On the latest episode of The Thrive Global Podcast with iHeartRadio, Thrive Global founder and CEO Arianna Huffington sat down with Tim Ferriss, productivity guru, entrepreneur, author of the new book Tribe of Mentors and host of the The Tim Ferriss Show podcast to talk about his monthly practice that’s rooted in the ancient wisdom of Stoicism.
Every month, or at least every quarter, Ferriss wears the same outfit and eats the same food for a week. “That is directly from Stoicism,” he told Huffington. “You realize, far from being a huge burden and making your life difficult, in some ways it’s so simplifying that you get to the end of the week, and you’re like, ‘You know, I don’t really feel like eating lentils for the rest of my life, three meals a day, but my God, that opened up so much bandwidth not thinking about where to go, not thinking about what to wear to go out, not caring about someone noticing my jeans being the same for seven days,’” he said.
In fact, Ferriss was in the middle of a version of this practice at the time of the podcast taping, sporting “a pretty funny looking assortment of facial hair,” he told Huffington, something he hasn’t done before. (He noted that for those listening, Googling ‘Ming the Merciless’ should give you an idea of his chosen style.) He took the idea from a Stoic named Cato. “I very deliberately put this on my face during a week in which I would be doing media, nonetheless, to train myself to be ashamed of only the things that are worth being ashamed of,” he said.
To hear the full conversation, click here.
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