Now Is the Time

“We all have vices. We all have flaws. We all have things we know we want to change. What happens? Nothing happens. This is true for everyone, even Martin Luther King. ‘One day,’ King said that we tell ourselves, ‘I’m going to rise up and drive this evil out. I know it is wrong. It is destroying my character and embarrassing my family.’”Ryan brings the year to a close, and discusses why you must get started now and quit delaying, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast. We created the New Year, New You Challenge to help you create a better life, and a new you in 2021. There are less than 12 hours left, 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 the 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?

  How much longer are you going to do this? We all have vices. We all have flaws. We all have things we know we want to change. What happens? Nothing happens. This is true for everyone, even Martin Luther King. "One day," King said, we all tell ourselves this, "I'm going to rise up and drive this evil out. I know it is wrong. It is destroying my character and embarrassing my family." But then, he says, "At last the day came and you made a New Year's resolution that you would get rid of the whole base evil. And then the next year came around and you were doing the same old evil thing." Can you remember the surprise and disappointment that gripped you when you discovered that? After all that you had done through your

• 1:12Ryan Holiday?

  resolutions to get rid of it, the old evil was still there. And of amazement, you found yourself asking, "Why could I not cast it out?" Seneca reminds us that fools all have one thing in common: they are always getting ready to start. They are always getting ready to change. And then, and then, and then, they never do. Rooting evil out of your life takes work. Same with losing five pounds, quitting smoking, breaking the smartphone addiction, drinking less, reading more. But as King said, "The nature of evil is only simple in theory. Neither a bull nor a noble-spirited man comes to be what he is all at once," Epictetus once told an eager

• 1:53Ryan Holiday?

  student. "You must undertake a hard winter training. You must do the work. You must stop the lane. You must get started. Today, right now, a new year is upon you. Is there a better time than now? No, there is not. Let's go. Not tomorrow, as Marcus warns, but today."

• 2:15Ryan Holiday?

  Look, for the last three years, we've been doing this thing, the Daily Stoic New Year, New You Challenge. Twenty-one actionable challenges presented, one per day, built around the most timeless Stoic wisdom. Twenty-one challenges designed to help you do exactly what King and Apapteus were talking about, rising up, driving out the bad, and taking action to become the person you want to become. I'm really excited. This is the last, absolute last day you can sign up for it. I think, I want you to, at the end of it, look at yourself and be like, I can't believe I did that. I drove that bad habit out. I replaced it with this new, better habit. I've looked at what I've managed to do the last three years on this challenge. I'm so proud of myself. It's been awesome to hear from all the different people who've had the same. I'd love to have you join us.

• 2:58Ryan Holiday?

  Look, today is the absolute last day you can sign up. Admission ends at 11:59 Eastern Standard Time tonight. So, check it out. It's your last shot. Let's do this. Let's rise up, drive the bad habits out, replace them with the good. This is our chance. It could be good today, as Marcus said, but instead you choose tomorrow. So, let's do this together and see what we can do. And let's start 2021 off right.