The Daily Stoic

There’s a story of Musonius Rufus paying a thousand sesterces to a charlatan posing as a philosopher. When an observer stepped in to say that the man was a liar unworthy of the payment, Musonius replied, “money is exactly what he deserves.”It’s always revealing to look closely at those who seem to prize financial success above all else. The writer Anne Lamott jokes in Bird by Bird, “Ever wonder what God thinks of money? Just look at the people he gives it to.” Marcus Aurelius writes in Meditations, “Robbers, perverts, killers, and tyrants—gather for your inspection their so-called pleasures!”---And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt reading, Ryan meditates on the unique aspects of Stoic joy, and why it should be practiced every day.💵 Visit dailystoic.com/wealth to sign up for The Wealthy Stoic wealth management course today.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In today's audiobook excerpt, Ryan cracks open his best-selling book Stillness Is The Key to read the chapter titled “Just Start Journaling,” which covers why you should start your journaling practice.📔 Visit the Painted Porch to order a copy of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Renee Mauborgne about her new book Beyond Disruption: Innovate and Achieve Growth without Displacing Industries, Companies, or Jobs, the strategies that have helped both of be find success in their careers, why we are all blue oceans, the philosophy behind positive disruption, the deep level of dedication that it takes to “make it” in anything, and more.Renee Mauborgne is an economist, business theorist and author. She is a professor of strategy at INSEAD, a business school based in France, and the co-director of the Fontainebleau-based INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute. In 2005, she co-authored with W. Chan Kim the hugely successful business book Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, and its 2017 follow-up Blue Ocean Shift. Beyond Competing. Both works focus on developing a unique brand and product in order to become the “only” rather than competing to become the “best.” You can find Renee and Blue Ocean Strategy’s work at their website: blueoceanstrategy.com, and on Instagram and Twitter @blueoceanstrtgy.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It’s interesting how infrequently money comes up in Meditations. Here was a guy who had incredible wealth, whose predecessors obsessed over it and found it to be a source of both pleasure and conflict, and yet in his private meditations, it hardly comes up at all.In his actions, we see Marcus was conscious of money, but primarily as a means to an end not as an end to itself. He was more interested in what it could do for other people. He declined gifts and inheritances. He gave liberally to the poor. He sold off palace furnishings at Rome’s lowest point.But perhaps these attitudes are related.---And in today's excerpt reading from The Daily Stoic, Ryan discusses the vital importance of actually training yourself for something rather than simply knowing about it, especially with philosophical ideas.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Change is a constant in life, and embracing it is key to living a fulfilling and meaningful existence. The Stoics recognized this fact and encouraged us to be adaptable and flexible, no matter what life throws our way.It can be tempting to resist or fear the unknown. However, the Stoics taught that change is not something to be feared, but rather, it is an opportunity for growth and self-improvement.Marcus Aurelius wrote, "The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it." By focusing on our thoughts and our perspective, we can choose to see change as a positive and embrace it with open arms.---And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions after a Stoicism seminar at the Andrews Air Force Base. Topics covered include how Stoicism applies to parenting, as well as whether any of the Cardinal Virtues is more important than the others.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Warren Buffett, whose net worth is north of $100 billion, lives in the same house he bought in 1958 for $31,500. The NFL lineman turned mathematician John Urschel is worth millions but manages to live on $25,000 a year. Well past signing a $94 million dollar contract, the NBA star Kawhi Leonard drove the 1997 Chevy Tahoe he had since he was a teenager.Cato, who came from a wealthy and powerful family, walked around bareheaded and barefooted and generally abstained from unnecessary luxuries. He could have afforded to do otherwise, he chose not to. “Nothing is cheap,” his great-grandfather had famously said, “if it is superfluous.”Some might say these men were just cheap, but that’s too simple and too unfair.💵 Visit dailystoic.com/wealth to sign up for The Wealthy Stoic.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Ty Seidule about his book Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause, Henry Flipper and the less-told story of the aftermath of the Civil War and slavery in America, the importance of choosing carefully who to commemorate, how to grapple with challenging family history, and more.Ty Seidule is a retired United States Army brigadier general, the former head of the history department at the United States Military Academy, the first professor emeritus of history at West Point, and the inaugural Joshua Chamberlain Fellow at Hamilton College. He has published numerous books, articles, and videos on military history including the award-winning West Point History of the Civil War. Ty graduated from Washington and Lee University and holds a PhD from the Ohio State University. Ty’s work can be found on his website: tyseidule.com.