The Daily Stoic

Then there is the stuff that does harm the community—a corrupt politician who tries to overthrow the rule of law, discrimination, violence, pollution. This stuff happens, it’s the definition of injustice. But again, anger is not the right response. Not because these things aren’t upsetting, but because they are bad remedies to the problem.

When the community is at risk, with justice at stake, we need our wits about us. It’s here that we need to be most controlled, most in command of all our faculties. We can be angered at what is happening, but we cannot afford to respond in anger. We need to be rational, strategic, patient, courageous, creative (as well as forgiving, empathetic, and nurturing in the way that our many emails have highlighted about the brilliance of the Civil Rights activists). We need to bring our best to fight the worst.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8hmX7RPyYo]

If you’re serious about being your most controlled self when the stakes are high, then check out our 11-day Taming Your Temper Course. It’s full of Stoic practices to defuse your anger in the moment and will help you find constructive outlets for your emotion—freeing you to work on fixing those problems that stoked your anger in the first place. Learn more here and conquer your anger today!

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nobody wants to be criticized. It doesn’t feel good when people judge what you’ve done. We want the right people to like us, we want all people to like us. We want to be accepted, appreciated, celebrated. So we try to be like other people, like the people that everyone likes.

Imagine if he had tried instead to conform to their expectations, to fit more clearly in the box they wanted him to be. Imagine if he’d tried to win the mob’s favor or the respect of future generations by conquest or dazzling deed. Imagine if he had written Meditations for an audience instead of from a far more personal and vulnerable place.

It doesn’t matter what you do, the criticism is always going to be there. So you might as well do what you think ought to be done. You might as well do what seems meaningful and important and fulfilling and right to you. People are going to say what they’re going to say, haters will find a way to hate. In the meantime, just be true to yourself, be true to the mission you have, fight for the respect (and praise) of yourself, not the mob, not the future.

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan talks with writer, academic and associate professor of journalism, Evelyn McDonnell. Together they discuss the resurgence of psychedelics, how will you deal with tomorrow, the job of the artist, and her book The World According to Joan Didion.

Evelyn McDonnell, professor of journalism in the LMU Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, has been appointed the inaugural faculty director of Media Arts & A Just Society (MAJS), effective January 2024. The acclaimed journalist, essayist, critic, feminist, native Californian, and university professor who regularly teaches Didion’s work, is attuned to interpret Didion’s vision for readers today. 

Inspired by Didion’s own words—from her works both published and unpublished—and informed by the people who knew Didion and those whose lives she shaped, The World According to Joan Didion is an illustrated journey through her life, tracing the path she carved from Sacramento, Portuguese Bend, Los Angeles, and Malibu to Manhattan, Miami, and Hawaii. McDonnell reveals the world as it was seen through Didion’s eyes.

Signed copies of The World According to Joan Didion are available at The Painted Porch.

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Look, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and if in their opinion, that’s what Stoicism is in their view—God bless them. But the facts just don’t support it. There was literally a Stoic (Chrysippus) who laughed so hard he died, ok? What more do you need to know? Sure, Marcus Aurelius opens Meditations with some observations about how annoying and obnoxious people can be, but his personal letters to Fronto are filled with affection and wit—he even tells of a prank he pulled. Every somber note in Meditations is matched by reveries for the beauty of the natural world and gratitude for the gifts life has given him.

-

Stillness is that quiet moment when inspiration hits you. It’s that ability to step back and reflect. It’s what makes room for gratitude and happiness. It’s one of the most powerful forces on earth. In this video excerpt Ryan Holiday talks about some key Stoic practices that will help you find stillness.

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the early years, there was an excuse. Nero was just a teenager when Seneca started tutoring him. The boy was timid and coddled. He had experienced tragedy and his childhood had been strange. Besides, for Seneca, the alternative to taking the job was going back to his unfair and lonely exile in the middle of the ocean.

But the viability of Seneca’s excuse fell apart pretty quickly. The famous Barrón González, Eduardo statue captures how disinterested Nero was in learning from Seneca. Nero wanted the perks of being emperor but none of the responsibilities. He was not competent, which was fine as long he was content to let others make the decisions. When Nero started asserting control, bad things started happening. Plus there was the fact that he kept killing people…including his own mother.

-

If you want to do more reading on these topics, we highly recommend Dying Everyday by James Romm (and we have a podcast with him on this topic). Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe is a great modern read on one of the biggest crimes of the 20th/21st centuries. And for more on the life of Seneca and Thrasea and some Stoics who did resist Nero, check out Lives of the Stoics (signed copies here).

In today's Daily Stoic Journal reading, Ryan reminds us thats its easier to leave other peoples mistakes to their makers, that looking inward instead of outward and giving people a chance to make their own mistakes makes for a better way of life.

