Start Each Day With This Habit

"Marcus Aurelius said we should get up early. But what should we do then? Seneca agreed, saying that it was important to start the day at a good hour, but what mattered was what you did next. A good start, according to the Stoics, was something that would 'shake the laziness out of [your] system.'"Find out the habit that's a perfect start to any day, in today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***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 @DailyStoic: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.

• 0:06Ryan 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. Start each day with this habit: Marcus Aurelius said that we should get up early, but what should we do then? Seneca agreed, saying that it was important to start the day at a good hour. But what mattered, he said, was what you did next. A good start, according to the Stoics, was something that would shake the laziness out of your system. Seneca

• 0:50Ryan Holiday?

  believed that reading was an indispensable part of the daily routine, particularly early in the day, because, as he said, "reading nourishes the mind and refreshes it." He's right. Who doesn't feel better after they've read? Whoever regrets picking up a book? And how much better are our days when we front-load them with good inputs? And how miserable are they when we kick things off with bad decisions? Another, more recent student of Stoicism agrees: Hugh Jackman happens to wake up and read right after he does so, early in the morning, as he explains: "I read a book with my wife, so we get up and we read to each other for half an hour. It's the best. I recommend it to anyone. It's the greatest way to start the day." Right now, he said, "I'm reading 'Stillness is

• 1:35Ryan Holiday?

  the Key' by me, Ryan Holiday." He says, "I'm really into philosophy, so we read and we talk because the stuff's on your mind. You don't realize how much has been on your mind overnight, and it comes out in the morning. That way, no matter what happens through our day, we know that we've had quality time together. You always think, 'tonight, after work, after this, when we put the kids to bed,' but that doesn't always happen." And Hugh Jackman is right. The day so easily gets away from us. Well-intentioned plans fall apart. Our willpower evaporates. So it's key that we prioritize the important things early, and it's key that we habitualize doing them early. This way, we'll, you know,

• 2:16Ryan Holiday?

  actually do them. This way, we can make sure we have a successful day. If you like the podcast that we do here and you want to get it via email every morning, you can sign up at dailystoic.com/email.