In the season 2 finale of the Street Stoic podcast, Dramos uses lyrics from Mac Miller and a quote from Epictetus to encourage us to honor ourselves, especially as we begin a new year.
Yes, Yes, I am Dramas.
And this is the season finale of The Street Stoic Podcast, bringing in your daily dose of timeless stoic philosophy remix for the hip hop generation.
We are combining ancient.
Philosophy with lyrics and quotes from some of the greatest who ever grace a microphone. Now, with that said, one last time this season, let's get things started with your daily shot of inspiration. Now, I'm going off the rails a little bit today. This isn't necessarily a stoic idea or philosophy, but it's something I kind of wanted to drive home as we close out season two, as we've just started a ran new year, and it's the concept of honoring yourself and making that declaration for twenty twenty four. Right. I want to leave you on that note of really having you just value who you are and live your life in accordance of maintaining that value and living up to that value. Right. And this is inspired by the record Ladders by Mac Miller and I just kind of had it on in the background the other day and like, just this one line really stood out to me and I wanted to kind of bring it to the show, and I thought it was a perfect way to kind of close out the season.
And it's very simple, very short. He says, fuck it all.
If it all ain't me, and it's right to the point blank period. If it ain't right for me, I ain't doing it. And it was someone like mac Miller, you know, obviously rest in peace, but while he was alive, was living a comfortable life as a successful musician, right, And that's easier said than done for so many of us throughout the course of our life, as we are struggling and just trying to make ends meet, make things happen.
We don't have that level of freedom to.
Just tell our boss to go f themselves if we don't like what they're saying. But I love this sort of philosophy of like letting go of things if they don't align with who you are and what you want, and no matter how shiny they are, no matter how impressive they might be to other people, loving yourself so much that you refuse to conform for anything that doesn't celebrate your authenticity, that doesn't align with you living authentically right. And that leads to a quote from one of the Stokes Epictetus, where he says, focus not on what he or she does, but on keeping.
To your higher purpose. Your own purpose should seek harmony.
With nature itself, for this is the true road to freedom. And he's saying, stop looking at what other people are doing, what society tells us we should or shouldn't be doing, whatever the norm is, whatever the standard is, stop focusing your time, energy, and your mind on that, but instead on maintaining who you are and the life that you want to live and the sort of purpose that you seek in this life.
Right, whatever you feel like your purpose is.
You know, and at its core, really just talking about who you are as a person, right, focusing on that and allowing that to sort of guide your life rather than any sort of outside influences. Right, And reflecting back on last year, I'm seeing how I like really began to hit like this flow state towards the end of last year. I really got to the point where a lot of the things I preach have become second nature to me, where I'm standing confidently, unapologetically strong in my authentic voice, and the world is treating me differently as a result, and me saying no to things that don't align with who I am and what I stand for and how I want to be remembered, just makes room for opportunities that allow me to be celebrated for who I am and driving home probably one of the major themes that we've talked about this entire season, A yes to one thing is a note to something else. A yes to something, no matter how impressive it is to your parents, no matter how much attention it gets you on social media, whatever it is that that validation is that outside validation, No matter how much of it you get from from something, if it's not in line with with who you are, you're literally saying no to yourself fulfillment and living inauthentically. They don't coexist, right, You can't. You can't do one and then expect to have the other. So at the end of the day, your happiness depends on your ability to take a stand and truly value yourself for who you are uniquely right, But we've heard the words of mac Millan, we've heard from one of the Stokes epictetis, I went on and on about myself. Now let's talk about how you can make it your mantra for today. But first let's take a quick break and then we'll be right back. So today we have been just talking about the idea of honoring yourself, celebrating yourself for who you are. Right, we've heard the words of Mac Miller, you've heard from one of the stoics Epictetis, I gave you a whole song and dance about myself. And now let's talk about how you can make it your mantra for today. And I think first and foremost, it just starts with this appreciation and this gratitude for who you are and recognizing that you living authentically and you appreciating who you are, celebrating who you are, honoring who you are. That is going to produce the greatest results for you in this life. When you begin to dull your light, when you begin to do things for the sake of fitting in, for the sake of making others happy, you're literally running against the wind basically, right, And we all know how that feels.
A windy day.
We're trying to, you know, walk to our car and just getting slapp in the face by this windy day. It's uncomfortable. It sucks, as opposed to if you're on the you know, walking on the other side of the street. And it's a windy day and the wind is pushing you down the.
Road a little quicker. That feels pretty good, right.
You get a little pep in your step at that point, right, And that's sort of the difference right there. In one decision, you living for other people, for their acceptance asciadal norms, whatever it might be. It's literally you struggling just to get from point A to B. Whereas the other direction, you living authentically making decisions based upon what actually makes you happy, based upon the type of life that you want to lead. You're literally getting this extra push to get to your destination even faster. Right. And that's what I talked about with like the ideal flow state. I've never really seen flow state in my life in terms of like my just normal, everyday existence. I've seen it where I get lost in creating things, I'm writing making music, and I get lost for three hours and I got lost in that flow state. But what I've now recognized is, as I've been putting more pieces to the puzzle together, as I've been challenging myself to really just be unapologetically me, regardless of the situation that I'm in, I've now noticed that life feels that way a bit more, where I'm just sort of watching as doors are just flying open for me, opportunities are happening, I'm meeting people, I'm just being happier on a consistent basis. I'm getting lost in life more. And it's like unlocking a new level of happiness and fulfillment as a result. It's living your life in that flow state rather than as like a creative as I have in the past. It's just small pockets of my day, small pockets of my life.
It's just greater.
Feeling of fulfillment of your day on a regular basis living in that state. And that's available for all of us. We just have to love ourselves enough to demand what we actually want. Now. To recap all we talked about today, Mac Miller this very simple line, fuck it all. If it all ain't me, no matter how shiny it is, no matter how you know, much much validation it might bring me. If it's not in line with who I want to be in the type of life I want to live, fuck it walking away from it. And Epictetus, one of the stoics, talking about how your own purpose should seek harmony.
With nature itself. This is the true road to freedom.
You making decisions that are not in line with who you are, who you want to be, and what you want your purpose in this life to be. That is you literally going against nature. It's you running against the wind, and you trying to recreate somebody else's dream, somebody else's path, somebody else's standard of what's acceptable. Is again you going against nature, going against what makes you inherently you and even me. Right now, I'm riding out the high of a great sort of last quarter of twenty twenty three. But I now see what's available to me right, and I want to dig deeper into it. Right.
I want to become even more authentic, be even.
More sort of strict with the yeses that I give to this world. Right understanding the amount of happiness and fulfillment that is out there for me. Now I've gotten a taste of it. Now I want to dig even deeper. But again, all of that starts with loving myself enough to only make decisions when my heart is in it. Appreciate it's a Biggie quote, and I think that's a great way to sort of end season two of The Streets Dog Podcasts and Man Thank y'all so much who have been riding with us, maybe from the first season, you just joined us here at midway to the second season, whatever it might be, you've been tuned.
Into this daily.
I appreciate you so damn much for supporting this podcast. I don't know when you know we'll launch season three, but my other podcast, Life as a Gdingo, comes back in February, so you could check that out to fill the void if you miss hearing my voice and big shots on my whole micro a podcast family as well for all their help throughout this season. And last shot to our producers Pablo on a Boo for helping me out and help them bring this vision to life on a daily basis. I appreciate them, appreciate each and every one of you, and one last time here for season two, thank you so much for checking out the Street Stog podcast.
Do your best to apply.
These concepts that we discussed into your everyday life and I will catch you next time. The Street Stove podcast is a production of Iheart's Michael Thura podcast Network.