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's weekend episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan pulls an excerpt from Colin Elliott's latest book, POX ROMANA: THE PLAGUE THAT SHOOK THE ROMAN WORLD. Learn how the Antonine Plague exposed the crumbling foundations of a doomed empire. Arguing that the disease was both cause and effect of Rome’s fall, Elliott describes the plague’s “preexisting conditions” (Rome’s multiple economic, social, and environmental susceptibilities); recounts the history of the outbreak itself through the experiences of physician, victim, and political operator; and explores post pandemic crises.

If you enjoyed this chapter from POX ROMANA, grab yourself a copy by clicking here.

Be on the lookout for Ryan's interview with author Colin Elliott on February 14th or listen one week early by becoming a Wondery Plus subscriber.

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan continues his conversation with one of the world's top high-performance psychologists and leading experts on the relationship between the mind and human performance, Dr. Michael Gervais. Together they talk about living in the present moment, Austin Kleon's “people would rather be the noun than do the verb”, and the tension of virtue in Stoic texts.

Dr. Michael Gervais has spent his career being called on by the best of the best across the worlds of business, sport, the arts, and science. His client roster includes Super Bowl winning NFL teams, Fortune 50 CEOs, Olympic medalists, internationally acclaimed artists, and so many more. He is also the founder of Finding Mastery and the founder/host of the Finding Mastery Podcast, and the co-creator of the Performance Science Institute at USC. His work has been featured by NBC, ABC, FOX, CNN, ESPN, NFL Network, Red Bull TV, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Outside Magazine, WIRED, and ESPN Magazine.

Signed copies of Dr. Gervais' is latest book, THE FIRST RULE OF MASTERY: STOP WORRYING WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK OF YOU is available at The Painted Porch.

IG and X: @MichaelGervais

YouTube: @FindingMastery

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine the jealousy that they must have felt. Hadrian was gifting the purple—the job of the emperor—to a teenager he wasn’t even related to. In 138 AD, his succession plan involved adopting Antoninus Pius who in turn was to adopt young Marcus Aurelius so that he would one day become the most powerful man in the world.

How many Romans hated Marcus for this? How many distant relatives of Hadrian thought themselves more qualified, more entitled to it? And how many people disliked Marcus throughout the years simply because he seemed to have a perfect life—a happy family, a great reputation, perfect character.

-

In today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt, Ryan reminds us to free ourselves now while we still have time. How much longer will we be tied up in impulses? We are independent self-efficient people who must remain free and slaves to power.

Grab a hard copy of The Daily Stoic Journal here or grab the leatherbound edition.

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maybe towards the end, it’s possible to get to that level. Maybe after a lifetime of study and practice, a Stoic can come to not just understand but to live up to the insight that Marcus Aurelius writes about in *Meditations—*that things aren’t asking to be judged by us, that we always ‘have the power to have no opinion.’ Maybe Marcus Aurelius got there himself.

If so, good for him.

But most likely he didn’t. And most likely, you’re nowhere close either.

In the meantime, why don’t you at least try to voice fewer of those opinions. If we can’t stop ourselves from judging things that aren’t asking to be judged by us, if we can’t stop ourselves from having thoughts about things that have little to do with us, we can at least try to keep those judgments and thoughts to ourselves.

-

In today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan talks Leadership / Obstacle is the Way to 200 HOLT managers and executive leaders from 50 plus locations in Texas and Oklahoma. HOLT CAT is a leader in heavy caterpillar equipment, engines, machines, caterpillar equipment product and provide rental services at holtcat in Texas.

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan is joined by Dr. Michael Gervais, one of the world’s top high-performance psychologists and leading experts on the relationship between the mind and human performance. 

Together they discuss FOPO (fear of other people's opinions), the reality of imposter syndrome, and Dr. Gervais' book, The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worrying What Other People Think of You. 

Dr. Michael Gervais has spent his career being called on by the best of the best across the worlds of business, sport, the arts, and science when they need to achieve the extraordinary. Dr. Gervais’s client roster includes Super Bowl winning NFL teams, Fortune 50 CEOs, Olympic medalists, internationally acclaimed artists, and more. He is also the founder of Finding Mastery and the founder/host of the Finding Mastery Podcast, and the co-creator of the Performance Science Institute at USC. His work has been featured by NBC, ABC, FOX, CNN, ESPN, NFL Network, Red Bull TV, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Outside Magazine, WIRED, and ESPN Magazine.

You can buy signed copies of his brand-new book, The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worrying What Other People Think of You, at The Painted Porch

IG and X: @MichaelGervais

YouTube: @FindingMastery

✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.

📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.