You Need To Learn How To Be Better At This | Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself

It’d be wonderful if every great novel was easy to get into, if every philosophy was made accessible, if every history tome was readable and clear. Sadly, they are not. Turn the words into works 👉Read to Lead: A Daily Stoic Reading Challenge https://dailystoic.com/read | Over five weeks, Ryan Holiday walks you through not only the system he's used for writing his bestselling books, but also the reading practice he uses in his life every day—to help him be a better professional, a better parent, and a better person:https://challenge.dailystoic.com/readtolead 📚 Get Read to Lead: A Daily Stoic Reading Challenge https://dailystoic.com/read & all other Daily Stoic courses for FREE when you join Daily Stoic Life |dailystoic.com/life http://dailystoic.com/life 🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE https://www.dailystoiclive.com/| Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you https://www.dailystoiclive.com/! Grab tickets here https://www.dailystoiclive.com/ | https://www.dailystoiclive.com/ 🎙️ AD-FREE https://dailystoic.supercast.com/| Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium https://dailystoic.supercast.com/ - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content: https://dailystoic.supercast.com/ https://dailystoic.supercast.com/ ✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail -- Stop online threats before they become real-world attacks. Visit ironwall.com/DAILYSTOIC and request a free Risk Assessment to see exactly how exposed your executives are. -- Wealthfront’s high-yield cash account: https://www.wealthfront.com/stoic This experience may not be representative of other Wealthfront clients, and there is no guarantee of future performance or success. Experiences will vary. Ryan Holiday, who’s a client of Wealthfront, receives cash compensation from Wealthfront Brokerage for paid testimonials in his podcast, creating a conflict of interest. More details available via the referral link. The Direct Deposit Plus Investing Program from Wealthfront Advisers LLC and Wealthfront Brokerage LLC provides eligible clients a 0.25% APY increase above the base APY on eligible Cash Account balances (up to an overall boosted rate of 4.30% for a limited time when including the three month 0.75% APY boost for new clients) when you direct deposit $1,000 a month, plus open, fund, and maintain an investing account. Wealthfront may change or end the program at any time and determine eligibility at its discretion. Terms apply. Full details at wealthfront.com/promo-terms. The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of January 30, 2026, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. References to the APY for the Wealthfront Cash Account, including any APY increase, are to the APY paid by insured depository institutions that participate in our cash sweep program (the "Program Banks”). Wealthfront Brokerage does not pay interest. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Instant and same-day withdrawals use the Real-Time Payments (RTP) network or FedNow service. Transfers may be limited by your receiving institution, daily caps, or participating entities. New Cash Account deposits have a 2–4 day hold before transfer. Wealthfront does not charge fees for these services, but receiving institutions may impose an RTP or FedNow Fee. Processing times may vary.. Fees & Eligibility requirements may apply to certain checking features. Investment advisory services are provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Securities investments are not bank deposits, bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured, and may lose value. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues— courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom—into the real world.

• 0:15Ryan Holiday?

  You need to learn how to be better at this. There was once a student who was overheard in Epictetus's classroom speaking proudly about finishing all the works of Chrysippus. Chrysippus was, although brilliant, one of the more difficult Stoics to get into, and he remains so to this day. He was obsessed with logic and proofs. In fact, one contemporary tells us, "What Homer was to poetry is what Chrysippus was to logic." He loved, quote, "ancient sources at length," and indeed, he liked to write at length. Attributed to him, though most are lost, are some 700 different books and essays. Epictetus was not particularly impressed by this or by the student for reading at all.

• 0:59Ryan Holiday?

  In fact, he said, "If Chrysippus hadn't written so obscurely, you'd have nothing to brag about." He was saying, in short, that Chrysippus was hard to read, and that was a failing as an author. But this is unfortunately a reality, isn't it? Like, it'd be wonderful if every great novel was easy to get into, if every philosophy was made accessible, if every history tone was readable and clear. Sadly, they are not. And it's extra sad because that means there is wisdom out there that people are missing. While the authors should do better, we can't sit around and wait for that to happen. If we want to get into it, we are going to have to work for it, going to have to become better readers. And that's one of the things we built

• 1:42Ryan Holiday?

  the Read to Lead Daily Stoic Challenge around. Not just that every leader has to be a reader, but your reading should be leading you. It should be getting you out of your comfort zone. You should be reaching, right? Just beyond your capacities and abilities. That's how you get better. That's how you grow. And in this awesome challenge, which we have been running for many, many years, we are going to help you get the most out of everything you read: Stoic texts, modern leadership books, classic literature, anything else that interests you. And we are relaunching it here in September. We're going to be doing it all together, Stoics all over the world. We're doing a live Q and A about it on September 23rd. And if you sign up right now, you can get 20% off all the books in the challenge

