The Top 10 Most Popular Passages From The Daily Stoic

The whole point of Stoicism is that you’re supposed to keep progressing, keep examining yourself, keep practicing, keep getting a little better, “keep learning,” as Seneca wrote, “to the end of your life.” Thenew 10th Anniversary Edition of https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/the-daily-stoic-10The Daily Stoic https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/the-daily-stoic-10https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/the-daily-stoic-10is out NOW! 👉 Grabhttps://store.dailystoic.com/pages/the-daily-stoic-10your copy here: https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/the-daily-stoic-10 🎟️https://www.dailystoiclive.com/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 toThe Daily Stoic Premium https://dailystoic.supercast.com/ - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content: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 athttps://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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• 0:00Ryan Holiday?

  AI isn't just opening new business opportunities, it's changing the way businesses get work done. Questions they ask, the decisions they make, the routine tasks that can be handed off. That's the idea behind NetSuite Next, the next generation of NetSuite, with AI woven into the tools that your business already relies on. NetSuite Next surfaces insights exactly when you need them, puts agents to work on routine tasks and problems, and lets you ask complex questions in plain language, like talking to a knowledgeable colleague. But technology is only part of the story. AI is also shaping how people and teams work together. That shift is underway. And that's why there is a new expert-created business guide for you.

• 0:41Ryan Holiday?

  It's called Aligning for the Agentic Era: How AI Is Changing Everyday Work. And right now, it's totally free. It can explain how AI can reshape work across your entire organization and how businesses like yours can prosper from it. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, get this free business guide, Aligning for the Agentic Era, at netsuite.com/stoic. The guide is free to you at netsuite.com/stoic. Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues: courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world.

• 1:23Ryan Holiday?

  10 years later, this is new again. It seems unbelievable, but it's true. 10 years ago today, we published a book called The Daily Stoic. And the idea was simple. 366 short meditations, one for every day of the year, including sleep years, that was designed to teach you about Stoicism and to help you actually practice it. Now, I obviously could not have imagined where the book would go. If I had, it would have been not just egotistical, but basically insane to predict any of this. Something like 3 million copies have been sold now. It's been translated into 40 languages.

• 2:06Ryan Holiday?

  And I've heard from athletes and soldiers and CEOs, parents, heads of state, students, stay-at-home parents, and everyone in tweet. People keep it on their nightstand. They carry it in their bags. They listen to it on their commute. They give it to friends, come back to the same pages over and over and over again. Which is why I'm excited to be able to say that 10 years later, we are releasing it again. Not with a new cover slapped on it or commemorative foreword in front of what is effectively the same text. But no, we went back through it page by page and made the book better. And that might seem like a strange thing to do on a book that's sold so well.

• 2:51Ryan Holiday?

  But I think it would be stranger if it didn't. Because the whole point of Stoicism is that you're supposed to keep progressing, keep examining yourself, keep practicing, keep getting a little bit better, keep learning, as Seneca wrote, "to the end of your life." And I'm not the same person that I was when I wrote this book 10 years ago. I'm not the same person I was last year. When The Daily Stoic came out, I was 29, newly married, about to become a father. I've learned a little bit in the time since, right? Raising two boys, opening a bookstore, building businesses, losing mentors, succeeding at some things, failing at many others, living through a pandemic, writing a couple more books,

• 3:34Ryan Holiday?

  thousands and thousands of these emails and podcasts, spending another 10 years reading Marcus and Seneca and Epictetus and the other Stoics. So when Steve and I decided to go back through The Daily Stoic, we asked ourselves this question. If we were making the book today, knowing what we know now, how would we make it better? That's what we did. We revisited the texts. We added something like 60 new translations, give or take, including a bunch of Stoics who weren't in the first edition. We brought in Stoic ideas and concepts we wished we'd included the first time. We improved the stories in the meditations. We added illustrations and some bonus chapters. We revised entries where, you know, another decades of studying and practicing

• 4:19Ryan Holiday?

  gave me a better sense of how to actually say what I was trying to say. And I think The Daily Stoic, like basically anything in the Stoic genre, is it meant to be read once. It's supposed to be something you are reading, not something you're done with. Because maybe a passage that you barely noticed five years ago might be exactly what you need today. Something you underlined at 25 could mean something different to you at 35. The words might be the same, but you aren't. I know I'm not. And so that's what the new 10-year anniversary edition of The Daily Stoic is. It's out in the world. And I'm excited to bring it to you. You know, it's been a crazy ride doing this book.

