This Is What Is Making You So Stressed

Falling short today does not have to mean that everything is falling apart. Stop torturing yourself! Be present. Focus primarily on what is front of you.💡 Slay Your Stress: A Daily Stoic 20 Day Challenge | dailystoic.com/stress🎟 Ryan Holiday is going on tour! Grab tickets at ryanholiday.net/tour✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and 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.

• 0:30Ryan Holiday?

  This is what's making you so stressed. Being a human and stress seem to just go together. Anxiety and concern, they follow too. There's always something we're worried about. If we didn't perform well on this presentation, it could mean we won't get the promotion. You felt a little tired yesterday, and this morning you have a cough. Is this something serious? Oh, no, we can't afford to get sick right now. We're juggling multiple responsibilities. We're making sure we take care of our physical and mental health. We're struggling to achieve all of our goals. We have bills to pay and mouths to feed. We are sensitive to the slightest changes in our environment. We are nervous about the slightest clouds on the horizon. It's a modern affliction, but it's also always been this way. Not that it has to be.

• 1:14Ryan Holiday?

  "I see that my child is ill. That's what I see, but I don't want to see that he's in any danger." Marcus really writes in Meditations. He was talking about stopping that very human, very natural extrapolation that we all do. And extrapolation is a nice word here, because more often than not, it's better described as catastrophizing. His advice to himself as a leader, as a parent, as a philosopher, was to stick with the first impression, adding no commentary of your own from within. Meaning, the cough can just be a cough. The subpar presentation can just be a single data point. Falling short today, it does not have to mean that everything is falling apart. Stop torturing yourself. Be present.

• 1:58Ryan Holiday?

  Focus primarily on what is in front of you. Resist the impulse to add judgment or speculation on top of what you are dealing with. Dealing with it alone is sufficient. You'll do better and be less stressed.

• 2:12Ryan Holiday?

  Stress is something you have to slay. It's this demon that's both inside and outside you, right? And I think it's the perpetual, timeless battle of humanity and of the Stoics. It's one of the things we built, the Daily Stoic Slay Your Stress Challenge. If you're someone who's struggling with stress, with anxiety, with overwhelming emotions, the Stoics have lots to teach you. And of course, if you are looking to slay your stress, you can check out the Daily Stoic Slay Your Stress Challenge. It's an actionable 14-day challenge designed to help you reclaim your life from the negative effects of stress and anxiety. We've designed this course to help you reclaim your life. We lay out the most actionable ways to manage your stress and anxiety, backed by thousands of years of research and practice,

• 2:56Ryan Holiday?

  particularly the insights from someone as wise and impressive as Seneca. You can check it out at dailystoic.com/stress.