Most Replayed Moment: Make 2026 Your Best Year Yet! 5 Daily Practices For Health And Happiness

Ryan Holiday is a best-selling author and the modern-day philosopher behind The Daily Stoic. Renowned for his deep exploration of Stoic philosophy, Ryan has brought ancient wisdom to a new generation. In today’s moment, Ryan reveals five powerful practices, rooted in Stoicism, that you can implement this year to cultivate more peace, purpose, and resilience. Listen to the full episode here! Spotify: https://g2ul0.app.link/vEIEZBwqlZb Apple: https://g2ul0.app.link/MpXjJ9oqlZb Watch the Episodes On YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/%20TheDiaryOfACEO/videos Ryan Holiday: https://ryanholiday.net/

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:03Steven Bartlett?

  You've read so much, you write so much, you have the wisdom of a, of someone who is, who has lived many, many lives.

• 0:12Speaker 01

  That's what reading is, by the way. You know what I mean? Reading is maybe the only way that you can live multiple lives. Like, you think about the millions of people who have done crazy things, groundbreaking things, terrible things, and you think of all that wisdom. It's all there in books and, you know, it's $10, sometimes it's a dollar.

• 0:35Steven Bartlett?

  Isn't it funny how similar the wisdom is, though?

• 0:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think the more you read, the you, you come up with some sort of themes. It boils down, eastern and western philosophy, kind of like a horseshoe. You know, they come, come, come together towards the, the ends, but...

• 0:51Steven Bartlett?

  What are those themes? What are the themes of living a good life that I must know?

• 0:56Speaker 01

  First would be, let's say, you focus on what's in your control, like what's up to you.

• 1:01Steven Bartlett?

  Okay. What does that mean in practice, in, in day to day life? So someone cuts me off in traffic.

• 1:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, somebody you don't, somebody doesn't like something that you did, the weather. You know, how much of your energy are you spending emoting about, complaining about, worrying about things that are not up to you?

• 1:22Steven Bartlett?

  And what do the, is there any particular examples from Stoicism where?

• 1:26Speaker 01

  Well, Epictetus is like, that's our first job in life, is to separate things into two categories. Is this up to me or is this not up to me? And it's a resource allocation issue, right? Like, if you are focusing your energy, even half of it, on stuff that's not up to you, that's half your energy that's not being focused on the stuff you can make a difference on. It's like, that'd be like putting 50% of the, the power of your car on the wheels that aren't touching the ground, you know? Like, you want to put it where it's going to get traction. That's the, a key thing in life, is this up to you or not?

• 2:07Speaker 01

  Number two, uh, there's something magical about water and there's something magical about long walks. This is where we find a lot of peace, we find a lot of inspiration, we find a lot of calmness and stillness. Like, I'm not saying that taking a walk will solve all of your problems. I'm just saying that there's very few problems that are made worse by taking a walk. Same goes for jumping in the swimming pool or the ocean.

• 2:37Steven Bartlett?

  What is it about those two things that you believe?

• 2:40Speaker 01

  I mean, look, I think we evolved traveling very long distances. I mean, some of the oldest evidence of human beings in America are a set of footprints of a mother carrying and setting down, carrying and setting down a child 20,000 years ago in White Sands, what is now White Sands, New Mexico. Like, that's just what we've been doing for as long as there have been people. And there's something about the rhythm of it, the movement of it, that slows us down, forces us to think, makes us very present. It's just magic.

• 3:17Speaker 01

  And I think there's a reason that every religious tradition or Zen garden has a water fountain or something, you know, there's just something about the sound of water.

• 3:29Steven Bartlett?

  It's so true. All of my best ideas either come usually in the gym or in the shower.

• 3:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:36Steven Bartlett?

  I mean, I don't do a lot of walking because I'm.

• 3:38Speaker 01

  You got it.

• 3:39Steven Bartlett?

  But in the gym and the shower, I seem to get my, my epiphany moments.

• 3:44Speaker 01

  Yes. Taking a break from what you're doing to go do one of those things often unlocks a lot of stuff.

• 3:51Steven Bartlett?

  Okay. And you, you have that as a ritual every day?

• 3:55Speaker 01

  Every day.

• 3:56Steven Bartlett?

  Every single day?

• 3:56Speaker 01

  Yeah. I try to take a walk every day.

• 3:59Steven Bartlett?

  What else are sort of rituals in your life, the daily rituals?