• 5:03Ryan Holiday?

  And I feel so grateful to all of you who've made it possible. Listen to this podcast, or subscribe to the email, or read the book. Like, I just wouldn't have predicted any of this 10 years ago. I have no idea what the next 10 years will bring. I think Stoicism will still be relevant. You know, we have 2,400 years, give or take, of it standing the test of time. I think that's going to continue. I've changed a lot, but the Stoic words, I think, still ring true. I wanted to present in an even better form in this new edition. If you've had The Daily Stoic on your bedside, if you've marked it up, you dog-eared your copies, you've carried it from apartment to apartment. I wanted to make something that was worth another decade. So that's what the leather edition is about.

• 5:46Ryan Holiday?

  It's signed, numbered, there's gold foil end pages. It's a special cream paper. There's a cool ribbon in there. And by the way, if you want a signed page from the manuscript of this new edition, I'll send you that too. You can grab all that at dailystoic.com ds10. And let me get into a little special episode we have for you this weekend. Enjoy. A little over 10 years ago, I sat down to write this book, The Daily Stoic. We didn't know if it would work. We didn't know if people would be interested in it. We didn't know who would be interested in it. We certainly didn't predict that it would sell millions of copies, be translated in 40 different languages, that it would influence teams on their way to the Super Bowl,

• 6:30Ryan Holiday?

  special operators on the way to do dangerous, heroic missions, that it would reach all sorts of people who didn't think philosophy was for them and maybe didn't even know what Stoicism was. This edition has become this edition, the 10-year anniversary edition. I know because of Goodreads and Kindle and Audible, which pages people have lingered on the most, which ones they've shared the most. And that's what we're going to talk about in today's episode. I'm going to read to you the 10 most popular sections of The Daily Stoic that have resonated with people all over the world. So let's get into it.

• 7:11Ryan Holiday?

  May 2. Be the person you want to be. "First, tell yourself what kind of person you want to be," Epictetus famously said, "and then do what you have to do." "For in nearly every pursuit, we see this to be the case. Those in an athletic pursuit first choose the sport they want, and then they do that work. An archer is unlikely to hit a target she did not aim for. The same goes for you, for all of us, whatever we are after. You are certain to miss the target if you don't bother to draw back and fire. Our perceptions and our principles guide us in the selection of what we want, but ultimately, our actions determine whether we get there or not."

• 7:54Ryan Holiday?

  So yes, spend some time, real uninterrupted time, thinking about what's important to you, what your priorities are. But then work towards that and forsake all the others. "It is not enough to wish and hope. One must act, and act right." June 30. The obstacle is the way. While it's true that someone can impede our actions, Marcus Aurelius famously says in Meditations, "They can't impede our intentions or our attitudes, which have the power of being conditional and adaptable." "For the mind adapts and converts any obstacle to its action into a means of achieving it.

• 8:38Ryan Holiday?

  That which is an impediment to action is turned to advance action." The obstacle on the path becomes the way. Today, things will happen that will be contrary to your plans. If not today, then certainly tomorrow. As a result of these obstacles, you will not be able to do what you planned. This is not as bad as it seems, however, because your mind is infinitely elastic and adaptable. You have the power to use the Stoic exercise of turning obstacles upside down, the idea that takes one negative circumstance and uses it as an opportunity to practice an unintended virtue or form of excellence.

• 9:22Ryan Holiday?

  If someone hurts you, it's a chance to practice forgiveness. If something is hard, it's a chance to get stronger. Try this line of thinking and see whether there is a situation in which one could not find some virtue to practice or derive some benefit. There isn't one. Every impediment can advance action in some form or another. April 16. Observe cause and effect. Through the work of the psychologist Albert Ellis, Stoicism has reached millions of people through what's known as cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT. As a form of therapy, CBT helps patients identify destructive patterns in their thoughts and behavior

• 10:07Ryan Holiday?

  so they can, over time, direct and influence them in a more positive direction. Of course, Marcus Aurelius had no formal training in psychology, but his words here are as important as any doctor's. He's asking you to become an observer of your own thoughts and the actions those thoughts provoke. Where do they come from? What biases do they contain? Are they constructive or destructive? Do they cause you to make mistakes or engage in behavior you later reject? Look for patterns. Find where cause meets effect. Only when this is done can negative behavioral patterns be broken. Only then can real-life improvements be made.