📚 For more reading on the Civil War, check out Bruce Catton’s classics.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Life is frustrating. You’re waiting for people to get back to you. You’re waiting for approval on stuff. You’re waiting for things to ship. You’re dealing with bureaucracy. You’re depending on teammates. You’re dealing with the fallout of decisions that weren’t your call, rules you don’t agree with.It’s interesting though how often we complain or chafe against these constraints…yet when the ball actually is in our court, we’re slow. We’re indecisive. We don’t do our best.More than strange, it’s wasteful madness.The Stoics say over and over again that there is stuff in our control and stuff outside our control.---And in today's Daily Stoic video excerpt, Ryan presents six Stoic concepts for living a fulfilling life that Robert Greene has gathered from his decades of observing, studying, and writing about people and power.📺 You can watch the full video on the Daily Stoic YouTube channel.✉️ Get parenting wisdom inspired by the Stoics every day for free at https://dailydad.com✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It doesn’t matter how old you are, it looms before you. Not death–although that’s always there–but the future itself. The future when you’re not going to be so young anymore, when you’re not going to want to be hustling entry level jobs anymore, or doing this or that kind of work anymore. When you’re going to have things you want to do–a house you want to buy, kids to send to college, trips you want to go on, a potential retirement.Look, at some point, you’re going to have to get it together. You know this.---And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt reading, Ryan examines why the Stoics believed it was so valuable to regularly remind yourself of the unique blessings that fill your life.💵 Visit dailystoic.com/wealth to sign up for The Wealthy Stoic.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In today's audiobook reading, Ryan presents the biography of the great Greco-Phoenician Stoic philosopher Chrysippus. Written by the prolific biographer of the Greek philosophers Diogenes Laertius, this text covers Chrysippus’s early life, how he used his natural talents for dialectics and writing, stories of his teaching career, and more.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Frank Shamrock about his memoir Uncaged: My Life as a Champion MMA Fighter, the convergence between the Stoic virtues and the tenets of the Warrior Code, managing his ego when he was considered the greatest fighter on the planet, how his rough upbringing shaped his unconventional life, the mutual respect that they have for each other’s work, and more.Frank Shamrock is a former professional mixed martial artist and a pioneer of the sport. He was the first to hold the UFC Middleweight Championship and retired a four-time defending undefeated champion ranked the No. 1 Pound-for-Pound fighter in the world. He was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 1990s by the Wrestling Observer, "Best Full Contact Fighter" by Black Belt magazine (1998), and three time "Fighter of the Year" by Full Contact Fighter Magazine. Frank spent much of his young life in the foster care system, often enduring abuse and neglect, until he was officially adopted and mentored by his father figure Bob Shamrock at the age of 21. Since his retirement from MMA in 2010, Frank has worked as a coach, color commentator, actor, writer, and motivational speaker. His work can be found on his website: frankshamrock.com.📚 To read more on the philosophy and mindset of MMA, check out Sam Sheridan’s books at The Painted Porch.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In those first moments you’re awake, how do you decide to start this fresh day? By reaching for the phone, for social media? We fill the sunlight hours with meetings, spending them all indoors. We wait until after school, after a long stint at the office, to try to spend quality time at home. We pick up a book for a few minutes before we close our eyes to sleep, already tired, already fried.It’s insane. Both Seneca and Marcus Aurelius lamented at the quickness with which ambitious professionals will promise up all their time to the most trivial of work pursuits.---And in today's reading from The Daily Stoic, Ryan discusses why kindness is invincible only when it is sincere.📺 You can watch and listen to the video of Ryan's interview with Anthony Everett at youtube.com/@dailystoicpodcast ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Even when he was president, Jimmy Carter tried to carve out space for reflection and study. Just a few days after being sworn in, he was already asking his aides to push his meetings back. “I need more time alone early each morning,” he wrote to his team. He wanted an hour of reading and thinking and prayer.The Stoics protected this time too.