You Must Read To Lead | 10 Stoic Strategies To Deal With Anxiety

Not all the Stoics were leaders, but all of them were readers. Turn the words into works 👉 Read to Lead: A Daily Stoic Reading Challenge https://dailystoic.com/read | Over five weeks, Ryan Holiday walks you through not only the system he's used for writing his bestselling books, but also the reading practice he uses in his life every day—to help him be a better professional, a better parent, and a better person: https://challenge.dailystoic.com/readtolead 🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE https://www.dailystoiclive.com/| Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you https://www.dailystoiclive.com/! Grab tickets here https://www.dailystoiclive.com/ | https://www.dailystoiclive.com/ 🎙️ AD-FREE https://dailystoic.supercast.com/| Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium https://dailystoic.supercast.com/ - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content: https://dailystoic.supercast.com/ https://dailystoic.supercast.com/ ✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail -- Stop online threats before they become real-world attacks. Visit ironwall.com/DAILYSTOIC and request a free Risk Assessment to see exactly how exposed your executives are. -- Wealthfront’s high-yield cash account: https://www.wealthfront.com/stoic This experience may not be representative of other Wealthfront clients, and there is no guarantee of future performance or success. Experiences will vary. Ryan Holiday, who’s a client of Wealthfront, receives cash compensation from Wealthfront Brokerage for paid testimonials in his podcast, creating a conflict of interest. More details available via the referral link. The Direct Deposit Plus Investing Program from Wealthfront Advisers LLC and Wealthfront Brokerage LLC provides eligible clients a 0.25% APY increase above the base APY on eligible Cash Account balances (up to an overall boosted rate of 4.30% for a limited time when including the three month 0.75% APY boost for new clients) when you direct deposit $1,000 a month, plus open, fund, and maintain an investing account. Wealthfront may change or end the program at any time and determine eligibility at its discretion. Terms apply. Full details at wealthfront.com/promo-terms. The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of January 30, 2026, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. References to the APY for the Wealthfront Cash Account, including any APY increase, are to the APY paid by insured depository institutions that participate in our cash sweep program (the "Program Banks”). Wealthfront Brokerage does not pay interest. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Instant and same-day withdrawals use the Real-Time Payments (RTP) network or FedNow service. Transfers may be limited by your receiving institution, daily caps, or participating entities. New Cash Account deposits have a 2–4 day hold before transfer. Wealthfront does not charge fees for these services, but receiving institutions may impose an RTP or FedNow Fee. Processing times may vary.. Fees & Eligibility requirements may apply to certain checking features. Investment advisory services are provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Securities investments are not bank deposits, bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured, and may lose value. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world.

• 0:15Ryan Holiday?

  You must read to lead. Not all the Stoics were leaders, but all of them were readers. And the ones who were leaders, well, they were the biggest readers of them all. Marcus Aurelius opens Meditations by thanking the teacher who taught him to read attentively and who loaned him the copy of Epictetus that shaped the rest of his life. Scipio Emilianus, one of Rome's great generals and a patron of Stoicism, was said to be constantly engaged in the pursuit of arms or his studies. He was either training his body by exposing it to dangers or his mind by learning.

• 0:54Ryan Holiday?

  Literally, in the final moments of his life, Cato took another pass at reading Plato. As president, Theodore Roosevelt was always squeezing in time to read. And later, out of office, he took a copy of Epictetus with him on his perilous journey down the River of Doubt. Stockdale talked about how deployed in the South China Sea, when he was not flying, he was in his bunk, reading Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius and the other ancients. These were men of action and lifelong learners. Reading deeply and thoughtfully gave them all what they needed to succeed, the knowledge to be great leaders, the virtue to be good people, the will to survive.

• 1:39Ryan Holiday?

  In English and history classes, reading often meant memorizing names and dates and places, who, what, when, and where, much less so how or why or what it meant. You learn to extract what the teacher needed you to remember, not what the author wanted you to know, not the moral and philosophical lessons the books and the events were meant to teach. If you want to be a better leader, you're going to have to become a better reader. How? Well, that is what we designed Read to Lead all about. We're doing a five-week deep dive here with Daily Stoic into becoming better readers.

• 2:24Ryan Holiday?

  I'm going to walk you through my system that I've used, not just to write my books, but the practice that I've used in my life, how to find books that are worth your time, how to work through ones above your level, how to keep what matters, how to turn what you read into action. As Seneca said, how to turn the words into works. And since we made this class many, many years ago, people have loved it. One person wrote in to say it was the best online learning investment they have ever made. And they said that on day one. If you want the beginnings of a real library and a foundation for lifelong learning, I'd love to have you join us. I'm going to be doing a Q and A about my reading strategies as well.

• 3:08Ryan Holiday?