• 4:02Speaker 01

  So I would add as a third one, as a ritual, I'd be, I'd say like, do something hard every day. Like, do something physically difficult every day. The art of challenging oneself and pushing those limits and boundaries, that is a essential practice and skill that will help you whatever life has in store for you.

• 4:24Steven Bartlett?

  And is that, is that the third one on this list of five?

• 4:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'll make that the third.

• 4:28Steven Bartlett?

  Okay. Love that one. So do something difficult every day and that ranges from. As small as not eating the cheeseburger to as big as running a marathon.

• 4:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, not eating the cheeseburger, I wouldn't put that, I wouldn't go, hey, like, I really challenged myself today. I didn't eat garbage. I would say it's like, here's the positive thing that I did, right? Like, I lifted, I lifted heavy rocks, you know, I went for, I did some sprinting. I went for a bike ride, you know, I, I went for a run, I took a spin class, you know, whatever it is. The walk doesn't count. The walk is for the mental health. Then you gotta do something for the physical health. Okay, so four, I think we have to put something here about, like, we are made for each other, right?

• 5:15Speaker 01

  That the, the idea of meaning comes from servicing or contributing to the common good. Marx realist talks about the common good maybe forty, fifty times in meditations. You know, he says, like, we're put here for other people.

• 5:35Speaker 01

  Our job is to, is to help others to, you know, leave this place better than you, like, leave this place better than you found it. To me, that's the meaning of life right there. So what is the positive contribution? What is the legacy you're leaving? Not how much money did you make, you know, what records did you break? But what is the, what is the

• 5:59Speaker 01

  contribution you are making to the collective? That's meaning and purpose and quite frankly, your obligation as a human being.

• 6:11Steven Bartlett?

  Service.

• 6:12Speaker 01

  Service. And then the fifth one, the fifth one is, is.

• 6:16Steven Bartlett?

  I wanted to just pause there and I forgot to ask you for an example on the third one from Stoicism.

• 6:21Speaker 01

  Of doing something hard?

• 6:22Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah, like a.

• 6:23Speaker 01

  I mean, the Greeks trained in wrestling, the gymnasium was the central part of the Roman life. You know, you'd go and you'd, you'd train, you know.

• 6:34Steven Bartlett?

  And what, what were they aiming at when they were training? What were the means?

• 6:38Speaker 01

  A strong mind and a strong body, like, to not be flabby and lazy and.

• 6:43Steven Bartlett?

  Not to fight each other or anything, but.

• 6:45Speaker 01

  No, but I mean, there's something about combat sports, you know, that I think is, is very primal and probably good for you. You know, just something about the challenge of.

• 7:01Speaker 01

  Of pushing oneself, not living this sort of sedentary lifestyle. I think that's, you know, whether you're talking about Zen Buddhists practicing martial arts, or you're talking about the Romans, you know, practicing wrestling. I think the philosophical tradition is it's it's wrong to think of philosophers as soft.

• 7:25Steven Bartlett?

  I always wonder if there's something innate in human beings that we we're designed to need struggle, like we're designed to, because if you think about, we're in a big building here and with all these, all this stuff that humans came up with and the cameras that they, they, our ancestors just struggled forward to create all this stuff. So is it conceivable that they left something in me that says, you too shall struggle forward?

• 7:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're, you are an heir to people who crossed oceans, fought in wars, braved the elements, you know, lived through poverty and depressions, sacrificed, struggled, you know, they did all that and you have that in you, you know, you have that in you, we all do.

• 8:15Steven Bartlett?

  And here we are ordering candy on the

• 8:17Speaker 01

  By a robot.

• 8:20Speaker 01

  And and going, ah, the air conditioning isn't at the exact temperature that I want it to be.

• 8:28Steven Bartlett?

  And number five?

• 8:29Speaker 01

  Number five, across all religious and philosophical traditions, there is some version of the practice of memento mori, that remember you are mortal, that life is short. Talk about top of the list of things that you don't control, right? There's death. And the acceptance and the submission to that fact, the awareness, the urgency, the perspective that that gives you is one of the most essential philosophical practices there is. Like, why do we procrastinate? Why do we not prioritize our health? Why do we not do the stuff that we know we should do?

• 9:13Speaker 01

  It's because we think we have forever, you know, we think we're invincible. And it's only, you know, in light of a pandemic, a call from the doctor, you know, a loved one suddenly going, that we get these brief moments of clarity, oh, wait, shit, no, you can go at any moment.