---And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions from the audience at the conclusion of a Stoicism 101 seminar, covering topics including how we can use anger as a tool, how and why to read points of view that we don't agree with, how to balance appreciating what you have with striving to achieve something else, and more.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Gretchen Rubin about her new book Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World, how our reality is composed entirely of our perceptions, her striving to better accept herself while still expecting more from herself, the wisdom that can be found with reading and re-reading great books, her former boss Sandra Day O’Connor, and more.Gretchen Rubin is an author, blogger, podcaster, and speaker whose work focuses on happiness, habits, and human nature. She has written ten books, including the best-selling and widely influential Better Than Before, Happier at Home, and The Happiness Project, and her writings have sold more than two million print and online copies worldwide in over thirty languages. Gretchen’s podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, on which she and her sister Elizabeth Craft discuss happiness and good habits, has been downloaded over 220 million times. All this and more can be found on her website: gretchenrubin.com.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It’s very easy to get comfortable. To build up your life exactly how you want it to be. Minimize inconveniences and hand off the stuff you don’t like to do. To find what you enjoy, where you enjoy it, and never leave.A velvet rut is what it’s called. It’s nice, but the comfort tricks you into thinking that you’re not stuck.The Stoics knew that this was a kind of death.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Many artists—songwriters, poets, comedians, and so on—have said some version of the same idea: the personal is universal. Artists often find the more personal they get in their art, the more people tend to resonate with it.It actually helps explain how Meditations has endured for thousands of years.---And in today's video excerpt, Ryan highlights some of the most important Stoic lessons from all of his books. Check out the full video on the Daily Stoic YouTube channel.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more, including the Premium Leather Edition of Meditations.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Of the four Stoic virtues, Marcus Aurelius said justice was the most important. To him, it was “the source of all the other virtues.” After all, how impressive are courage or discipline if they are only used to serve self-interest? What good is wisdom if not put to use for the whole world?---And in today's Daily Stoic Journal reading, Ryan discusses why it's so important for us to pay close attention to our habits in order use them as a positive force in our lives, and he outlines some strategies for doing so.🤝 To see more details on our fundraising results, or to donate to families in need, visit givedirectly.org/stoic.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When a recent Q&A session between Ryan and Robert Greene fell apart just hours before the conference due to emergency health concerns, the moment presented Ryan with an opportunity to lean into the Stoic practice of controlling only what one can. Thinking quickly and without panic, Ryan called his friend, NPR host and journalist Guy Raz, who was planning to sit front-row at the event, and asked if he wanted to fill in. Guy’s enthusiastic acceptance and willingness to jump into such an unusual situation led to the Q&A session and surrounding discussion that we present to you today. He and Ryan answer questions from the audience about what Marcus Aurelius would make of today’s notion of kindness, why Ryan favors formlessness, the daily habits that one can change in order to become a better Stoic, and more.Ryan’s conversation with Robert Greene has been rescheduled, and you can go to ryanholiday.net/tour for dates and tickets.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Kevin Kelly about his new book Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier, how his remarkable life and career is shaped by his quest to do things his own way, understanding that life is fluid and mistakes are important to development, the best lessons that we can pass onto our children, and more.Kevin Kelly is a writer, photographer, painter, lecturer, conservationist, student of Asian and digital culture, and the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and editor/publisher of the Whole Earth Review. His work focuses on digital trends, futurism, the exploration of the natural world, and the convergence of nature and technology. While he is most known for his hugely influential essay 1000 True Fans, Kevin has written five books and published three volumes of art and photography, including Asia Grace, a collection of over 600 photographs that Kevin took throughout 30 years of exploring rural Asia. His work can be found on his website kk.org, and on Twitter @kevin2kelly.