The Daily Stoic

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You Have To Look This Way | Focus On The Present Moment Jan 26, 2024

Show notes

In the muck and mire of daily life, it’s easy to get frustrated with people. It’s easy to prioritize the wrong things, to lose perspective. It’s easy to get caught up in the moment or forget the actual magnitude of your problems.

Which is why the Stoics remind us to zoom out. At least twice in Meditations, Marcus Aurelius speaks of taking “Plato’s view” and by that he means getting up high and looking down on humanity. “To see them from above,” he writes, “the thousands of animal herds, the rituals, the voyages on calm or stormy seas, the different ways we come into the world, share it with one another and leave it.”

In today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt, Ryan examines the power of a mantra through the Marcus Aurelius.

“Erase the false impressions from your mind by constantly saying to yourself, I have it in my soul to keep out any evil, desire or any kind of disturbance—instead, seeing the true nature of things, I will give them only their due. Always remember this power that nature gave you.” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.29”

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If You Want To Be Happy Do This | Ask Ds Jan 25, 2024

Show notes

The Stoics talk about a lot of things. But they don’t speak that much about happiness. Is that because they were too tough or too resigned to their bleak view of life to care about it? Did they mean to imply that there isn’t room for happiness for the Stoic? That it wasn’t possible?

Not at all. They talked about other things—virtue, resilience, self-command, managing the passions—because they believed when you handled that, happiness would ensue. As Dr. Becky Kennedy writes in her wonderful book Good Inside, if you want to raise happy kids, you don’t try to make them happy. You try to make them resilient and self-aware. She writes, speaking of both kids and parents, “The wider the range of feelings we can regulate—if we can manage the frustration, disappointment, envy and sadness—the more space we have to cultivate happiness. Regulating our emotions essentially develops a cushion around those feelings, softening them and preventing them from consuming the entire jar. Regulation first, happiness second.”

In today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan talks stoics and growth hacking over virtual for HP. “Advance Compute and Solutions”. HP produces some the worlds most powerful PCs used by Creatives, Designers, Engineers, and Analytics teams. So we’re dealing with the leading edge technology and partner with the likes of companies like Intel, AMD and Nvidia.

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Tim Ferriss On Generosity And Dealing With Difficult People (Pt 2) Jan 24, 2024

Show notes

On this episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan talks with author and early-stage technology investor/advisor Tim Ferriss on the essence of Stoicism, fear setting, and exaggerating the downside of things. How stoicism helped Tim manage the catastrophe of success and criticism and his podcast Tim Ferriss Show, which is the first business/interview podcast to exceed 100 million downloads. It has now exceeded 900 million downloads.

Tim Ferriss has been listed as one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and one of Fortune’s “40 under 40." He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers, including The 4-Hour Workweek and Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers.

IG and YT: @TimFerriss

X: @TFerriss

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Keep Your Head Out Of The Clouds Jan 24, 2024

Show notes

The image of the philosopher is typically that of an academic, one preoccupied with big, theoretical ideas. You know, the kind of brilliant but absent minded professor. The one so hard at work on the mysteries of the universe…that they put on mismatching socks. The one that can’t remember where they put their car keys, the one who doesn’t have time for the pesky issues of life or human affairs because they’re on the verge of some breakthrough.

But what’s so refreshing and relatable about the Stoics is that although they too were brilliant, they’re heads weren’t stuck in the clouds. No, they were down here on Earth, doing the people’s business—running for office, fighting in wars, raising children, cultivating a farm. In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius reminds himself to not let his mind wander too much. In another passage, he says to put his books aside and get busy with life. Seneca said that, unlike the Epicureans, a Stoic would only not be involved in politics and current affairs if something prevented them from doing so.

