# Day 156: The Unchosen Life—What Kierkegaard and the Stoics Knew About Freedom

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/dying-every-day-stoicism-in-a-year-7153387/day-156-the-unchosen-life-what-kierkegaard-and-the-stoics-knew-about-freedom
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/dying-every-day-stoicism-in-a-year-7153387/day-156-the-unchosen-life-what-kierkegaard-and-the-stoics-knew-about-freedom.md
Podcast: [Dying Every Day (Stoic Meditations)](https://stenobird.com/podcast/dying-every-day-stoicism-in-a-year-7153387)
Published: 2026-09-03T09:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://share.transistor.fm/s/0699ba37
Audio file: https://media.transistor.fm/0699ba37/82657b44.mp3
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Duration seconds: 1091

## Resource

📮 Want tools for the art of living? Sign up here: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Welcome back to Dying Every Day. This is Day 156. Imagine a young man with every door open. He is talented, and he knows it. He could be a scholar—the mind is there. He could be an artist; people have told him so. He could go into business and probably do well, or travel, or fall in love, or devote himself to a cause. Every path is available to him, and that is precisely the point: they are all still available, all still open, because he has walked down none of them. He keeps them open the way a collector keeps things in their original packaging. To choose one would be to close the others, and he cannot bear to close anything. So he stands at the center of all his beautiful possibilities, turning slowly, admiring them, committing to nothing. We know this young man. Many of us have been him. And we live in the age that has perfected him: the age of the open tab, the unchosen life, the endless scroll of options, none of which we select. We have made a virtue of keeping our options open. [...] --- 🖇️ Stay Connected: Newsletter: https://perennial.substack.com/subscribe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perennialmeditations/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PerennialMeditations --- 🦉 Additional Resources: Perennial Meditations archive: https://perennial.substack.com/archive Listen to more podcasts: https://www.perennialleader.com/podcasts

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