You Have to Be Willing to Change

“We’ve been this way for a while. We are set in our ways. We’ve always had a short fuse. We’ve always been sad about our childhood. We’ve always had trouble with our eating. We’ve never been much good at being faithful. Maybe you’ve had a mean streak. Maybe you’re too timid. Maybe you don’t like to try very hard. Maybe you don’t think you’re good enough. How’s that working out for you? Why keep going down a road that leads nowhere?”Ryan describes why you must always be getting better and launches Daily Stoic's 2021 New Year, New You Challenge on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast. Sign up for the challenge at https://dailystoic.com/challenge.***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.

• 0:04Ryan 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 a 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.

• 0:27Ryan Holiday?

  You have to be willing to change. We've been this way for a while. We're set in our ways. We've always had a short fuse. We've been sad about our childhood. We've always had trouble with our eating. We've never been much good at being faithful. Maybe you've had a mean streak. Maybe you're too timid. Maybe you don't like to try very hard. Maybe you don't think you're good enough. Well, how's that working out for you? Why keep going down a road that leads nowhere? Marcus Aurelius talks about how crazy it is that we just go on staying the same person we've always been, how we just keep being mauled and degraded by the life we're living. And for what? It's not even pleasurable.

• 1:09Ryan Holiday?

  It's not even getting us what we want. "A person who can't change, who refuses to change," he said, "is like those animal fighters at the games, torn half to pieces, covered in blood and gore, still pleading to be held over till tomorrow, to be bitten and clawed again." The definition of insanity, they say, is doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting different results. And there's nothing sadder than a person who can't grow, who cannot turn over a new leaf, who cannot take a leap of faith forward, into the dark. You have to be willing to change. You must change. You must get better. Not later, not eventually, but now.

• 1:52Ryan Holiday?

  Why not start 2021 by actually taking the steps to create a better life? Actively step towards being the person you know you can be. That's why we created the New Year, New You Challenge. It's a set of 21 actionable challenges, presenting one per day, built around the best, most timeless wisdom in Stoic philosophy. Our goal is to help you make 2021 your best year yet. This year, right in front of you, can be the most important year of your life, the one where you become your best, most creative, most centered, most self-reliant and resilient self, but you have to be willing to change. You can't be like those animals that Marcus really is talking about. Our New Year, New You Challenge is all new content guided by thousands of responses,

• 2:37Ryan Holiday?

  reactions to our previous challenges, course, videos, all that. It's a whole new challenge based on painstaking research and timeless science for an all-new, life-changing experience, and it's a challenge designed to help you stop procrastinating, learn new skills, quit harmful vices, make amends, learn from past mistakes, and have more hope for the new year, and so much more. Look, what are the risks of not taking control of your life? Of allowing another year to pass without living up to your potential? Not changing your ways? Most of the risks aren't dire, but none of the downsides are good. Some are downright miserable. So don't let it happen this year. Not in 2021, not again. You have to be willing to change. Don't wait to better yourself.

• 3:20Ryan Holiday?

  Stop being mauled and dragged down by the life you're living. Don't wait to demand more from yourself. Start now. You can sign up at dailystoic.com/challenge. That's dailystoic.com/challenge. It's our New Year, New You Challenge. We've got videos about it. You can check all that stuff out. It's really great. I think you'll like it. And remember, Daily Stoic Life members, if you've been on the fence about joining that, get this challenge and all the other ones for free. So sign up at dailystoic.com/challenge. Don't procrastinate. Don't embody the very things that you'd like to not be in 2021 by sitting on this. Join us, dailystoic.com/challenge. I'll be doing it there alongside everyone. I'll see you in the Slack channel. Let's have a great year. dailystoic.com/challenge.