When Is The Last Time You Challenged Yourself?

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. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

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

• 0:03Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom in everyday life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us, dailystoic.com.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  It's very easy to get comfortable, to build up your life exactly how you want it to be, to 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 this is called. It's nice, but the comfort tricks you into thinking that you are not stuck. The Stoics knew that this was a kind of death, that as soon as we stop growing, we start dying, or at least we become more vulnerable to the swings of fate and fortune. Seneca talked over and over and over again about the importance of adversity, of not only embracing the struggle life throws at us, but actively seeking out that difficulty

• 1:14Ryan Holiday?

  so that you can be stronger and better and more prepared. "A person who has never been challenged," he said, "who always gets their way is a tragic figure. They have no idea what they are capable of. They are not even close to fulfilling their potential." So that leaves you with something to think about today. Are you challenging yourself? Do the choices you make push you, or do they help you atrophy? Are you in a velvet rut? And be honest, and then challenge yourself to do better.