The Stoics were very fond of the idea of reminding themselves that life was short. They insisted that we continually meditate on that idea and come to terms with its albeit scary reality. Today's quote comes from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and I break it down using some concepts from "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck" by Mark Manson. Should we fight back against mediocrity? Are we all truly special? Let's attempt to use Stoic philosophy to answer this question.  Free Weekly Newsletter (Click Me) The Book Basement Bulletin is a free weekly newsletter in which every Monday, readers receive book recommendations as well as three weekly useful tools or pieces of media that I have found throughout the week. Instagram (Daily Book Content and Reviews): Click Here (some of these links may be affiliate links) The Book Basement is a five times weekly podcast that discusses and breaks down everything related to books. Whether you’re looking for book summaries, book recommendations, book reviews, author interviews, and book quotes then this is your podcast! I cover a wide variety of books, both fiction and nonfiction and I compress some of their quotes and teachings into short, digestible episodes that you can listen to as a part of your daily morning routine. I have talked about books such as Atomic Habits by James Clear, The Psychology of Money, by Morgan Housel,  Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon as well as other, fiction books such as A Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, Verity by Colleen Hoover and It Ends With Us by the same author. If you’re looking to reach your reading goals and learn more about the genre of self-help, philosophy, psychology, and fiction books of the sort, then check out some of our other episodes!