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Somebody Lit From Within | 10 Stoic Habits To Practice In 2024 Jan 23, 2024

Show notes

Agrippinus once told another philosopher that while everyone else wanted to blend in, he was content to stand out—to ‘be the red thread’ in the sweater, the one that makes the garment beautiful. It wasn’t attention and fame he was after, nor was he rewarded for standing out in this way. In the end, Agrippinus was exiled (his father was executed for similar crimes). Cato could have made a fortune in politics, if he was after the same things his peers were after. He could have wielded enormous power. But he wasn’t willing to do what everyone else was willing to do. Fame and money were not what motivated him, it’s not what lit him up.

It was a loose cohort of Stoics—we tell their stories in the book Lives of the Stoics—was heroic and incredible, as virtue always is. They stood out, backlit against the sameness, the cowardice, the complicity of their times. Still, they suffered for this courage, these principles, this desire to be themselves. We should take their example, but be sure not to take it lightly.

If you can cultivate good habits, you can survive—even thrive on—what lies ahead. If you relapse and fall to the level of your worst habits, these hard times will only be harder. Epictetus said habits—good and bad—were like a bonfire. Every time we perform a habit, we reinforce it, we add fuel to the fire. In this video excerpt Ryan Holiday outlines 10 Stoic habits that can change your life in 2024.

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You Have To Be Able To Deal With This | A Little Better Every Day Jan 22, 2024

Show notes

Emotions are a part of being human. They’re a part of us. They’re hardwired in. So it’s a mistake to think that Stoicism is about the suppression or elimination of this—how would that be part of “living in accordance with nature?”

In her wonderful book about parenting, Good Inside, Dr. Becky Kennedy reminds parents that it’s impossible to simply remove your children’s uncomfortable feelings. You can’t—just as your parents couldn’t—tell them to stuff them down. You can’t gaslight them into thinking they aren’t there. You can’t make life so wonderful and fun that they’re never sad or angry or jealous or frustrated.

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In today's Daily Stoic Journal reading, Ryan explores the Stoic idea of bettering oneself with small steps every day by reflecting on quotes from Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.

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5 Ways That Ego Holds Us Back And Unlocking Human Potential Jan 21, 2024

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In today's weekend episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan talks Unlocking Human Potential, and Conquering your ego with YPO West Michigan and YPO Gold Chapter in West Michigan. YPO is the global leadership community of extraordinary chief executives.

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Tim Ferriss on Making Better Decisions and Solving Problems (Pt 1) Jan 20, 2024

Show notes

IG and YT: @TimFerriss

X: @TFerriss

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It’s Cheap To Be Dead | Wherever You Go, There Your Choice Is Jan 19, 2024

Show notes

When you consider the insane amounts of money that some people feel the need to accumulate, when you see their estates, when you see them pinch every penny, what they’ll do for a dollar, when you reckon with the costs—to family and friends—it took to earn all this, you might assume they get to take it all with them when they die.

Of course, we don’t. The Roman poet Juvenal joked that while Alexander was living, the whole world could not contain him, but in death, a coffin was sufficient. The humbling wisdom of this joke is one we ought to remember too, as we save ‘for retirement,’ as we ‘invest for the future,’ as we ‘build our legacy.’

In today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt, Ryan examines the power of choice through the Epictetus quote: "A podium and prison is each a place, one high and the other low. But in each place your freedom of choice is to be maintained if you so wish."

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Regulation First, Happiness Second | Ask DS Jan 18, 2024

Show notes

We talked recently about a piece of advice from the therapist and children expert Dr. Becky Kennedy (she has a great book called Good Inside and was an awesome recent guest on the Daily Stoic podcast). She was saying that the key to raising happy children is to focus on emotional regulation first. By helping them name and manage their emotions, she explains, we are creating room for happiness. “Regulation first,” she writes, “happiness second.”

And In today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan talks discipline is destiny, how businesses use the same form of stoicism, and creating work that is timeless to 150 Entrepreneurs from all over the world + diverse range of industries (Tech, Hospitality, Service, Ecommerce, NYT Best-Selling Authors, etc)

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