We've all probably heard that "everything happens for a reason" but sometimes it's hard to accept it. Using lyrics from Young Dolph and a quote from Marcus Aurelius, Dramos talks about why we should try to understand that even the bad things in life can lead to something good.
Yes, Yes, I am Dramas and this is the Street Stoic Podcast, bring to your daily dose of timeless stoic philosophy remix for the hip hop generation. And with that in mind, let's get things started with your daily shot of inspiration. Now. Today we'll be talking all about the stoic idea of practicing resilience when faced with obstacles, failure, and or tragedy. And today we're gonna be pulling a lyric from the late Great Young Dolph on the song everything Happens for a Reason, And in it, Doff says heard that dude's nitcheen couldn't believe it. Everything happens for reason. Two months ago, Dog, I quit fucking with him.
I don't know why. I just felt like I couldn't trust that dude. Come to find out, her brother was the plug. So everything happens for a reason.
And I think you know what's sort of being spoken about here in this lyric, in the context of it all is a first and foremost life is just wild.
It's full of all types of.
Twists and turns, and you have to a learn to accept it, but be also trust yourself within that process right and not getting too caught up on how you want things to be, but rather allowing yourself to be able to react in the moment to what things are, if that makes sense. And again, that all just centers around the idea of acceptance. And that's really all that you can do when you're faced with some sort of obstacle or or some sort of challenge, right, is accept it for what it is, and then just react accordingly, right, and take what you can into your hands. And that's kind of what Dolf is talking about here, right. Somebody that he used to be friends with, he used to have around something told him dude was just a little bit off, and luckily he did separate himself from that person, right. And this leads perfectly to a quote from one of the Stokes Marcus really is where he says, trust that all is for the best, where we carry our fate with us and it carries us.
And what he's saying is really accepting, like.
That age old quote that we've all heard, everything happens for a reason, right, And life isn't happening to you, it's happening for you. And once you can sort of accept that and not view every situation that goes awry as a negative, but instead understand that there's some sort of potential opportunity here, or that it's leading you towards something even better, or in Dolf's case, it's leading you away from somebody who's going to negatively harm you. Right, once you begin to sort of view unplanned obstacles or disappointments through that lens, I think it makes life just a hell a lot easier to live, right, And I relate to this even just on this very simple level. I had a meeting the other day, and it was a really big meeting that I've been looking forward to for a while and involved me traveling a little bit, and on my way in there, I get in an email alert saying that we're going to have to reschedule the meeting right last minute. Of course, it'd be easy to sit there and be annoyed, be frustrated, right, I just prepped for this meeting. I just rushed out of the house this morning, unnecessarily, I paid tolls.
I wasted. Guess whatever it might be, all of.
The prep work that goes into kind of doing something outside of your normal, everyday routine. I could have been really frustrated about it. I could have fixated on it. I could have felt like people weren't valuing my time. But I sort of quickly moved from beyond those sort of feelings and just said, hey, this is happening for a reason, for whatever reason.
Maybe it's meaning.
That today I was just meant to go into the office and something good is going to come of it, regardless of this meeting not happening. Or maybe it means that when we reschedule the meeting, it's going to lead to something even better than it would have had it happened today. Right, whatever it might be, certain things again I'm not in control of. But what I was in control of was the attitude that I took towards it and my level of acceptance. Like a lot of us are living a far more stressful life than we need to be. I grew up with my dad gets stressed out about absolutely everything.
I'll give a little quick story because my parents were here this week.
I had scratched my windows still, like you know, scratched a little piece of the wood and the paint came off, and not a big deal. But for my father, growing up, everything is supposed to be kept in a pristine condition and he couldn't handle the fact that I had in my own house that I owned, that I paid for, couldn't handle the fact that I had chipped a piece of the windowsill and that some of the paint had come off. And again, this is very easy sanded a little bit, throw a little bit of paint that I I have literally sitting in my laundry room, and you'll never know that it happened.
But for him, it became this whole big thing about not.
Taking care of your stuff and blah blah blah, again allowing it to negatively affect his day unnecessarily. But again, we add extra stresses to our lives by not just accepting things for how they are and finding any sort of positive we can in that particular situation. Right, So again we've heard from young Dolph, We've heard from Marcus aureli Is. I've given you some insight into some very silly examples in my own life about just maintaining this mindset. Now let's talk about how you can make it your mantra for today. But first let's take a quick break and it.
Will be right back now.
Today talking all about the idea of practicing resilience when faced.
With obstacle's failure or tragedy.
Right, And we've heard the words of young do we have heard when the stokes and markets are really is. I'll give you some insight into my own sort of just daily practice when it comes to trying not to be thrown off by unplanned things.
Now, let's talk about how you can make it your mantra for today.
And I think, as with most of the things we talk about, I always go back to your mindset, right. It's about developing routines, right, developing a reflex that sort of kicks in when you find yourself going down a path of anger or disappointment.
Right.
These are little things that are difficult to implement at first, but eventually when you develop enough awareness, right. And that's kind of the idea of just calling these things out, even something stupid like I was talking about my example of the way that my dad reacted, or me being disappointed by a meeting being canceled. Little things like that create an awareness so that your mind is automatically taking note the next time those feelings come up for you, right, or the next time a similar situation happens. And then when you have that awareness, it's then applying the tool that you've learned and allowing it to be the reflex that kicks in. Right, so rather than your normal reflex of disappointment or anger when something happens, allowing the reflex to then be Okay, how do I sort of see the positive in this? How do I sort of just find acceptance for it? How do I say it is what it is rather than allowing it to be something that ruins my entire day? And I think that's sort of the thing that you have to begin to train your brain. Like, even when I was talking about that meeting, you know, I'm in the car, I get the email, disappointed, I'm upset. But as soon as I begin to see myself going down that path, the reflex kicks in and it's like, all right, how can we've reframed this? What can we do to make something of this day so it's not a big disappointment, so that it is not.
A wasted trip or whatever it might be.
And again, this is easier said than done when it comes to really heavy moments. I completely get that, But it is the same ideology, right, the same methodology that will save you from adding unnecessary stress to your life. Now to recap all we talked about today, you have young Dolph sort of just recognizing that life is full of surprises, right, talking about somebody that was a part of his life and that now he found out was snitching on people, and on the other end of it, talking about how he intuitively just sort of separated himself from that person right before even knowing all these different details. And I think this leads perfectly into what Marcus Aurelius talks about, kind of the idea that fate works hand in hand with us.
Right.
So Dolf, following his intuition, the part that he was in control of, actually took fate into his own hands a bit by separating himself from said person.
Right, that's the part that we do control.
And even some of the more mundane examples that I gave right not allowing myself to invite unnecessary stress into my life, accepting what is, taking into control what I can, how do I salvage this day, how do I make the most of.
This trip into the office, whatever it.
Might be, and then accepting everything else for what it is, and reminding myself that this is just the way things were supposed to happen, and that's sort of the methodology, the mindset, the reaction that you have to develop, the reflex you have to develop in those moments where life throws an obstacle at you, you're disappointed by something, something you didn't plan on happens, develop the reflex to accept it, do what you can, and then move on from anything else that is beyond your control, with the understanding that your partner in crime here, fate is going to take care of the rest. It's doing what it's supposed to do, and it's doing what's best for you, even if you can't see the work that's being done right now. Now, with that said, thank you so much for checking out the Street Stoke Podcast. Do your best to apply these concepts that we discussed today into your everyday life, and I will catch you next time. The Street Stoke Podcast is a production of Iheart's michaela as a network