This episode offers a brief daily meditation inspired by Epictetus, encouraging acceptance of others' paths and a focus on what you can control—your choices and judgment.

It guides listeners through reminders for morning, midday, afternoon, and evening: center on choice, acknowledge what lies outside your control, trust sleep as surrender, and prepare to begin again.

Salutations everyone, it's January the 11th and today I make decisions from clarity rather than fear or urgency. I make decisions from clarity rather than fear or urgency. I make decisions stoic, if you want to be unsteady.

For if a person shifts their caution to their own reason choices and the acts of those choices, they will at the same time gain the will to avoid. But if they shift their caution away from their own reason choices to things not under their control, seeking to avoid what is controlled by others, they will then be agitated, fearful, and unstable. Epictetus Discourses 2.1.12.

The image of the Zen philosopher is the monk up in the green, quiet hills or in a beautiful temple on some rocky cliff. The Stoics are the antithesis of this idea. Instead, they are the men in the marketplace, the senator in the forum, the brave wife waiting for her soldier to return from battle, the sculptor busy in her studio. Still, the Stoic is equally at peace.

Epicetus is reminding you that serenity and stability are results of your choices and judgment, not your environment. If you seek to avoid all disruptions to tranquility, other people, external events, stress, you will never be successful. Your problems will follow you wherever you run and hide. But if you seek to avoid the harmful and disruptive judgments that cause those problems, then you will be stable and steady wherever you happen to be.

So it doesn't matter where you are, whether you go to a monastery and you meditate for 23 hours a day or if you work in a factory for 14 hours a day. It's all about your mindset and controlling what you can control. The place doesn't make it you make it it's about what and who you are on the inside and how you use the practices and the toolbox that you have built over the years months days whatever to keep you moving forward have a good day, you.

Salutations everyone, it's January 10th and today I choose the path of virtue when it requires patience and courage. I choose the path of virtue even when it requires patience and courage. I choose the path of virtue even when it requires patience and courage.

And for the Daily Stoic? If you want to be steady, the essence of good is a certain kind of reasoned choice, just as the essence of evil is another kind. What about externals? They are only the raw material for our reasoned choice, which finds its own good or evil, in working with them. How will it find the good? Not by marveling at the material. For if judgments about the material are straight, that makes our choices good. But if those judgments are twisted, our choices turn bad. Epictetus, Discourses 129.1-3

The Stoics seek steadiness, stability, and tranquility. Traits most of us aspire to but seem to experience only fleetingly. How do they accomplish this elusive goal? How does one embody estuthia, which means the teachings of epiketis? Well, it's not luck. It's not by eliminating outside influences or running away to quiet and solitude. Instead, it's about filtering the outside world through the straightener of our judgment. That's what our reason can do it can take the crooked confusing and overwhelmingly nature of external events and make them orderly however if our judgments are crooked because we don't use reason then everything that follows will be crooked and we will lose the ability to steady ourselves in the chaos and rush of life.

If you want to be steady, if you want clarity, proper judgment is the best way. Have a good day.

Salutations everyone — January 9th. Today I practice discipline with grace and turn effort into spiritual growth. I practice discipline with grace and let that effort shape my inner life.

This episode explores the Daily Stoic idea of what we control (our opinions, choices, desires) and what we don’t (body, property, reputation). Focus inward, manage what’s yours, and stop worrying about others’ thoughts — keep doing your best for yourself and those around you.

Salutations everyone — January 8th. Today’s episode centers on the simple practice: "I move with intention, allowing my will to be calm, focused, and steady."

Drawing on a Stoic passage from Seneca, the host reflects on how harmless habits—coffee, phones, social media, gossip, or complaints—can become addictions that erode courage, clarity, and greatness of soul.

The episode urges listeners to reclaim the freedom to abstain, restore self-control, and protect mental clarity. Have a good day.

This episode breaks down Epictetus’s teaching on the seven proper functions of the mind: choice, refusal, yearning, repulsion, preparation, purpose, and ascent, and shows how corrupt decisions alone can clog our mental life.

Through practical examples, the host explains how to choose actions aligned with your higher self, resist temptation, prepare for what lies ahead, and accept what you cannot control.

On January 6th we explore Marcus Aurelius's Meditations on knowing who, where, and why you are — and how lacking that clarity leads people to seek empty praise or follow the wrong paths.

Anecdotes from comedian Mitch Hedberg highlight how rarely we truly answer "Who are you?" The episode closes with a practical reminder: stay committed to your daily practices and work toward your purpose every day.

Daily reflections on staying present and steady when emotions rise, drawing on Stoic wisdom and Seneca's idea that false conceptions disturb the mind.

The episode connects Robert Greene's rule to "plan to the end" and the habit of beginning with the end in mind, urging clear intentions so actions align with purpose—because hope is not a strategy.

Today’s episode distills Stoicism to its essentials: control your perceptions, direct your actions toward the common good, and willingly accept what’s outside your control.

Held with compassion and clarity, this short reminder encourages living in the present moment and maintaining a higher personal standard.

On January 3rd this episode guides a daily intention practice—bringing awareness to each thought—and draws on Seneca's "Brevity of Life" to urge ruthless elimination of distractions.

Learn how saying "no" to trivial commitments and consuming emotions frees your time and attention so you can say "yes" to what truly matters and enjoy the life you want.