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Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast where each weekday we bring you a

meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics, a short passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength and insight here in everyday life.

And on Wednesdays, we talk to some of our fellow students of ancient philosophy, well-known and obscure,

fascinating and powerful. With them, we discuss the strategies and habits that have helped them become who they are,

and also to find peace and wisdom in their actual lives. But first, we've got a quick message from one of our sponsors.

What can you get for free? If there was ever a success strategy, it's this. Using what life throws at you.

The actress Kate Winslet, who was not classically trained, recently explained that her secret on camera was to ask herself that question,

what can I get for free? Meaning if she's tired that day, she uses it in her character. If she's nervous, she puts it into her character.

If her arms hurt in her feet or sore, same thing. Instead of thinking, I can't today because she takes the stress, the same factors, the same difficulties and things,

what can I do because? And this was Marcus Aurelius' strategy to a strong stomach digest what it eats.

He says, a fire turns everything into flame and brightness. We use what happens to us in life because it's all we've got.

We can either be made worse by events outside our control or be made better. What will it be? We can try to purchase things at great expense through our brilliance,

through our raw determination, through good luck or whatever, or we can accept and utilize what we've been given for free,

and which seems like a more cost-effective strategy. Life is going to give us a lot. A lot that we don't want, that we wouldn't choose if we had a choice.

So all we can do is figure out a way to transform this into material. All we can do is put it into our character, put it into our work.

All we can do is use what we get for free. That's what the idea, the obstacle is the way it means. That's why I have it tattooed on my arm.

This thing isn't in the way, this thing is the way it's giving me something to work with.

I love the Kate Winslet is talking about it. It's what I try to apply. It's what I try to do in my own work.

I remember I was writing Trust Me I'm Lying and I got on a bike accident and I broke my elbow and I could have said I can't write because,

instead I said I'm going to go for a lot of long walks. I'm going to have to delay this process a little bit,

but the book is going to be better for it having happened. The obstacle is the way.

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