Why Are You Surprised?

The surprising thing about all this is that you were surprised. How could you not have seen this coming? Reading Marcus Aurelius can change your life, but only if you know how to read his work 👉 Head here now to grab your Meditations book and guide bundle | https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/meditations-month-2026🎥 VIDEO EPISODES| Watch the video episodes on The Daily Stoic YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

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.

• 0:14Ryan Holiday?

  Why are you surprised? Your boss, who was a jerk, pulled a jerk move. Your mother, who was passive aggressive, said something passive aggressive. That dishonest politician lied. That loud neighbor was loud. The surprising thing about all this is that you were surprised. How could you not have seen this coming? "That sort of person was bound to do that," Marx realist writes in Meditations. "You might as well resent a fig tree for secreting juice." Why are you letting it catch you off guard? Why are you taking it personally? "This is what they do," he is saying. Think about all the hours we waste talking about what they did. All the nights we toss and turn at 2:00 a.m. replaying it.

• 0:59Ryan Holiday?

  All the energy we give reliving what they were always going to do. Instead of marveling at it and lamenting it, we should focus on being the kind of person that doesn't get rattled by this. We should focus on being the kind of person who is bound to do and be something very different. That is to say, kind and empathetic, honest and respectful. That's what our character has faded for us, and we should work hard to live up to it. Everyone else? Let them be exactly who they've shown you they are. By the way, if you've ever said, like, "I really want to read Meditations." I'm curious about this Marx realist guy you keep quoting. Well, maybe today is the day. It is the final day in Meditations month.

• 1:41Ryan Holiday?

  We've been celebrating the great man's birthday the last 30 days. He was born almost 2,000 years ago this month. We've been doing a deep dive into Meditations. We just finished a Q and A we did about him. People from all over the world have been reading Meditations with us. Some of them, it's been their first time. Some of them, it's been their 50th time. And if you've been meaning to pick it up, we've got a great how to guide for you. You've got great editions of Meditations, including the leather bound edition, which is my favorite. You can grab all of that, including the recording of the Q and A. I answer some pressing and common questions about Meditations there. And you can grab all that at dailystoic.com/meditations.