How To Have a Great Day. Every Day.

"A lot can happen to ruin your day. You could wake up to a freak storm, or roads gnarled with traffic. Your dog could throw up on the carpet. You could find out that the president called you out by name on Twitter. You could have the flu or food poisoning. You could just be tired. You could have a job you hate. You could get dumped… or dumped on. The potential nightmares are endless. It would be wonderful then if there was some way to counteract those looming difficulties, a pair of glasses you could put on that would change how you view anything and everything that could happen. Well, the good news is that there is and it comes to us—no surprise—from the Stoics."Ryan explains this secret on today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee 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.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good 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 at DailyStoic.com.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  How to have a great day every day. A lot can happen to ruin your day. You could wake up to a freak storm, or roads gnarled in traffic. Your dog could throw up on the carpet. You could find out that the president called you out by name on Twitter. You could have the flu, or food poisoning, or the coronavirus. You could just be tired. You could have a job you hate. You could get dumped, or get dumped on. The potential nightmares are endless. It would be wonderful then if there was some way to counteract those looming difficulties, a pair of glasses that you could put on that would change how you view anything and everything that could happen. And, the good news is, there is such a lens, and it comes to us, no surprise, from the Stoics. "All you have to do," Seneca said, "is tell yourself that

• 1:14Ryan Holiday?

  you're going to die in your sleep the night before. Tell yourself your life is over, that you won't be around to see tomorrow. When man has said, 'I have lived,' Seneca wrote, every morning he arises, he receives a bonus. Would you rather be stuck in traffic or dead forever? Would you rather be attacked by trolls, or your corpse attacked by maggots? Would you rather be sick, or stretched out on your literal deathbed, alive or not?" Let's put this all in perspective. Let's see today as a bonus, as the borrowed time that each of us is actually living on. You have lived, and you still get today. Don't waste it. And of course, this is what that idea of memento mori is. It's why I carry the memento mori challenge coin in my pocket, or some days I wear the memento mori signet

• 1:59Ryan Holiday?

  ring that we sell in the Daily Stoic store. You can check that out, or come up with your own version of a memento mori icon in your life. I highly suggest it. You can check ours out at store.dailystoic.com.