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Is This Really Necessary? · The Daily Writer

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider, where we share a lesson each day to help you cultivate the habits for creative success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: These lessons are inspired by great artists, authors, and thinkers, both past and present.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: For more, you can visit us at dailywriterlife.com.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: If there is one word that describes our modern hectic lifestyles, it's the word obligation.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're connected 24-7 to our devices, and literally anyone in the world with a smartphone can reach out to us.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Our inboxes are filled with email from marketers, influencers, clients, people who want something from us, and hopefully sometimes from a couple of friends who are checking in with us.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Our social media feeds are crammed full of posts and advertisements that demand our attention right now, this very second, and we feel obligated to respond to all of it.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: But how much of this stuff is really necessary to our overall goals?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: How much of it can help us become better writers or achieve the things that are important to us?
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this is not a new kind of struggle.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, a Roman emperor named Marcus Aurelius struggled with this very thing as well.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now he didn't have a social media feed or didn't have email, but he did have an endless stream of demands pouring at him every single day.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Marcus's private journals are collected in an amazing book called Meditations, and here's what he wrote in one passage.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you seek tranquility, do less because most of what we say and do is not essential.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you can't eliminate it, you'll have more time and more tranquility.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself at every moment, is this necessary?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now it may feel like everything that comes to you in a day's time is completely necessary, but it's not.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Is it necessary to accept every meeting request?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Is it necessary to check your email 17 times a day?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Is it necessary to spend so much time on social media, keeping up with everybody else, and engaging in every conversation?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to feel less stress and more peace, or as Marcus Aurelius puts it, more tranquility, then ask yourself at every moment, is this really necessary?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: The amount of times the answer is no may surprise you.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Daily Rider Podcast.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: We appreciate your support and hope you enjoyed this.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: You can find more at DailyRiderLife.com.