• 9:35Speaker 01

  Marx's theory is you could leave life right now, let that determine what you do and say and think. Now, if he's saying that in a time where

• 9:45Speaker 01

  he buried six children, six children, that's how deadly and unforgiving the ancient world was. And he was even then having to remind himself, hey, don't procrastinate, don't think you have forever, you know, don't take life for granted. And here, you know, when the average lifespan is so much longer, like inconceivably long compared to the ancients, where, you know, you might never see someone die in your whole life until you are in a hospital bed. You know, we have, we live in even more of a bubble, you know, we are even more sheltered. We are even more detached from the reality of

• 10:29Speaker 01

  of our mortality. As they say, death is the only prophecy that never fails. Like, people think about like, well, what would I do if I found out that I had cancer? Like, if you got a terminal diagnosis from the doctor, what changes would I make? But the reality is, you do have a terminal diagnosis. Like, the second you were born, the doctor knew with 100% certainty that you would die. He just didn't know when, you know, it could be eight years from now, it could be eight decades from now, we don't know. But to live in ignorance

• 11:03Speaker 01

  or in rejection of that fact is to set yourself up, I think, more often than not, to waste your life. And so, some practice of, hey, time is ticking by now in this very moment, how am I spending it?

• 11:25Steven Bartlett?

  There's a sound timer behind me.

• 11:27Speaker 01

  Oh, there is.

• 11:28Steven Bartlett?

  That's, that's just this there.

• 11:29Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah, that's beautiful.

• 11:31Steven Bartlett?

  Sounds to remind me of that very, very fate. Of all these things, Ryan, what is the, what is the Stoic wisdom that you continually struggle with the most?

• 11:48Speaker 01

  You know, I think people think that Stoicism is about the suppression of emotion. That's what the word Stoic means to people, right? Emotionless, robotic, superhuman, et cetera. I don't think that's it at all. I don't think that's possible. If you're stuffing the emotions down, if you're pretending they don't exist, they do exist and they will eventually reveal themselves. You've just deferred it, maybe with some interest attached, right? So for me, like when I'm feeling something, when I'm having big feelings, as we say to my kids, you're having big feelings. Well, why are you having those feelings? What is the cause of those feelings? What does your body feel like?

• 12:32Speaker 01

  And the, the practice of going, I'm feeling this, I'm feeling this because I'm feeling as a result of that, an inclination to do, and then go, but is that a good idea? You know, is that what I want to do? Like, I've never lost my temper and then afterwards been like, I'm so glad I did that. You know, I'm, I always regret it, always, right? I've never forced my kids to do something out of frustration and then been like, yeah, that was definitely the right call. You know, afterwards I'm like, we had so much more time than I was under the impression we did, you know what I mean? It's like, like getting this big fight to leave the house and then we get there and then we're like waiting in the car five minutes to go in, you know, or whatever, right?

• 13:14Speaker 01

  Like, or you're so stressed about missing the flight and then you, you get there or you don't get there. And neither one of those things is like a matter of life and death, right? So I think for me, seeing Stoicism as the practice of understanding the emotion, processing the emotion, and then not being...

• 13:37Speaker 01

  A slave to that emotion is the practice of Stoicism. That I think I struggle with, but I think when you read the private thoughts of the Stoics, you see that they were also struggling with, you know.

• 13:57Speaker 01

  People are frustrating. Things are annoying, you know? Things go sideways. But then how you deal with that, that's what, that's what matters.

• 14:08Steven Bartlett?

  And that's the control you have.

• 14:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:13Steven Bartlett?

  And it is a practice, isn't it? Because we all get frustrated with things. I get frustrated with so many things.

• 14:18Speaker 01

  Yeah. Because you have high standards, you have expectations. Wanting things to be a certain way, needing them to be a certain way. That's like the root of so much of the tension and problems that we, we have.

• 14:31Steven Bartlett?

  And the question I ask is why? Why do I need them to be a certain way?

• 14:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, you don't. You go, I need everything to be a certain way, or I won't be able to do what I do. And then you're like, wait, how fragile am I? That I can't, I can't adjust, I can't adapt? You know what I mean? Like you, it's because you can want it or request it, or you think you should have it. That's what sets you up. But Epictetus's thing is he says like, don't want things to be a certain way, want them to be the way that they are. That is the path to peace. And I think about, it's like, hey, like if I wake up and I go, I need the weather to be a certain way today. Well, then there's a pretty big chance that I'm not going to be happy. I was talking to my friend, his name is Shaka Smart, he's the head basketball coach at

• 15:19Speaker 01

  Marquette. He, he lived in Texas, he was the head coach at Texas and um, he uh, he moved to Marquette where it's colder. And I said, what's, what's the weather shift like? I said something like, you know, are you, are you more of a hot weather guy or a cold weather guy, you know? And um, he goes, I'm a dress for the weather guy. And I was like, that is Stoicism right there, dress for the weather, you know? Like, I don't care what it is. I'm good. I'm good either way.