• 10:48Ryan Holiday?

  December 15th, a simple way to measure our days. The Stoics didn't think anyone could be perfect. The idea of becoming a sage, the highest aspiration of a philosopher, wasn't realistic. This was just their platonic ideal. Still, they started every day hoping to get a little bit closer to that mark, to do a little better than yesterday. There was much to gain in the trying, they thought. Can you actually live today like it is your last? Is it even possible to embody completeness or perfection in our ethos? That is, our character? Effortlessly doing the right thing for a full 24 hours? Is it even possible for more than a minute? Maybe not.

• 11:32Ryan Holiday?

  But if trying was enough for the Stoics, it should be enough for us, too. June 7th, finding the right mentors. Seneca's great line was that we don't get to choose our parents, but we do get to choose whose children we are going to be. We are fortunate that some of the greatest men and women in history have recorded their wisdom, folly, in books and journals. Many others have had their lives chronicled by a careful biographer, from Plutarch to Boswell to Robert Caro. The literature available at your average library amounts to millions of pages and thousands of years of knowledge and insight and experience.

• 12:16Ryan Holiday?

  Maybe your parents were poor role models, or you lacked a great mentor. Yet, if we choose to, we can easily access the wisdom of those who came before us, those who we aspire to be like. Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, did both. He had conversations with the dead, meaning he read the classic texts. And he also had a great teacher, Crates, who was known in Athens as the door opener, which all great teachers are. Whoever we are lucky or unlucky enough to be born to is just the beginning of who we can learn from, who we can emulate and be led by. Violent threats against executives are growing at an alarming rate.

• 13:01Ryan Holiday?

  When a company experiences backlash, executives are the first people that are blamed. And people try to track them down through their address, the personal details that are available online, so that backlash can lead right to someone's front door. The team at Ironwall knows this better than anyone. They've protected some of the most targeted executives and individuals on the planet for almost two decades. As a white glove enterprise security service, they protect your people with continuous personal data removal, proactive prevention tools, and human-led emergency support. If someone goes looking for your executives, Ironwall ensures they hit a dead end. So here's what to do. Go to ironwall.com/dailystoic. You fill out a quick form, and you can request a free risk assessment.

• 13:44Ryan Holiday?

  Their team will show you just how exposed your executives are and how to lock it down before the threat reaches their front door. Ironwall.com/dailystoic. Learn how to stop online threats before they become real-world attacks. The link is in the show notes. Look, hiring is make or break for a business, especially if you're a small business. You can't just hope that you find the right people. Hope is never a strategy, but when it comes to recruitment, it's not going to work. So when the pressure's on and you need the right hire, this is a job for sponsored jobs. Indeed Sponsored Jobs gets you the quality candidates when you need them the most. It's how you get your job seen. And with Indeed Sponsored Jobs, you'll get matched with and hire quality candidates

• 14:28Ryan Holiday?

  who can drive the results you'll need. And plus, with Indeed Sponsored Jobs, you only pay for results. People are finding quality hires on Indeed right now. In the minute or so we've been talking to you, companies have made dozens of hires on Indeed, according to Indeed data worldwide. So join the 3.3 million employers worldwide that use Indeed to connect with quality talent that fits their needs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help your job get the premium status it deserves at indeed.com/podcast. Just go to indeed.com/podcast right now and support the show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply.

• 15:09Ryan Holiday?

  If you're hiring now, then this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. July 21st, May for Working Together. Marcus Aurelius was the emperor of Rome. He didn't have to get up early. He didn't have to get up and do anything. In fact, plenty of the emperors didn't. That's what makes it so remarkable that in 812 Meditations, he says, "Whenever you have trouble getting up in the morning, remind yourself that you've been made by nature for the purpose of working with others." Whereas even unthinking animals share sleeping, he says, "It's our own natural purpose that is more fitting and more satisfying."

