These Are Habits to Avoid

"Because of how Stoicism survives to us—mostly in the form of scraps and fragments and letters—we don’t exactly have a list of dos and don’ts. There are no Ten Commandments of Stoicism. No definitive book of what they believed or didn’t. But in those scraps and fragments, we do get plenty."Ryan explains what we know about how the Stoics felt about habits 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. These are habits to avoid. Because of how Stoicism survives to us mostly in the form of scraps and fragments and letters, we don't exactly have a list of do's and don'ts. There are no Ten Commandments of Stoicism, no definitive book of what they believed or didn't. But in those scraps and fragments, we do get plenty. We know what Seneca tried

• 0:50Ryan Holiday?

  to do every night as he closed the day. We know what Marcus tried to think about in the morning. We know what Epictetus and Musonius Rufus said we ought to avoid doing. And it's that latter category that's worth thinking about today. What habits did the Stoics say we ought to cease? What vices should we avoid? "Don't be overheard complaining, even to yourself," that's Marcus. "Don't put on airs about your self-improvement," that's Epictetus. "Don't overindulge in eating or drinking," Musonius. "Don't speak more than you listen," Zeno. "Don't avoid difficulty," Seneca. "Don't tie your identity to the clothes you wear, the things you own," Cato. "Don't conceal

• 1:31Ryan Holiday?

  what you truly believe," that's Arius Didymus. "Don't go along to get along," that's Agrippinus. "Don't be all about business," Marcus. "Don't put off till tomorrow what can be finished today," Seneca. "Don't shun people you disagree with," Seneca. "Don't sleep the day away," Marcus. "Don't neglect your friendships," Seneca. "Don't waste time thinking you are going to live forever." That's all of them. We could list more, but really, the most important thing to the Stoics, as far as forming good habits and kicking bad ones, goes, it's awareness. Musonius Rufus believed that in too many circumstances, we do not deal with our affairs in accordance with correct assumptions, but rather, we follow thoughtless habit. And Marcus said that we

• 2:14Ryan Holiday?

  should learn to ask of all actions, "Why are you doing that?" And he said, "You must start with your own." I really want to tell you about the Daily Stoic Habits course that we have. We're calling it Daily Stoic Habits for Success, Habits for Happiness. It helps you do what the Stoics are talking about, which is how to avoid bad habits, how to form better, new habits. I think it's one of the best things we've done. It's six weeks of habit formation, thinking about philosophy, applying it to your everyday life. These are habits I try to apply in my life that Marcus and Seneca and Epictetus and Musonius and all the Stoics we've talked about tried to apply in theirs. It's great stuff, based on philosophy, psychology, research, history, and I think you're really going to get a lot out of it.

• 2:58Ryan Holiday?

  You can check that out at dailystoic.com/habits, or if you join Daily Stoic Life, which you can join at dailystoiclife.com, you get that course and all our other ones for free. So, check both those out, Daily Stoic Life and Daily Stoic Habits for Success, Habits for Happiness.