• 15:47Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah.

• 15:48Speaker 01

  I'll figure it out.

• 15:50Steven Bartlett?

  I love that. And the conflict I have is the Stoics must have understood the importance of detail and small things.

• 15:59Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 15:59Steven Bartlett?

  So.

• 16:00Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 16:01Steven Bartlett?

  You know, that's why.

• 16:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:02Steven Bartlett?

  But at the same time, they also understand how that can quite easily rob you of that obsession to detail.

• 16:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, or like routine is important, right? This is the order I like to do things. This is when I'm at my best. But what if that routine becomes almost a religion?

• 16:19Steven Bartlett?

  Mm hmm.

• 16:20Speaker 01

  Which becomes almost a kind of fragility, you know? That's the problem. Shit, fuck, what am I gonna do? I need, I need my special socks, you know, or whatever. I can't, no, I need 10 minutes before. And you're like, okay, you know, you're not defusing a nuclear bomb here. Like, you're gonna be fine.

• 16:40Steven Bartlett?

  Two things can be true at the same time.

• 16:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's better. Well, the Stoics say, um, there's,

• 16:50Speaker 01

  there's such a thing as preferred indifference. So that basically the Stoics were like, if it's in your control, great, if it's not in your control, it's not worth thinking about. But they said, there's still some things it's better to have than not have, right? Like, like, it's better to be rich than poor. It's better for it to be, you know, nice weather, not nice weather, right? And so the idea is you're gonna be fine regardless, right? So if you're gonna, even though I am good, I'm a dress for the weather guy. I can thrive in any and all situations, right? That's the first thing that has to be true. And then the second thing is to be true, which can be true is, but if you ask me what I want,

• 17:34Speaker 01

  here this, here's the circumstances or situation that if it's in my power, that's what I'm gonna choose. I don't need it. I can do great in any and all situations. But if you ask me, do I want it to be cold in here or warm in here? I'm gonna tell you the temperature that I like. Cause I know that if it gets too hot, then I start to feel warm and then I get distracted. You know, like, you can, you can know what's nice to have, but not need it.

• 18:02Steven Bartlett?

  Of all the, of all the things that, you know, you've read about in Stoic philosophy and wisdom.

• 18:10Steven Bartlett?

  Few were lying on your deathbed.

• 18:13Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 18:14Steven Bartlett?

  And you had the entirety of the world as the audience.

• 18:17Speaker 01

  Ooh.

• 18:17Steven Bartlett?

  And you could just say one thing that you believed would be of most benefit to that audience, to relieve them of their suffering the most, to, you know, to leave them with one last statement from Ryan Holiday, drawn from his readings of Stoic wisdom and philosophy.

• 18:32Speaker 01

  Oof.

• 18:34Steven Bartlett?

  What might be the insight, the last daily Stoic?

• 18:38Speaker 01

  What would I say? Short of last breath. Oof. We know Marcus Aurelius's sort of last words, his last words in, in meditations are about sort of, hey, man, this is the play. It only got three acts. Curtain's coming down. Did you do a good job? You know, sort of talking to himself like that. It's pretty beautiful. And then in real life, he's probably dying of the plague, uh, he, his friends are all around him and they're weeping and crying. And he goes, what are you crying about? Like, don't think about me. Think about you. Think about your life. Don't try to, you know,

• 19:22Speaker 01

  do what you can with the time that you have left. And he'd say something like that, like, hey, the whole, the one, the one benefit of people dying is the one way that they can go on living after they die. One way they can improve us and help us after they're gone is, is the reminder of the fact that they're not here, which will be true for you at some point. And that's one of the things that the loss of people that we love

• 20:04Speaker 01

  can do for us. It's like, hey, none of us get forever. The song ends at some point. And so what did you, um, what did you do with the time that you've got? And the fact that you get tomorrow and I don't is a gift that you should not take for granted.

• 20:28Steven Bartlett?

  What you just listened to was a most replayed moment from a previous episode. If you want to listen to that full episode, I've linked it down below. Check the description. Thank you.