TRANSCRIPT 🔗
Mark: Welcome to the Philosopher King's Show. Learn to think, speak, and act with knowledge, wisdom, and virtue. Level up as a young professional in person. Let's go. Hey philosopher kings and queens, Epicurus explains that the trials you face will introduce you to your strengths. Let me repeat that. The trials you face will introduce you to your strengths. ⁓ I just wanted to pop in and say goodbye for about four or five days. I'm gonna be backpacking on Isle Royal National Park. It's an island in the middle of Lake Superior where packs of Wild gray wolves and moose live in tension. ⁓ it's a remarkable place, and not a lot of people get to go there. And I'm super excited to backpack it with my best friend and my son. Backpacking for me is more than a passion, it's more than an appreciation for nature, although it is those things. It's actually a commitment to choose to do hard things on purpose. My senior year of college, my best friend Matt and I made a pact that every single year we would backpack in a different country. And other years, other than the years we've had babies or COVID, we've we've done it. We've been some amazing places together, backpacking all over the world. And now we're starting to take my son, which is why we're in the States this time. And I feel that for both of us, it's not just about reconnecting as friends, but it's about reconnecting to a commitment to do hard things on purpose because we both believe in the gift of doing hard things. Sometimes as young professionals we go to work and we feel like we're burned out. But the reality may be even worse. You might be bored. Let me repeat that sometimes you think you're burned out but you're actually bored. You're either not challenged by your profession like you were initially or You're not spending your time on the kinds of challenges you care about, and so it becomes very important to have an outside pursuit that is difficult. Whether you're training jujitsu, hiking 50-60 mile loops, or a cyclist or a runner, what does it look like to cultivate a life where you're choosing to do hard things on purpose? Again, Epicurus says the trials you face will introduce you. To your strength. What if you've never been introduced to your highest self and to your strengths because you've taken the easy ways out every time you can. Okay? ⁓ just some things to think about before I head out. I'll be back in four or five days. I'll try to check in if I can, but I'm gonna guess I'm simply on satellite mode with no reception. ⁓ talk to you soon. Philosopher Kings is the educational platform of Dr. Mark Schaefer, along with Ricardo Pena and Skyler Bowman, for young professionals like you to grow in internal and external authority and build the good life. Today's show was influenced by Epicurus' observation that doing difficult things is good for your character and for your soul. He says that hard things reveal your strength, which is the opposite of our cultural obsession with comfort, compliance, and least resistance. So, happy trail philosopher kings and queens, but not too happy.