Want To Capture The Magic? Do This | Impulse Control

It should be the easiest book in the world to read. And yet…🎉 Celebrate Marcus Aurelius' Birthday this month by reading Meditations with us and the Daily Stoic community. On April 26th, 1905 years after the day of his birth, Ryan Holiday will host an invite-only LIVE Q&A to talk about all things Marcus Aurelius and Meditations. Get 20% off with a Meditations BOOK & GUIDE bundle. Join the LIVE Meditations Q&A with Ryan Holiday by purchasing before April 26th! Get all our Meditations offering and learn more at our official Meditations Collection at dailystoic.com/meditations today. 📓 Pick up a signed edition of The Daily Stoic Journal: 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on The Art of Living: https://store.dailystoic.com/🎙️ Follow The Daily Stoic Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoicpodcast🎥 Watch top moments from The Daily Stoic Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dailystoicpodcast✉️ 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.

• 0:05Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a Stoic-inspired meditation, designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life. Each one of these episodes is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women, help you learn from them, to follow in their example, and to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom. For more, visit DailyStoic.com.

• 0:56Ryan Holiday?

  It should be the easiest book in the world to read. It's only, depending on the translation, a couple hundred pages, which are made up of short passages, making it easy to read in small increments. It's written in a straightforward and accessible style without any complex philosophical jargon. Unlike most books, there's no pretense, no performance, no intent to impress an audience. It's filled with topics that are universal and relevant, dealing with tough times, being nice to people, waking up and getting to work even when you'd rather stay under the warm blankets. And yet, so many people struggle with and get frustrated by Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. And they have, ever since it was first discovered after the emperor's death nearly 2,000 years ago.

• 1:41Ryan Holiday?

  Just as we can imagine the first reader of Meditations trying to make sense of the private thoughts of this great man, today, people have questions about where to start and what to take from it. What translation should I get? Should I read it cover to cover? Or is it better to approach it in bite-sized pieces? Do you read it once or multiple times? Where did Marcus write it? Why did he write it? Did Marcus mean to come off so dark or dour? Is it important to know about Marcus's circumstances? Who he was writing for? What he meant? Do you need to know the core principles of Stoicism to fully appreciate Meditations?

• 2:16Ryan Holiday?

  We've been working hard here at Daily Stoic for the last decade to try to make Marcus Aurelius accessible and practical for people. We even publish our own edition of Meditations. But we've also spent hundreds and thousands of hours, not just with his writings, but also with the best experts and translators and students of Stoicism to help make sense of what he meant and what he can do for us. Getting to the bottom of Meditations is the work of a lifetime. And as Marcus would say of any great work of art, you get something new each time you go to it. Well, that's why we've been putting together what I think is the perfect companion for reading and understanding Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. It's this new Daily Stoic Meditations Guide. Like a book club or an annotated version of your favorite

• 2:58Ryan Holiday?

  book, it's designed to be your personal roadmap through the nuances, subtleties, and complexities of Marcus Aurelius and Meditations. Whether you've yet to journey through the pages or you're intimately familiar with them, this awesome course will enhance your reading experience, deepen your understanding, and show you how to apply the same Stoic principles and exercises that Marcus Aurelius used to improve his life to improve your own. It's not Spark Notes or a summary. There's no substitute for reading Meditations. It's not a shortcut, but it's a guide that will help enhance your understanding, help you really get everything you should get out of it, and hopefully guide you not just to read it once, but time after time after time. I'm really excited for you to check it out.

• 3:41Ryan Holiday?

  Go to DailyStoic.com/Meditations, click it in the show notes. And also, I would say, if you haven't read Meditations, do grab our edition. We sell it in the Daily Stoic store, the Gregory Hayes edition, but I added some awesome graphics to it. There's a biography of Marcus in there. It's leather, so it'll hold the test of time well. And I'll link to that in today's show notes as well.

• 4:10Ryan Holiday?

  If something is making you upset, write it down and look at it. What happened? Who caused it? Now, think about your reaction. What did you say? What did you feel? Did this make it better or worse? Marcus Aurelius's emperor clearly had many people and causes to be upset. He also had real power and authority. Even so, we find that he would tell himself, "You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength." So too with what has happened to you. You did not control what happened, but you do control which impulses you will follow in the wake of it.

• 4:51Ryan Holiday?

  And this is this week's meditation in the Daily Stoic Journal titled "Impulse Control." I do hope you check out the journal. It's a little journal I do every morning. We have three quotes here to go along with it. Epictetus says, "We must discover the missing art of assent and pay special attention to the sphere of our impulses, that they are subject to reservations, to the common good, and that they are in proportion to actual worth." It's Marcus Aurelius's Meditations 1137. I just love that you have Marcus Aurelius quoting Epictetus. "You say good fortune used to meet you at every corner, but the fortunate person is the one who gives themselves a good fortune. And good fortunes are a well-tuned soul, good impulses, and good actions."

• 5:36Ryan Holiday?

  That's Marcus Aurelius's Meditations 536. Frame your thoughts like this: You're an old person. You won't let yourself be enslaved by this any longer, no longer pulled like a puppet by every impulse, and you'll stop complaining about your present fortune or dreading the future. To me, journaling is just such a great way to do this exercise of impulse control.

• 6:03Ryan Holiday?

  I usually do it in the morning, but you could do journaling at any time. But I think, what are you upset about? Why are you angry? What are you holding on to? What's that thing inside you that you really want to say to that person? Say it on the page first. Anne Frank talks about how paper is more patient than people. Sometimes I find that the thing that I was writing down, I hadn't quite worked it out yet. And if I had said it the way I was thinking on the paper, it would not go well. Or I find that having said it once, I'm done. I don't, I don't need to mention this to anyone. It's probably better that I keep it to myself. So to me, journaling is, is really a way to work out some of those urges. Just because you think something doesn't mean you need to say it.

• 6:47Ryan Holiday?

  You need to develop this emotional impulse control. But that doesn't mean you just stuff it down and you don't deal with it. You gotta deal with it on the pages in the journal. That's the idea. You let it out. It's a place to do some spiritual combat, but it's also a place for your ideas, your competing impulses, your competing opinions to battle themselves out, to, to fight for, for that limited space. So spend some time with your journal as therapy. Uh, that's what it's there for. And if you're not taking advantage of it, chances are you, you are just taking those feelings out on other people, or you're taking them out on yourself. And that's not a good way to go through life. So use the journal as an instrument of impulse control.

• 7:32Ryan Holiday?

  It's gotten me out of trouble time and time again. I can think of a moment when one of my books was coming out and I got sort of royally screwed over by a journalist. I wouldn't even say screwed over anymore. Let's just say someone did something to me that was quite unethical and quite petty and, and annoying. And actually, the prompts in the Daily Stoic Journal, it caught me. It was like three prompts in a row. I didn't rush into saying something. I was gonna wait a few days. And at the end of the three days, at the end of the journaling, kept it to myself. And even now, I don't need to tell you the specifics. I've moved on and it saved me some headache. Probably saved me creating an enemy for no reason. And then I can move on and I hope you can do the same.

• 8:16Ryan Holiday?

  Hey, it's Ryan. Thank you for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. I just wanted to say we so appreciate it. We love serving you. It's amazing to us that over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in the couple of years we've been doing it. It's an honor. Please, spread the word. Tell people about it. And this isn't to sell anything. I just wanted to say thank you.