• 15:50Ryan Holiday?

  If a dog spends all day in bed, your bed, most likely, that's fine. It's just being a dog. Doesn't have anywhere to be, has no other obligations than being itself. According to the Stoics, though, we humans have a higher obligation, not to the gods, to each other. What gets us out of bed each morning, even if we sometimes fight it like Marcus sometimes did, is to render works held in common. Civilization and country are great projects we build together and have been building together with our ancestors for millennia. We are made for cooperation, synergy with each other.

• 16:32Ryan Holiday?

  So if you need some extra boost to get out of bed this morning, if you need something more than caffeine can offer, use this. People are depending on you. Your purpose is to help us render this great work together, and we are waiting and excited for you to show up. June 21st, Take a Walk. Seneca believed that every person should take wandering outdoor walks. He said that "so the mind might be nourished and refreshed by the open air and deep breathing." In a notoriously loud city like Rome, it was impossible to get much peace and quiet.

• 17:13Ryan Holiday?

  The noises of wagons, the shouting of vendors, the hammering of a blacksmith, all this noise filled the streets with piercing violence, to say nothing of the putrid smells of a city with poor sewage and sanitation. So philosophers went on a lot of walks to get where they needed to go, to clear their head, to get fresh air. Throughout the ages, philosophers, writers, poets, and thinkers have found that walking offers an additional benefit, time and space for better work. As Nietzsche would later say, "It is only ideas gained from walking that have any worth." Today, make sure that you take a walk.

• 17:56Ryan Holiday?

  And in the future, when you get stressed or overwhelmed, take a walk. When you have some tough problem to solve or a decision to make, take a walk. When you want to be creative, take a walk. When you need to get some air, take a walk. When you have a phone call to make, take a walk. When you need some exercise, take a long walk. Nourish yourself and your mind. Solve your problems along the way. May 5th, You Are the Project. Professionals don't have to justify spending time training or practicing their work. It's what they do, and practice is how they get good at it. The raw materials vary from career to career, just as the locations and the duration vary depending on the person and the profession.

• 18:40Ryan Holiday?

  But the one constant is the working of those materials, the gradual improvements and proficiency. According to the Stoics, "Your mind is the asset that must be worked on most and understood best. While we are making things in the world, we are also making ourselves. For the Stoics, we are both artisans and artifacts." Are you putting in the hours? December 18th, What Comes to Us All. Both Alexander the Great and his mule driver, Marcus Aurelius writes in Meditations, "were brought to the same place by death. They were either received into the all generative reason or scattered among the atoms."

• 19:24Ryan Holiday?

  There aren't many truly egalitarian experiences left. When Benjamin Franklin observed that "in this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes," he couldn't have known how good some people would get at avoiding their taxes. But death? That's still the one thing that everyone experiences. We all face the same end. Whether you conquer the known world or shine the shoes of the people who do, at the end, death will be a radical equalizer, a lesson in abject humility. The next time you feel yourself getting high and mighty, or conversely, feeling low or inferior, just remember, we all end up the same way.

• 20:09Ryan Holiday?

  In death, no one is better, no one is worse. All our stories have the same finale. November 1st, Accepting What Is. Something happened that we wish had not. What's easier to change? Our opinion or the event that has passed? The answer's obvious. Accept what happened and change your wish that it had not happened. Stoicism calls this the art of acquiescence, to accept rather than fight every little thing. And the most practiced Stoics take it a step further.

• 20:48Ryan Holiday?

  Instead of simply accepting what happens, they urge us to actually enjoy what has happened, whatever it is. Nietzsche, many centuries later, coined the perfect expression to capture this idea, "Amor fatti," a love of fate. It's not just accepting, it's loving everything that happens. To wish for what has happened to happen is a clever way to avoid disappointment, because nothing is contrary to your desires. To actually feel gratitude for what happens, to love it, that is a recipe for happiness and joy. Thanks for watching.

• 21:33Ryan Holiday?

  This is the new edition of the book. You can check it out if you want a signed, numbered first edition. You can grab that from the link below or at dailystoic.com/ds10.

• 21:51Speaker 01

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