  And if you join by September 30th, you can get 20% off all the books that we recommend in the course of the class. It's going to be awesome. As we said, not all readers lead, but the ones who do have to be great at it. And you can join us in Read to Lead at dailystoic.com/ReadToLead. I'll see you in there.

• 3:39Ryan Holiday?

  Remember what the Stoics say, that the whole world is a temple of the gods. I mean, look at that sunset, look at this beach, look at this life.

• 3:51Ryan Holiday?

  It hit me at some point during the craziness of the pandemic that I was an anxious person. I mean, I knew I used to get anxious about specific things, a flight, an important meeting, getting up on stage in front of people. But when all that went away, like everyone else, you know, you're stuck in your house and you realize you're still anxious. And of course, you're anxious about what's happening in the world, but you're just generally anxious. The anxiety is in you. You might not think of the Stoics as anxious people, partly because the reputation of the Stoics is that they're invulnerable, that they're invincible, that they have no emotions. But we know that Marcus Aurelius struggled with anxiety because if he didn't, he wouldn't have written so many reminders to himself about how to deal with it.

• 4:36Ryan Holiday?

  I'm Ryan Holiday. I've written now 12 books about Stoic philosophy, which have sold more than 5 million copies in over 30 languages. I've spoken to everyone from the NBA to the NFL, sitting senators and special forces operators. And I myself deal with anxiety like any normal person. So in today's episode, I want to talk about a bunch of tried and tested strategies for reducing, addressing, alleviating, hopefully eliminating anxiety in your life. I know they've worked for me. It's definitely an ongoing battle, as it was for Marcus Aurelius, as it was for Seneca. But these strategies work. And so here in today's episode are some Stoic strategies for reducing anxiety. I hope you like them.

• 5:20Ryan Holiday?

  Little things are not small. George Washington's favorite expression was, "Many mickles make a muckle." I think Xeno said it better. He said, "Well-being is realized by small steps, but it's no small thing." Marcus Aurelius says, "We assemble our life, action by action, step by step. No one can stop you from that." So today, as you get discouraged, as you look at this gold, it's way, way off in the distance, don't focus on that. Focus on the immediate task in front of you. Concentrate like a Roman, as Marcus Aurelius says. Do this thing in front of you as if it's the only thing that matters, as if it's the last thing that you're doing in your life. And that adds up. It's no small thing. "Many mickles make a muckle," as Washington said. Stuff adds up. That's how you get there, one step at a time, one day at a time,

• 6:03Ryan Holiday?

  one action at a time, one insight at a time. Just go now.

• 6:11Ryan Holiday?

  Marcus Aurelius says, "Just remember, you're lucky to be alive, to be alive in this moment. Even if things are crazy and insane and awful in the world, they're also wonderful because you're getting to experience them. And to take that for granted, to be bitter or jaded or cynical about that, it's to waste this gift you've been given. And there's a reason they call it the present. It is a gift. And look, even if this is not the most wonderful time to be alive, it's the only time in which you are alive. So we focus on what we control, which is our perceptions, our opinion about things. That we control, not when and where we are. We try to make the most of it. We try to accept it. We try to be grateful for it.

• 6:56Ryan Holiday?

  And that's how we find happiness now in this present moment, no matter what's happening in the world."

• 7:04Ryan Holiday?

  One of my favorite quotes from Marcus Aurelius, he says, "You know, you don't have to have an opinion about that." And I just think about that all the time. I don't have to have an opinion about this. I can just let it be. I can ignore it. I can realize it doesn't pertain to me. Or I can just see it as it is. I don't need to say that it's good or bad, fair or unfair. It just is. I'm going to look at it as an objective piece of information. It doesn't need me projecting my thoughts or beliefs or perceptions on it. It is, you don't have to have an opinion about this.

• 7:38Ryan Holiday?

  The key to tranquility and peace, Marcus Aurelius says, is when you stop caring what other people say, what other people think, what other people are doing. He says, "The tranquility that comes when you care about only what you do and say. The tranquility that comes when you stop caring what they say or think or do, only what you do."

• 8:06Ryan Holiday?

  A Stoic is not someone who stuffs their emotions down. That's not it at all. The Stoics process their emotions. This is why they journaled. Socrates went around asking these questions. This is why Seneca would write these letters to his friend Lucilius. We even have some of Marcus Aurelius's letters that survive. The Stoics were not stuffing their emotions down, pretending they don't have them. They were exploring them. The Stoics talk about taking an emotion when it hits you and putting it up to the test, observing it, meditating on it, processing it, getting to the bottom of it. You know, if you just ignore your emotions, if you just conquer them, to me, it's like putting it on a credit card. Sure, you're not having to pay for it now, but eventually it's going to come due and the interest is going to make it even more expensive.

