You’re in a Hurry and Don’t Know Why | A Hard Winter Training

Slow down. Pause. Take a breath. Because one day, you’ll realize you rushed through too much of your life, too much of your loved ones’ lives. 🎟️ 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're in a hurry and you don't know why. It's never slow with us, is it? We're always rushing, rushing to get ready in the morning, rushing on the way to work, rushing through our lunch, zipping through our to-do list, rushing to grab the kids from school, rushing to finish this phone call, rushing to get dinner cooked, rushing to an airplane or a train, rushing through a book we're reading, fast forwarding through commercials, rushing through a bedtime routine. It seems like we're rushing everywhere all the time. Sometimes it's because there are real deadlines, flights, or getting to a meeting on time.

• 0:56Ryan Holiday?

  But even then, why do we act like it's the most important thing in the world? We are rushing always as if we're not rushing through our own lives, as if we're not filling ourselves and our families with stress and anxiety. We would do well to remember the Alabama lyrics.

• 1:32Ryan Holiday?

  Slow down, pause, take a breath, because one day you'll realize you rushed through too much of your life, too much of your loved one's life. You'll realize that as you were rushing, you were dying, as Seneca said, you were rushing through something you could never get back. You rushed through beautiful details that you might have otherwise noticed if you took your time, and the rushing you thought was urgent will some days seem so small compared to the moments, the days, and the years of your life you missed out on because you were in a needless hurry.

• 2:19Ryan Holiday?

  A Hard Winter Training. The art of living has three levels of discipline: study, practice, and hard training. Reading the Stoics or listening to them, that's study. Trying out the lessons and reflecting on them in a journal, to a friend, that's practice. What's left, though, is hard training. Epictetus liked to use the analogy of the Roman army's practice of training hard in the off months of winter so that they could be prepared to meet any challenge when they returned to battle in the spring. Seneca would spend time each month exposing himself to tougher-than-usual conditions. He too used a military analogy, pointing to the way that soldiers are tasked with hard jobs

• 3:01Ryan Holiday?

  so they could be strong when the enemy eventually came. So what are you doing in your life to push yourself beyond mere study and practice? And this is from this week's entry in the Daily Stoic Journal, "366 Days of Writing and Reflection on the Art of Living" by yours truly and my co-writer and translator, Stephen Hanselman. I actually do this journal every single day. There's a question in the morning, a question in the afternoon, then there's these sort of weekly meditations. As Epictetus says, "Every day and night, we keep thoughts like this at hand. Write them, read them aloud, and talk to yourself and others about them." You can check out the Daily Stoic Journal anywhere books are sold. You can also get a signed, personalized copy from me in the Daily Stoic store at store.dailystoic.com.

• 3:46Ryan Holiday?

  This idea of keeping the thoughts at hand really ties into this week's entry. We've got two quotes from Epictetus and one from Seneca. "We must undergo a hard winter training and not rush into things for which we haven't prepared." That's Epictetus in his Discourses. Here's Seneca in Moral Letters 18. "Here's a lesson to test your mind's mettle. Take part of the week in which you have only the most meager and cheap food, dress scantily in shabby clothes, and ask yourself, 'This is really the worst you feared.' It is when times are good that you should gird yourself for tougher times ahead, for when fortune is kind, the soul can build up defenses against her ravages. So it is that the soldiers practice maneuvers in peacetime, erecting bunkers with no enemies in sight, and exhausting themselves under no attack

• 4:31Ryan Holiday?

  so that when it comes, they won't grow tired." And then finally, Epictetus says, "When a challenge confronts you, remember that God is matching you with a younger sparring partner, as would a physical trainer." Why? Because becoming an Olympian takes sweat. I think that no one has a better challenge than yours. If only you would use it like an athlete would use a younger sparring partner. So a couple of things here. One, I sometimes get this question, "Should I seek out adversity? If adversity is such a good teacher, should I seek it out?" I say, "Look, for the most part, life is gonna give us most of the training we need. Life's gonna throw most of the adversity we need at us." So you don't need to go, like, getting yourself into trouble so you can know what a prison cell feels like, right?

• 5:16Ryan Holiday?

  I don't think that's really what it is. As Epictetus is saying, "Look, instead of bemoaning the adversity when you do feel it, go like, 'Hey, this is good. This is training I needed. I'm gonna use this.'" So I think about it that way. How are you, though, actively engaged in training that makes you stronger, more mentally tough, more physically tough? So to me, this is where, like, a strong physical practice comes in. It's also where getting up early, maybe intermittent fasting, maybe cold showers, but mostly working out. Because I love working out, but still every time I have to convince myself to do it, right? I love running. It's almost painful not to run. But there's still lots of days when I don't want to do it and still be easier to go slower.

• 6:00Ryan Holiday?

  I have to push myself every single time. But every time I do it, I get better at pushing myself, right? I usually do some sort of weight training about four days a week as well. And so that is much less fun for me, and I really do have to push myself to do it. And that training, though, the act of pushing myself to do something that I'm uncomfortable with, that's not fun, that challenges me, this doesn't just make me stronger and more fit and better at chasing my kids around the house. What it really does is make me better at overriding that impulse, that I don't want to do something because it's hard or that I'm afraid or that it's gonna be exhausting. And you think, "I don't wake up so many days and I don't feel it. I don't want to do it. It's hard. What if I phone it in today?

• 6:44Ryan Holiday?

  Is anyone really watching? Will anyone know?" Well, I've trained for exactly that kind of insidious opponent. As Stephen Pressfield talks about, "I know the resistance well. I have built up a lot of muscles that make me stronger than the resistance, and that's where this training comes in." And I think that's a metaphor for all forms of adversity, difficulty, resistance, weakness in life. And so I hope you have some sort of active practice. Use the adversity, train against it when it's there, but also build some active daily practices or weekly practices in your life as well.