to people? And it is the daily stoic 366 meditations on wisdom, perseverance, and the art of meditation.
of living by Ryan Holiday and Steven Hanselman. Today's entry came from December 9th and the title was Spendthrifts of Time. Now the Daily Stoic starts with a quote from either Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, or another Stoic, and then there [00:01:00] is an updated writing on how it applies to our life today.
So December 9th, Spendthrifts of Time, The original quote by Seneca says this, Were all the geniuses of history to focus on this single theme, they could never fully express their bafflement at the darkness of the human mind. No person would give up even an inch of their estate, and the slightest dispute with a neighbor can mean hell to pay.
Yet, we easily let others encroach on our lives. Worse, We often pave the way for those who will take it over. No person hands out their money to passers by. But how But to how many do each of us hand out our lives? We're tight fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time. The one [00:02:00] thing about which we should all be the toughest misers.
End quote by Seneca. Ryan and Steven go on to write, Today there will be endless interruptions, phone calls, emails, visitors, unexpected events. Booker T. Washington observed that, quote, The number of people who stand ready to consume one's time, to no purpose, is almost countless. A philosopher, on the other hand, knows that their default state should be one of reflection and inner awareness.
This is why they so diligently protect their personal space and thoughts from the intrusions of the world. They know that a few minutes of contemplation are worth more than any meeting or report. They also know how little time we're actually given in life, and how quickly our stores can be depleted.
Seneca reminds us that while we might be good at protecting our physical property, we are far [00:03:00] too lax at enforcing our mental boundaries. Property can be regained. There is quite a bit of it out there. Some of it still untouched by man. But time? Time is our most irreplaceable asset. We cannot buy more of it.
We can only strive to waste as little as we can. as possible. Now that quote hits during the month of December, which the theme in the Daily Soek in the month of December is meditation on mortality. So all the quotes in December have to deal with Or the time leading to death, basically stating that the second we are all born, we have a death sentence.
We are all on death row. But what I like about today's is though it has a statement in there about time running out. Uh, so the macro view of mortality, I took today's more from a day to day micro, uh, view [00:04:00] and some things that I do to personally protect my time, but also more so now because me and my wife opened a new brick and mortar business, a fitness business.
Fitness business is not easy. It requires time. It requires effort. It requires a lot of attention. And as I handle a lot of things with the business, I mean, I'm obviously busier now, uh, not necessarily physically, uh, going and being there for 12 hours a day, but I am handling a lot of things on the backend and that does take time.
And that's more than what I've been accustomed to over the past few years. And I've been thoroughly enjoying it, but I've also had to put parameters on when it is that I'm doing these things. I'm not perfect yet, but today's was a reinforcement on getting there. There. And so some things that I want you guys to consider doing that I have done is one, take off notifications from your phone.
Okay. I do not have the little red circle on my phone to show me notifications. Um, I put them on temporarily for certain things. Like right now I do have [00:05:00] the email on for the new business email, uh, because we're running, uh, we're, we're in presale right now. So we do get emails and I want to respond to those fairly quickly.
Um, but I do not have notifications for Facebook or Instagram. I do not have notifications for, um, my normal email. I turn them off when it comes to, uh, Instagram in particular. I have a general rule for myself that I cannot follow more than 10 people on my personal account at a time. Okay. Uh, so if I'm following 10 people, And I want to follow someone new to consume their content.
I actually have to make the decision. I've made this rule for myself. I have to make the decision to unfollow someone else. Um, and this isn't about having friends or whatever. It's just about, I want Instagram to be a place where I create content and not necessarily consume it. But I do want to consume a very few people at a [00:06:00] time.
So for example, um, I mean, I think Alex Hormozy is great, but there are times where I've followed him and there are times where I unfollow him. I'm currently not following him. Um, I follow his podcast. I don't really listen to it on a day to day basis. If I'm gone on a walk and I take my phone with me, I will maybe look to see if there's a podcast, but that brings up another point.
When I walk my dogs at least once a day, sometimes twice, sometimes three times. If I really need to get out there and think about some things, I will leave my phone at home. These are the things we can do to stop being distracted. These are the things that take our time away. Okay. So put guardrails on when you check these things.
When you make a commitment, especially to your family about being there, you cannot let work or something else take over and make you break your word. Okay. Um, I am proud to say that I told my kids I would pick them up from school every single day, uh, during this VIP week and free week [00:07:00] for opening the new business.
Um, I, I, I did have to on one day get help. It was the last day of the week, but I articulated to my kids and I apologized, but I was there for them every day and today's Monday and I'm going to pick them up in the next 30 minutes. So it's very important to not be distracted and get things pulling away from the most important things.
The other thing that I want you to notice is how Seneca, even over 2000 years ago, right? Mentions. How people care about their property, they care about their things, but they don't care about the time and distractions that people take from them. So I want you to go through a thought exercise on what is the worst thing that can happen outside of death, right?
And usually it's someone loses a job and again, outside of death for yourself or your family, right? Those are absolutely the worst things, but outside of someone close to you dying, are you dying? What is the worst thing that could happen? We'll usually say they lose their job and can't get an equal or greater one, right?
And they're [00:08:00] unemployed for an extended period of time. Um, uh, something happens in their marriage. Unexpectedly, they get a divorce. They make a bad decision and get a divorce. Uh, they foreclose on their home. They file their bag. Uh, business goes sideways and they file for bankruptcy. And we do all these things to avoid.
Those major catastrophes, but in particular, the ones that revolve around stuff, the real estate, the cars, the, even the money in the bank. Really? Like, is that the worst thing that could happen? It certainly wouldn't be fun to lose all your money, to lose your house, to lose your cars, not have a home to sleep in.
Of course, but what would you do about it, right? You would wake up the next day, you would find somewhere to stay short term, you would make decisions, you would change The actions you take, but I care more about the daily things that you're going to do to protect your time. I want you to get more time back today.
I [00:09:00] don't want someone to steal the most important asset of time from you. Okay. It's kind of like the thing that I like from Jordan Peterson where it's like people plan their annual vacation seven to 10 days a year, right? They put all this effort. Into this vacation, they wanted to be perfect with their spouse or their kids, but they put zero effort into how they're going to address their spouse.
When they walk in the door, that thing, that second one, that little thing on when my wife walks in the door, when I walk in the door, when my kids walk in the door, when I pick them up from school, what happens in that moment? If you've never thought about how you want to be addressed or how you want to address your kids or your spouse in those moments, that happens every single day, multiple times a day.
I'm telling you that's more important than your vacation. So ladies and gentlemen, I want you to think and ponder on the spendthrifts of time. Where are you getting time stolen from you? You protect all those material assets that you have, but you [00:10:00] very willingly give away the most important asset, and that is your time and attention.