Nothing Better Than A Simple Pleasure

Sometimes it’s obvious why certain things are expensive, why people will pay more for it. The feel of a luxury vehicle. The taste of one of those insane smoothies from Erewhon. The upgrade to a better seat on an airplane. It’s not cheap, and maybe you don’t do it all the time, but when you can afford it, you go for it. It almost makes you question this whole Stoicism thing, you wonder if perhaps you’re not more of an Epicurean after all. For the last five years, we have been doing what we call the Daily Stoic New Year New You Challenge—a set of 21 actionable challenges, presented one per day, built around the best, most timeless wisdom in Stoic philosophy. 21 challenges designed to help you do exactly what King and Epictetus were talking about: Rising up, driving out the bad, and taking action on becoming the person you know you’re capable of being. These aren’t pie-in-the-sky, theoretical discussions but clear, immediate exercises and methods you can begin right now to spark the reinvention you’ve been trying for. We’ll tell you what to do, how to do it, and why it works. And when next year comes around, you will not be doing the same old evil thing. Out of amazement you will find yourself saying, “I cast it out.”Join us by heading over to dailystoic.com/challenge and sign up NOW!✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, 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.

• 0:27Ryan Holiday?

  Nothing better than a simple pleasure. Sometimes it's obvious why certain things are expensive, why people will pay more for it. The feel of a luxury vehicle, the taste of one of those insane smoothies from Airyuan, the upgrade to a better seat on an airplane. It's not cheap, and maybe you don't do it all the time, but when you can afford it, you go for it. It almost makes you question this whole Stoicism thing. You wonder if perhaps you're not more of an Epicurean after all. And then there are those things, those moments in life, when you are reminded how little you actually need, how little it takes to live a fulfilled and happy life, as Marcus Aurelius once said. "You grab a glass of ice water that's sat long enough for the ice to melt and the water to get just perfectly cold. You catch golden hour while you're out on the porch.

• 1:12Ryan Holiday?

  You pet a dog and it doesn't walk off," as one comedian recently observed. It's funny, for all their reputation as hedonists, these were the types of pleasures that the Epicureans cherished too. There's a letter from Epicurus, and you can read his writings in this great collection called The Art of Happiness, where he speaks raptuously about a small pot of cheese. "Expensive things can be great, but often no greater than the stuff that is free or all but free, stuff that's available to us always, stuff that makes us rich rather than requires us to be rich." Enjoy those special pleasures. They are yours, and they are wonderful.