Stoic leadership

This is more of a business type of episode. I talk about the seven steps to preparing a retail business for Christmas. However these tips also apply to preparing Kids for a certain events, or just preparing ourselves for anything coming up in the future. It’s all about definition and measurements. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

When you are grappling with purpose in work or life, keep in mind that time is irrelevant when it comes to purpose. If your purpose has an element of time (next week, in a years time), then it's a goal, not a purpose. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

Pretty thrilled to do a nationwide radio interview recently.  It's about mystery shopping, but more 1so about customer service in general. We covered a lot of ground in 10 minutes. In this conversation we cover: Pet peeves, What is mystery shopping The National Measurement Institute Where customer surveys fail Staff member indifference How the public can make a little bit of difference Please sell to me as a customer The types of places that we mystery shop Avoiding being scammed as a mystery shopper --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

We all know the feeling of laying in bed with thoughts endlessly swirling around. How do we get those thoughts out of our head? You need to put them there. The answer is in the simplicity Cover photo Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pexels --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

Why should we do the right thing, just because it's right? Or because we want to? Doing the right thing for the right reasons requires no balloons, pats on the back or acknowledgment from a loved one. Seneca says I must be just; without reward. The deed itself offers a greater return. It makes no difference how many people are aquatinted with your uprightness. Strive for virtue, not renown. Seneca Letter 113. On the vitality of the soul and its attributes --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

Bad habits and accidental habits are easy. They require no work, they just into our lives and remain, seemingly forever. The problem with habits (intentional habits) is that they initially require a lot of work, but the payback is enormous and they can be stacked indefinitely on top of each other. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

Personal development is a lifelong work. Stoicism is no different. Despite trying my best to be stoic, I found a hidden corner of failure. The COVID-19 virus exposed me to a litany of blind spots I didn't know I had. I was still in the vice grip of uncontrollable events lurking deep in my sub-conscious. Photo by Kaique Rocha from Pexels --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

Stoicism teaches us to look inward, and to do more with less. Prior to COVID-19 it was difficult to imagine how much I could trim. I delayed buying a new car, cut back going to dinner, had less exotic holidays. Braver people then I may have even abstained. But I couldn’t cut things back all the way because of social pressure and the lack of imagination. From my blog series here Photo by Kaboompics .com from Pexels --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

We are wary of counterfeit money in certain circumstances but are less wary of counterfeit ideas from others or even ourselves. From my blog series here --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

A fisherman who cannot go to sea prepares his nets. I grew up with kids who’s fathers were fisherman.  I remember how on windy days they’d have fishing nets strewn along the length of their huge concrete driveway. The father and grandfather would stand over the nets with big needles and plastic twine repairing tears. Then they’d deal with the ropes, plastic bubbles and bits of chain. They wouldn’t do this every time they couldn’t fish, only when they knew they would have an extended period out of the sea. It took a lot of effort to unload the nets, take them home, and go through the whole process. I’m no longer busy. I have nothing I ‘have’ to do. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen to that. I’m in my 50s and, for the first time since high school, I have nowhere to be, nothing to do. It feels a little like the first few days of summer break from school. Now what? From my blog series here Image attribution --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

As we battle through this 2020 pandemic, it's easy to feel that things can't get much worse. They can get much worse but they probably won't. From my blog series here --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

I've had an extremely stressful time running my business through the 2020 Covid pandemic. Stoic practice has lots of ways of dealing with stress but in this podcast I've gone for a conscious stream of thought which focuses on two things gratitude and journaling. I know too many people it might sound fuzzy and impractical, but let me leave you with this thought about journaling. The only way to get something out of your head is to put it somewhere. Journaling is a great way to put those thoughts somewhere that is not inside your head. From my blog series here --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

Should I be fatalistic toward the future? I write this in the middle of Covid-19 pandemic. It’s easy to think, ‘oh it’s not fair’. If only that person in China who first contracted the disease didn’t go to that seafood market. If only I would have save more money. If only, if only, if only. There is a great saying suggesting we should not cry over spilled milk. This is a profoundly deep stoic thought. The Stoics were fatalists. This means that whatever happened was meant to happen and whatever happens will happen regardless of whatever happens. From my blog series here --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

Throughout my life I’ve had to explain myself. Why won’t you eat your dinner? Why did you come home at 3 am? Why didn’t you study more? Why didn’t you train harder? As I get older, it seems, the more I stick my head up, the more I need to explain myself. Why did you do it like this, or that, or I thought we would do this instead? In order to please people, I’ll give an explanation, any explanation. This comes from my inability to say no. I am here on my journey and not even I understand the reason I do things. From my blog series here --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

We can lean on ancient philosophies to get through these hard times. The philosophies have been around for over 2,000 years and multiple plagues and disasters. Here are 4 steps to get through tough times and find the sun. From my blog series here --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

It feels natural to focus on the past and the future. We can get caught up with past decisions, regrets, or even reminiscing about the good times. Like everyone, I worry about the future and all it holds. “No one can lose either the past or the future, for how can someone be deprived of what’s not theirs?” Marcus Aurelius. To focus on the present is all we have. All the good times (and bad times) in my life are irrelevant now. I need to be indifferent to the past, and the future. From my blog series here --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

Is arrogance good or bad? Sometimes it’s seen as a strength. We commonly refer to strong leaders with romantic notions of walking through a crowd with quiet arrogance. It’s seen as a sign of confidence, of someone on top of their game, provided it is not unjustified. But deep down, it’s not one of those terms I want to be associated with.  It is one of those terms that has negative connotations. “The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance.” ~ Samuel Butler Why is it seen considered a negative trait? Mark Twain said it simply, but in a manner that required great thought. “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” From my blog series here --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

When something terrible happens, I’m quick to respond with “oh bad luck”. Similarly, during bad times I (like many people), am hopeful of good times ahead. I hope that eventually my luck will turn. This belief in a future positive circumstance is called hope. And we all believe in hope in one way or another. “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one” ~ John Lennon. So pervasive is our need for hope that we hope for hope. We hope for good luck in the future. From my blog series here --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

On not implementing ideas and being jealous of those who steal, or actually implement your idea. I've neen through it. We all have.  Here is aa way to deal with it. From my blog series here --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message

Today I was tested. I had to fire someone who was fast becoming a friend. The person was doing a good job, and I liked him, but the business conditions had changed so dramatically that it made it difficult to keep him employed. My stoic practice helped immensely with this process despite there being a seeming contradiction with one of the four virtues of Stoicism. Further blog articles can be found at https://www.stevendipietro.com/blog --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/steven-di-pietro/message