It’s interesting that these three great Stoics spent their final moments not as lone wolves but as friends, as fathers, as people who loved their fellow human beings. On a recent episode of The Daily Stoic Podcast (a great 2-hour episode you can watch on YouTube, by the way), the comedian Christina Pazsitzky told a story of an experience that led to a related insight:

“I broke my ankle two years ago. The truth is, they gave me a shit ton of ketamine. I was tripping, and I thought I was dying. I really did. I was like, ‘I think this is it.’ And I wasn’t thinking about my career. I wasn’t stoked that I had so many specials on Netflix or that I was successful at anything. I was literally only thinking about my children and my husband. My children and my husband. It got real narrow real quick. And I came out of that and anytime I catch myself getting on this kick of, ‘I should be bigger,’ ‘I should be more successful,’ ‘I should be selling out arenas’—I go, ‘I’m going to die. My kids and my husband are all that matter.’”

This is not to say that you shouldn’t strive to be successful. It is not to say that you can’t be ambitious.

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