• 8:51Ryan Holiday?

  So don't shut your emotions down. Deal with them, process them, explore them, get through them. Don't be ruled by them. In ignoring them, you are guaranteeing that later it's going to be an even bigger deal and you're going to be even more powerless over that emotion. So work on your emotions. Do not fall into this trap that the Stoics suppress their emotions. They domesticate them, as Nicene Tullip says. But first, that requires facing them and exploring them and coming to terms with them.

• 9:21Ryan Holiday?

  Seneca points out that we suffer more in imagination than in reality, meaning that all the things we're anxious about, the things we worry about, the things we spend a lot of time hoping won't happen, most of them never do happen. There's that great Twain quote where he talks about how he's suffered through many things in life and how many of them have never actually happened. Because that's what he means. In our mind, we're torturing ourselves. We're worried that this could happen and that could happen. We're worried about this possibility or that possibility. But the reality is, now is now. You don't control whether that will happen or not. What you do control is now. You, of course, control how prepared you are for the adversity of the future, the uncertainty of the future. But what you mainly control is the present moment. Take advantage of the present moment.

• 10:04Ryan Holiday?

  Don't give up the present moment because you're really worried and off thinking about what could and almost certainly will not happen in the future.

• 10:15Ryan Holiday?

  No one can harm you, at least according to the Stoics. They can hurt you, they can say cruel things, they can attack you, they can cut you, they can make you bleed. But to the Stoics, harm was a choice. You decide to see yourself as harmed by it. You remember Eleanor Roosevelt? No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. We choose to feel harmed. You are hurt the moment you believe yourself to be, Epictetus said. Marcus Aurelius says, "Don't want to be harmed? Don't choose to feel harmed." We control our emotions, we control our opinions, we control the story we tell ourselves about what happened. And that's why the Stoics said, "You are complicit when you feel harmed. You choose to see it that way."

• 11:01Ryan Holiday?

  I do this one thing every single day. And you can see I'm a little sweaty right now. I just went on a long walk with my kids. This is the property there. We just went on this long walk around our property. We talked, we threw sticks, we told stories. We were just outside. There's this great expression from Nietzsche. He says, "Only ideas had when walking have any worth." And I think that's right. Even Seneca talks about how "the mind must be given over to wandering walks." He says, "Fields that are not allowed to rest will not bear plants." And he even says that, you know, "The mind will break like an anvil if not rested." And so this is really important. For me, walking is physical activity. It is exercise. But it's really about letting my mind rest. I leave my phone at home. I leave my thoughts at home. I leave my work at home.

• 11:45Ryan Holiday?

  And I just go outside and I walk. And I don't even consider it exercise. It's exercise for my mind. It's time I spend with my family. It's time I spend on my property. It's time I spend outdoors. It's time I spend practicing gratitude and appreciation. This is a thing I do every day without fail, whether it's in a parking lot or on a beautiful beach somewhere. I go outside and take a walk, and so should you.

• 12:10Ryan Holiday?

  People ask like, "What is the best way to start journaling?" And the best way to start journaling is to start journaling. Look, there's a bunch of different ones you can do. I like the one line a day journal. This is just like a Moschino. This is a gratitude journal that I like. This is the daily stoic journal. But it doesn't really matter. Journal on your phone. Journal on a scrap of paper, on the back of your to-do list. It doesn't matter. But the idea is that you journal every single day. Just do it, right? Just get started. The best time to have started journaling is a long time ago. The second best time is right now. So if you want to start journaling, start journaling.

• 12:48Ryan Holiday?

  Epictetus tells us that every situation has two handles. He says there's the handle that will bear weight and the handle that won't. He says, "You could look at it as your brother has wronged you. He screwed you over. He's hurt you." Or you could say, "I only have one brother. This is my brother. I'm going to forgive this person. I'm going to be patient. I'm going to be better. We're going to be better for having gone through this." So this idea that every situation, you can choose to see it as the way that disempowers you, that makes you the victim. Or you can choose to see it as the opportunity for growth, as the thing that will make you better, as the thing that will make you stronger for having to wrestle with. So I just love this idea. And it comes from a person who's not speaking about this idly. Like, you and I are so privileged compared to Epictetus, who's born a slave in Rome. He spends 30 years in slavery.

• 13:32Ryan Holiday?

  But he doesn't see this as a huge disadvantage. He sees it as a learning experience, as a fate that he's struggling with that's making him stronger. He says, "You've been paired with a tough opponent, and this is what's making you Olympic class material." That's Epictetus seeing the right handle in his own situation. So whatever you experience today, think about this. This has two handles. Which one am I going to pick? The one that bear weight, that will make me better? Or the one that won't bear weight, that will make me worse?