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today, we know F. Scott Fitzgerald as one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century. Tragically, in his own time, many regarded Fitzgerald as a failure. Sure, he was one of the highest paid writers of his time, but his novels sold poorly, and the critical reviews were precisely that–critical.This weighed heavily on Fitzgerald, who had a sensitive and vulnerable soul, as many artists do. As Sarah Churchwell, an expert on 20th- and 21st-century American literature and author of Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby, explained on the Daily Stoic podcast:“He pinned so much personal hope and ambition and desire and sense of his self-worth as an artist on Gatsby. And its comparative failure devastated him. And, in my view, it really precipitated his spiral…With Gatsby, he made this choice that he was going to write a masterpiece, and then it was met with bafflement. And he lost a lot of his self-confidence and a lot of his momentum at that point.”---And in today's Daily Stoic excerpt reading, Ryan discusses why it is so important to the maintenance of a healthy life for you to see yourself as the business. Do away with separating yourself from your work. Do work that improves you.📚 Check out The Painted Porch to pick up a copy of Steven Pressfield's The War of Art and Turning Pro.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It goes without saying that the man has changed the world for the better. He’s reinvigorated the American space program. He popularized electric cars. His solar panels cover the roofs of countless homes, his batteries save electricity for emergencies, taking pressure off overwhelmed grids, his satellites supply wireless internet where it’s desperately needed. And this is to say nothing of the payments company which has processed billions of payments.Yet these days the reputation of Elon Musk is not what it once was.---And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions from airmen at the Andrews Air Force Base about dealing with the hazards of moral injury, how stories can be a way of coping with trauma, the difference between oversharing and expressing feelings in a healthy way, and more.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Jason Singer of the band Michigander about he and his wife getting back on track after a series of injuries, the humbling experience of asking for help and paying it forward, the realities of being a professional rock musician, the power of art to give the artist a healthy outlet, and more.Jason Singer is the creator, frontman, and songwriter for the indie rock band Michigander. A Michigan native and self-taught multi-instrumentalist, Singer founded Michigander in the early 2010s and gained wide acclaim in 2016 with the singles “Nineties,” which garnered over a million online streams. The band has released three EPs and a string of singles since then. Michigander’s music, merch, and tour dates can be found on their website michiganderband.com, and on Instagram @michiganderband.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In 1859, before he was president, before he suffered through that harrowing train ride to Washington on his way to office where many thought he would be killed before he arrived, before the Union tore itself to pieces and around 750,000 people died in the Civil War (the total number dead is still unknown), Abraham Lincoln gave a speech at the Wisconsin State Fair. The subject of the speech was supposed to be agriculture, but Lincoln decided to go a little deeper.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It seems obvious. If you want to be better at your job, work more. If you want to be more successful, focus on it entirely. Yet history doesn’t actually bear this out.Overwork. A lack of balance…it ends in ruin. It’s why Marcus Aurelius tried to remind himself to “not be all about business.” It’s why Seneca advocated wandering walks and lots of time reading and thinking. It’s why middle Stoics like Antipater spoke of the importance of cultivating a happy and healthy family–not just worldly accomplishments.---And in today's Daily Stoic video excerpt, Ryan outlines six Stoic-inspired changes that you can make in your life in order to turn your words into actions, to show the deeds of a philosopher. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Who a person is determines what will happen and what they can do. It’s true in sports. It’s true in politics. It’s true in business. No matter how talented a person is, how great the incentives, how great the system around them—in the end, character is everything. It can’t be hidden. It can’t be compensated for. It comes out.This is an excerpt from Ryan Holiday’s latest book The Daily Dad.---And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt reading, Ryan examines the importance of letting new ideas like Stoic philosophy germinate in your mind for some time before committing to them after first glance.📙 If you enjoyed this passage, please consider preordering a signed and numbered first edition of The Daily Dad: 366 Meditations on Parenting, Love, and Raising Great Kids before the May 2 release.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In today's audiobook excerpt, Ryan presents his reading of the section of his own book The Obstacle is the Way entitled “Control Your Emotions,” in which he discusses why real strength lies in recognizing, understanding, and controlling one’s emotions.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more, including The Obstacle is the Way.