• 2:26Ryan Holiday?

  if you buy them from The Painted Porch. Let me just read you one little testimonial from someone who took the course. They said, "Before this course, I used to consider myself a reader, but now I feel like I'm truly reading for the first time in my life." I just, I just love hearing that. Someone wrote in on day one. They said that buying Read to Lead has already proved to be one of the best online learning investments they have ever made. How cool is that? Well, I would love to see you in there. You can sign up for the Daily Stoic Read to Lead Challenge right now at dailystoic.com/readtolead. I'll put a link in the show notes. And you can also, of course, be signed up for Daily Stoic Life, get this challenge and all our challenges for free, including New Year, New You, which is coming up here very, very soon. That's at dailystoiclive.com.

• 3:19Ryan Holiday?

  "Nothing to fear but fear itself.

• 3:23Ryan Holiday?

  But there is no reason to live and no limit to our miseries if we let our fears predominate." That's Seneca's Moral Letters. And I'm reading to you today from the Daily Stoic 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by yours truly, my co-author and translator, Stephen Hanselman. "In the early days of what would become known as the Great Depression, a new president named Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn in and gave his first inaugural address. As the last president to hold the office before the 20th Amendment was ratified, FDR wasn't able to take office until March, meaning that the country had been without strong leadership for months. Panic was in the air. Banks were failing, and people were scared."

• 4:07Ryan Holiday?

  You've probably heard the "nothing to fear but fear itself" soundbite that FDR gave in that famous speech. But the full line is worth reading because it applies to so many difficult things we face in life. He says, "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." The Stoics knew that fear was to be feared because of the miseries it creates. The things we fear pale in comparison to the damage we do to ourselves and others when we unthinkingly scramble to avoid them.

• 4:50Ryan Holiday?

  An economic depression is bad, but a panic is worse. And a tough situation isn't helped by terror. It only makes things harder. And that's why we must resist it and reject it if we want to turn this thing around. As it happens, I retold this story, and I forgot that I told it in the Daily Stoic, but I retell part of the story in Courage is Calling. This is from, I think, the third or fourth chapter in the book. And it says, "The important thing is to not be afraid." It's easy to be scared, especially lately. Events can escalate at any moment. There is uncertainty. You could lose your job, then your house, and your car. Something could even happen to your kids. Of course, we're going to feel something when things are shaky like that.

• 5:35Ryan Holiday?

  How could we not? Even the ancient Stoics, supposedly the masters of all emotion, conceded that we'll have involuntary reactions to loud noises, to uncertainty, to being attacked. They had a word for these immediate, precognitive impressions of things: fantasia. They were not to be trusted. Do you know what is the most repeated phrase in the Bible? It's "be not afraid." Over and over again, these words appear, a warning not to let first impressions rule the day."

• 6:07Ryan Holiday?

  And then I quote some of the parts from the Bible where they talk about this. It's actually stunning how much it appears. And I reference a Hebrew prayer that dates back to the 1800s. It says, "The world is a narrow bridge, and the important thing is not to be afraid." The wisdom of this expression, I write, "has sustained the Jewish people through incredible adversity and terrible tragedies, was even turned into a popular song in the Yom Kippur War." It's a reminder, yes, things are dicey, and it's easy to be scared if you look down instead of forward, but fear will not help. And when the markets crashed in October 1929, America faced a horrendous economic crisis that lasted 10 years. Banks failed. Investors were wiped out, and employment was some 20%.

• 6:51Ryan Holiday?

  Franklin Delano Roosevelt succeeded, a president who had tried and failed for three and a half years to make a dent in the problem. Was he scared? Of course he was. How could he not have been? Everyone was scared. But what FDR counseled in that now legendary inaugural address in 1933 was that fear was a choice. Fear was the real enemy because it only made things worse. It would destroy the remaining banks. It would turn people against each other. It would prevent the implementation of cooperative solutions. Who does good work when they're afraid? Who can see clearly when they're afraid? Who can help others? How can you love when you're afraid? How can you do anything when you're afraid? The receiver can't catch the football if they flinch in anticipation of the hit.

• 7:35Ryan Holiday?

  The artist can't deliver the performance if they tremble at the ready pens of the critics. And the politician will rarely make the decision if they worry about the consequences at the polls. The family will never get started if all the couple can think about is how hard it's going to be. And an army that lets a retreat turn into a rout will be slaughtered. There is no room for fear, not with what we want to do. This life we're living, this world we inhabit, it is a scary place. If you peer over the side of a narrow bridge, you can lose your heart to continue. You freeze up. You sit down. Don't make good decisions. You don't see or think clearly. So the important thing is to not be afraid.