We Are What We Repeatedly Do

Arete. That’s a powerful word. To the Greeks, it meant excellence. It was the ultimate expression of human greatness—moral, physical, spiritual. It’s what the Stoics were chasing. It’s what you’re chasing today. But how do we get there? Ryan discusses how we can achieve arete through the power of habits, and introduces the Daily Stoics's newest online course: Habits for Success, Habits for Happiness. It's six weeks of emails designed to completely rework your relationship with your habits—and make them the best they can be. Purchase it here: dailystoic.com/habits***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: DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryanholidayInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanholiday/Facebook: http://facebook.com/ryanholidayYouTube: 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.

• 0:28Ryan Holiday?

  We are what we repeatedly do. Erite, that's a powerful word. To the Greeks, it meant excellence. It was the ultimate expression of human greatness, moral, physical, spiritual. It's what the Stoics were chasing. It's what you're chasing today. But how do we get there? Well, erite requires a certain philosophical approach, because brilliance and inspiration and skill are not enough. "We are what we repeatedly do," Aristotle said. "Therefore, excellence is not an act, but a habit." In other words, excellence isn't this thing you do one time. It's a way of living. It's foundational. It's like

• 1:09Ryan Holiday?

  an operating system, and the code this system operates on is habit. As Epictetus would later say, "capability is confirmed and grows in its corresponding actions, walking by walking and running by running. Therefore, if you want to do something, make a habit of it." So if we want to be happy, if we want to be successful, if we want to be great, we have to develop the capability. We have to develop the day-to-day habits that allow this to ensue. And that's great news, because it means that impressive results and enormous changes are possible without Herculean effort or magical formulas. Small adjustments,

• 1:49Ryan Holiday?

  good systems, the right processes, that's what it takes. Things like when we wake up, what we study and practice, who we have in our lives as influences, where we go, and how we spend our time. There is nothing more powerful than a good habit, nothing that holds us back quite like a bad habit. We are what we do. What we do determines who we can be. You know this, you've seen the forces at work in your own life for better and frustratingly all too often for worse. Today is the day to start harnessing these powers and wielding them properly, to stop being jerked around by our habits, to no longer be a passive observer of our own virtues and vices.

• 2:33Ryan Holiday?

  It won't be easy, but it will be transformational. For the last six months, Daily Stoic has been developing the Daily Stoic Habits Challenge, Habits for Success, Habits for Happiness. We've sifted through the greatest Stoic wisdom and aimed it at one of the most challenging parts of life, habit formation and growth. These are difficult times we're in, economic uncertainty, personal adversity. These things can sink you, or they can be opportunities to improve. They can be obstacles you triumph over, or setbacks that bring you to your knees. What will it be? Habits answer that question. If you can cultivate good habits, you can survive, even thrive what lies ahead.

• 3:16Ryan Holiday?

  If you relapse and fall to the level of your worst habits, these hard times will only be harder. We're inviting you to spend the next six weeks challenging yourself to change what you repeatedly do. And we are promising that if you can do that, you can achieve erite personally and professionally. If you want to do or be something Epictetus said, make a habit of it. So let's make a habit of erite. And let's remember his most urgent and challenging question, how much longer are you going to wait to demand the best of yourself? How about not one second longer? Let's start today. If you want to join us in this challenge, I'll be doing it alongside you. It's six weeks of really awesome, life-altering habits based on Stoic wisdom.

• 4:00Ryan Holiday?

  You can check that out at dailystoic.com/habits. dailystoic.com/habits. Can't wait to see you. Let's change and improve together.