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Alexander Ludwig about how studying Stoicism gave him the discipline to quit drinking, the power of surrendering to the moment, pursuing mastery of the crafts of acting and songwriting, the mindset he has maintained while navigating his career, and more. Alexander Ludwig is a Canadian actor and country musician. He is most known for his starring and supporting roles in the History Channel series Vikings and the films Bad Boys for Life, Lone Survivor, The Hunger Games, and Race to Witch Mountain. He currently stars on the series Heels. He began his acting career in commercials at the age of nine and moved into movie work shortly thereafter. As a musician, Ludwig released his self-titled EP in 2021, and then his debut album Highway 99 in 2022 via BBR Music Group. Ludwig has also participated in competitive freestyle skiing. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We look back on things we clearly messed up. We were too preoccupied. We were too harsh. We were wrong. We didn’t know.And because we messed up, we feel guilty. We regret what could have been. We’re mad at ourselves. We wallow in pity or shame.Dr. Edith Eger, the Holocaust survivor, cut through all this with her graceful bluntness on the Daily Stoic podcast recently (she’s been on twice, both episodes are must listens). “I’ll give you a sentence,” she said. “If I knew then, what I know now, I would have done things differently.”---And in today's excerpt from the Daily Stoic, Ryan explores why "the highest power is no power if you desire nothing." ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There is a great story about a young Spartan woman, Gorgo, who would one day become queen. Despite her royal status, like all Spartans she was raised to be self-sufficient, with no frills or needless luxury. So imagine Gorgo’s surprise when she witnessed a distinguished visitor to Sparta have his shoes put on by a servant. “Look, Father,” she said innocently to her father, King Leonidas, “the stranger has no hands!” Sadly, for some of us, it could just as easily be deduced that our kids have no hands. And no brains. We put on their clothes for them. We make their decisions. We clear the road in front like a snowplow. We hover like a helicopter, just in case something goes wrong. We do everything for them. Then we wonder why they are helpless.---And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions from a virtual audience as part of a Stoicism Q&A session. Topics covered include the concept of the Passions, how to read the classics, the representation of the Virtues in The Gladiator, and more.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the first of a two-part discussion, Ryan speaks with Rachel Hollis about how her success has been defined by perseverance and acceptance, the importance of approaching work without arrogance, improving relationships by working to understand emotional boundaries, dealing with public criticism, and more. The second part of the discussion can be found at Rachel’s podcast, The Rachel Hollis Podcast.Rachel Hollis is an author, podcast host, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, blogger, and mother of four. Two of her three self-help books, Girl, Wash Your Face and Girl, Stop Apologizing, have become massive worldwide bestsellers, and The Rachel Hollis Podcast inspires a wide listenership with interviews and self-help oriented content. Rachel also founded and grew her own media company, The Hollis Company, which produces books, podcasts, movies, social and live events and physical products. Her work can be found at her website msrachelhollis.com. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Whatever you decide to do with your life, whatever path you decide to walk, people are going to stand in your way. They’re going to doubt you. They’re going to give you bad advice. They will do you wrong. On purpose and unintentionally. They’ll lie. They’ll undermine you. They may well actively take steps to stop you.Think about what it means to have a “disruptive” idea or business—something that promises to upend entire ways of thinking or doing things. It means you’re not just someone’s competition, you’re an existential threat. Why would anyone who faced obsolescence, then irrelevance, then oblivion, just accept that fate? Of course they’re going to put up roadblocks. Of course they’re going to resist and there is going to be conflict.The important question is not if this is going to happen, at least according to the Stoics, it’s about how you’re going to respond to the challenge when it does.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There is, as we have talked about many times, a tinge of sadness in the story of Seneca. This immensely talented and wise man spent the best years of his life advising and collaborating with one of the worst emperors in history. As James Romm illustrates in his fascinating book, Dying Every Day (and you can listen to our podcast episode with James here) Seneca’s ambition, his drive, it took him fatally off track from where he should have been.We should all see it as a cautionary tale.---And in today's video excerpt, Ryan outlines some of the best ways that you can have better habits in 2023.Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TfzaMr0Lxc✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The first time was revelatory. The first time you watched Mad Men. Or The Godfather. Or cracked open Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. Or heard Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’ or listened to Fantine sing, I Dreamed a Dream from Les Mis. Or stood in front of a Caravaggio painting.It hit you with all the power that new and brilliant art has. It shook you. It opened up something in you. It taught you something. But in some way, the power of these moments is actually overrated or at least overstated. It’s powerful because it’s new and immediate. But what’s actually more transformative is what happens when you return to those works of art, lingering as Seneca said, on the words of the master thinkers.---And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt reading, Ryan discusses how the practice of treating the luxurious things that we yearn for with contempt through thoughtful and intentional language serves to remind us of what really matters in life.📙 The Daily Dad: 366 Lessons on Parenting, Love and Raising Great Kids is available for preorder right now. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more, including the a special leather edition of The Daily Stoic.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In today's audiobook reading, Ryan presents the biography of the great Stoic philosopher, boxer, and successor to Zeno of Citium as the second head of the Stoic school of Athens, Cleanthes. Written by the prolific biographer of the Greek philosophers Diogenes Laertius, this text covers Cleanthes’s early life, the inspiration he took from Zeno, his strong work ethic, and more.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Sarah Bakewell about her new book Humanly Possible: seven hundred years of humanist freethinking, inquiry, and hope, how growing up surrounded by books shaped her philosophical mindset, the philosophical principles that she applies to her life, and more.Sarah Bakewell is an author and professor whose work focuses on existentialist philosophy and biographies of adventurers and philosophers. After growing up surrounded by books as the daughter of a bookseller father and a librarian mother, Sarah studied philosophy at the University of Essex, and she later completed a postgraduate degree on Artificial Intelligence. Her work in the 1990s as a curator of early printed books at the Wellcome Library led her to taking on writing seriously, and she has since published five books, including the lauded At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails, and How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer. Her work can be found on her website: sarahbakewell.com.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Three years removed from those eerie and strange days of the early pandemic, one thing that strikes us is how much time we seemed to have then. People were picking up hobbies, slow cooking elaborate meals on the groceries they could get. People found their jobs that used to keep them late at the office could be finished in a couple hours. People were reading philosophy and zipping through books. There was no business travel, no long days on the road. The days blurred into each other, but there seemed to be infinite space for chatting with friends and family over Zoom, catching up on TV series we missed.It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. But it sure felt like there was a lot of time.Today, with life back to ‘normal,’ all that seems very far away.---Andy in today's Daily Stoic excerpt reading, Ryan discusses why holding your attention on what really matters in a world full of media that is constantly trying to pull it away is a crucial part of maintaining a happy and healthy.📔 Check out The Painted Porch to order a copy of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more, including signed copies of Discipline is Destiny.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

One gets the sense that Seneca, like many smart and active people, was often frustrated by other people. It is inevitable that someone like him—someone creating art, actively participating in government, managing properties, etc—would have regularly found his interest and his will thwarted. Perhaps a neighbor opposed some changes he was making to his land. Or an intriguing enemy at the palace sought to undermine him with the emperor. Maybe his brother jostled for an inheritance. Maybe he bumped into a rude person in the street.These are timeless and common occurrences. And, quite naturally, they are prone to make us angry—especially if we impute the least charitable motivations on the other party.---And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions about Stoicism at Andrews Air Force Base, The topics he covers include how Stoicism can be applied to a wide variety of professions, using Stoicism to embrace your emotions, and the Stoic view on work/life balance.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Katherine Blanford about her earning things throughout her comedy career, her Catholic upbringing, why the funniest moments come from a dark place, how her mother influences her comedy, and more.Katherine Blanford is a comedian, writer, podcast host, and YouTuber based in Atlanta, Georgia. She has opened for many renowned comedians, including Jeff Foxworthy, David Spade, and Ron White, and she recently made her television debut on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. Along with fellow comedian Lac Larrabee, Katherine co-hosts the popular podcast Cheaties in which they interview guests about their personal stories of cheating and being cheated on, and help each other heal through laughter. Katherine’s work and upcoming shows can be found on her website: katherineblanford.com. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is an excerpt from Ryan Holiday’s latest book The Daily Dad (which you can preorder signed copies of now!).To Have A More Peaceful Home, Have Fewer Of These“These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.”-Marcus AureliusAt the core of most of the conflict between parents and children—and so often spouses—is one thing: judgment. We have opinions and they have opinions, and these opinions are the source of disagreement. If we, as parents, would like to have a better relationship with our children, there is one simple thing we can do: we can have fewer opinions.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Marcus Aurelius certainly hoped his reign would be peaceful and prosperous–as the fates had blessed his mentor Antoninus for 23 years. Certainly, he dreamed of growing old with all his children around him. Never would Seneca have asked for exile and loss, for Nero’s descent into cruelty. Epictetus, like every child, would have hoped for a life of fun and lightness. Stockdale, as he left his family for a tour in Vietnam, no doubt envisioned returning home unscathed as soon as it was over.But as the song goes…there are some dreams that cannot be.---And today, Ryan gives you 9 habits that you should stop doing in 2023. You can view the full video here. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's felt like things have been a little off lately. You have been irritable. You have been stressed. You have been easily rattled by external events, you have been focusing on things outside your control. You have been a little caught up in projects at work, in getting ahead, in getting what you want. You haven't been the role model you aspire to be at home.What's the source of all this? Well, why don't we look at our habits?---And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt reading, Ryan discusses the importance of remembering that our first impulses are usually out of proportion with actual value.📗 Preorder your copy of The Daily Dad: 366 Meditations on Parenting, Love and Raising Great Kids (including numbered, signed first editions) now. 📔 And if you want a better edition of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations for your bedside table (to actually use, of course), check out our new version of the Gregory Hays translation.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the year 33, a philosopher was executed by the Roman authorities. This was not an uncommon thing back then.But this man, referred to as Christus in Tacitus’ writing, l was first beaten and then after being forced to carry the weight of the tools of his annihilation to the site of his ultimate demise, was brutally crucified on full display. But then, after he was entombed–and this is where his story is said to diverge from the Stoics we mentioned above–three days later, Christus, supposedly rose again.Now, whether or not you consider the events of Jesus’s death to be holy or not, totally true or not, there is nevertheless a powerful lesson in them. A man went bravely to his death. A man with his last words said, “Forgive them father, for they know not what they do.” A man died willingly, believing he would absolve mankind for its sins. And then, from this loss, he and mankind were given a clean slate.--And in today's audiobook reading, Ryan presents part one of the biography of another great man: Zeno of Citium (Hellenistic philosopher and the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy). Written by the prolific biographer of the Greek philosophers Diogenes Laertius, this first half of the biography tells of Zeno's demeanor, physical stature, rigorous study, travels, and more.📖 Preorder your copy of The Daily Dad: 366 Meditations on Parenting, Love, and Raising Great Kids today!✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Molly Bloom in-person at the new Daily Stoic podcast studio in the second of a two-part conversation, the first of which was conducted virtually. Today, they discuss the power of understanding and utilizing self-interest in order to connect with other people, how to improve at something every day by committing to the beginner’s mindset, what raising children can teach you about finding peace in your own mind, and more.Molly Bloom is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and former Olympic class skier. After her competitive skiing career was derailed by injury, Molly became a bartender at the Viper Room in Los Angeles. She eventually started an event and catering company to host high-stakes poker tournaments, which attracted wealthy people, sports figures, and Hollywood celebrities. In 2013, she was sentenced as part of a $100 million money laundering and illegal sports gambling operation and served one year of probation with a $200,000 fine, and 200 hours of community service. Her story was turned into a 2017 film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. Molly’s speaking and entrepreneurial work focuses on inspiring and educating people on how to become top performers.🎧 Listen to the first part of Ryan and Molly’s conversation here.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is an excerpt from Ryan Holiday’s latest book **The Daily Dad.**“Even though you have these powers free and entirely your own, you don’t use them, because you still don’t realize what you have or where it came from. . . . I am prepared to show you that you have resources and a character naturally strong and resilient.”-EpictetusOh, how you wish you could guarantee they will never suffer. Of course, you know that’s not possible. As the character in Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha says, we cannot spare our kids the suffering we have gone through in our lives. We cannot prevent them from suffering at all. Because suffering and pain are parts of life.---And in today's Daily Stoic excerpt reading, Ryan examines why the danger in becoming "an expert in trivia" is that it results in understanding everything but oneself.📗 Preorder your signed and numbered first edition of The Daily Dad: 366 Meditations on Parenting, Love, and Raising Great Kid before its May 2 release.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In April 1960, the writer Richard Whalen was trying to meet with Diane Nash and the sit-in students for a Time Magazine cover story. These young college students had suddenly become the focus of an immense amount of attention, not just from the press but from the police and politicians and the rest of the civil rights leaders (we have a great podcast episode on the Stoicism of the Civil Rights movements here with Thomas Ricks).How were these kids going to upend years of stymied racial progress?---And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions covering topics that include the top five Stoic habits that can improve your life, strategies for staying calm in difficult situations, how to find good books to read, and more, ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Timothy Egan about his new book A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them, how and why politics and extremism often operate hand-in-hand, dangerous misconceptions about white supremacy in America, better ways to teach American history, the fundamental lessons that he has learned about people over his long and varied career, and more.Timothy Egan is an American author, journalist and former op-ed columnist for The New York Times. His nine published books cover a wide range of historical topics, including most notably the immediate aftermath of the Dust Bowl with The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction and the Washington State Book Award in History/Biography. His other award-winning works include The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest (1991), The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America (2009), and "Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher" (2013). In 2001, The New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for a series to which Egan contributed, "How Race is Lived in America". His work can be found at his website timothyeganbooks.com.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There is a balance to Stoicism between awareness and anxiety. The Stoics want you to be prepared for an uncertain—and oftentimes dangerous—future, but somehow not worry about it at the same time. They want you to consider all the possibilities…and not be stressed that many of those possibilities will not be good. How exactly is that supposed to work?The answer lies simply in the idea of presence.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Marcus Aurelius ruled over millions of people, and he didn't care what any of them thought about him. Well at least, he worked hard to not care about what any of them thought of him. We see that throughout Meditations where we see him repeatedly talk about focusing more on his own actions than other people's opinions.The accidental byproduct of this focus was that those millions of people loved Marcus.This is usually how it goes.---And today, Ryan puts his Stoicism to the test by taking on the challenge of running up the treacherous 8 mile road to the Cerro Gordo Ghost Town (@GhostTownLiving) in California. Watch the full video here.🎧 Listen to the full Ian Happ interview here.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We say we want to get better. We say we want to learn about this or that. We say we want to make a change. We say we’ve decided to get serious.But is this true?The Stoics had an expression: Acta non verba. Deeds not words.So it’s ironic that most of us say we want to make these improvements, but we can’t or won’t do the bare minimum.---And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt reading, Ryan discusses the importance of putting everything to the test in the same way that an assayer would test metals.📔 Preorder your copy of The Daily Dad: 366 Meditations on Parenting, Love and Raising Great Kids and get lots of preorder bonuses!✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In today’s episode, Ryan presents an excerpt from audiobook The Tao Of Seneca, which is essentially a compilation of the best of Seneca’s Moral Letters, a seminal text of Stoicism. In this letter, Seneca examines the meaning of life itself. 📖 Check  out the PDF of The Tao of Seneca for free and the Penguin Edition of Seneca’s Letters at the Painted Porch.✉️  Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.