ryan holiday

Marcus Aurelius was, of course, an incredible man. He endured more than most people. He had more power than most people—and wore it more lightly. He did more work on himself than most people, understood people, and himself, better than most people.

Was he perfect though? Of course not. No one is.

In Lonesome Dove, the Texas Ranger Captain Woodrow Call seems almost superhuman, especially to the young cowboy Newt. Newt worships the ground the man walks on, believing he isn’t like the rest of them. And in a sense, he isn’t. The Captain can ride further and faster, is more principled, less afraid, tougher than everyone on the Plains.

We know Marcus Aurelius made mistakes. We know he paid lip service to admitting error in Meditations, to not continuing in error just because you began in one. But how good was he in practice? It’s less clear. He was wrong about his son Commodus for example. Was he too proud to admit this? Here, or elsewhere, did he have trouble owning that he was just like everyone else? That he could screw up? That he had human urges and human flaws? We hope so but we don’t know.

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In the first half of this two-part conversation, Ryan talks with computer science professor and bestselling author, Cal Newport. They discuss the facade of hustle culture, understanding what really moves the needle in your process, Cal’s latest book Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, and more. 

Cal Newport is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University. His scholarship focuses on the theory of distributed systems, while his general-audience writing explores intersections of culture and technology. He is the author of eight books, including Slow Productivity, Digital Minimalism, and Deep Work. Newport is also a contributing writer for the New Yorker and the host of the Deep Questions podcast.

Watch or listen to Cal’s podcast, Deep Questions.

Subscribe to Cal’s newsletter, here. 

Listen to Cal’s take in The Wealthy Stoic: A Daily Stoic Guide To Being Rich, Free, and Happy. 

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Seneca reminded himself that death is not this thing in the future, but something that is happening now. It is always happening. It is the ticking hand of the clock. It is the spring flowers. It is the fall harvest. It is the summer rains. It is the first snow of the year.

This idea is a reminder that each moment is precious. It tells us to wake up and really live, not just watch time go by. To embrace the longer days and make the most of it. If that sounds like something you’re up for, why don’t you join is in what we’re calling the Daily Stoic Spring Forward Challenge?

The Daily Stoic Spring Forward Challenge is set up to push you to examine those parts of your life, to examine your choices, to examine your relationships and move you closer to living your best life.

Participants will receive:

✓ 10 Custom Challenges Delivered Daily (Over 15,000 words of all-new original content)

✓ One live Q&A session

✓ Printable 10-Day Calendar With custom daily illustrations to track progress

✓ Access to a Private Community Platform

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On this episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan delivered an impactful talk on "Ego is the Enemy" to a captivated audience of 600 real estate agents, aged between 30 and 60 years old, at Omni Barton Creek. This talk focuses on finding one's process and the importance of mentors. Holiday inspired the attendees to navigate their professional journeys with humility and self-awareness. The talk delved into Holiday's own experiences, emphasizing the value of continuous learning and the influence of some of his favorite books. Additionally, Holiday shared insights on overcoming challenges such as writer's block and providing practical strategies to maintain creativity and productivity.

💪 Challenge yourself to spring forward to be the person you know you can be. Head over to https://dailystoic.com/spring and sign up NOW!

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Spring is the most beautiful of the seasons. Suddenly, after a dreary winter, the colors come back. The birds are out. The days last longer. The breeze is light and the air is cool.

But as Phillip Larkin’s bittersweet poem reminds us, beneath this turning of the seasons is a kind of darkness.

The trees are coming into leaf

Like something almost being said;

The recent buds relax and spread,

Their greenness is a kind of grief

The inherent grief is the passage of time. Each season brings new life, yes, but also marks the cessation of life. It’s a painful truth, the poem points out, written in the rings of the tree. Winter is dead and over…and all of us a little more so too.

This notion serves as a gentle nudge, reminding us of the preciousness of every moment. It urges us not merely to exist but to truly live, to seize each season and extract its full potential. It’s saying don’t let a new season come and go without springing forward with it—not just meeting it, but making something of it. If you’re up for that, why don’t you spring forward with us and the Daily Stoic Spring Forward Challenge?

Interested in Daily Stoic Life? Click here.

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Marcus Aurelius opens Meditations reflecting upon what he has learned from various influential individuals in his life. It’s titled “Debts and Lessons,” and the 17 entries spanning nine pages and more than 2,000 words make up nearly 10% of the entire book! Marcus writes with the humility of someone in the final act of their life taking stock of how lucky they are to be where they are.

It’s beautiful. And it totally dispenses with the notion of the "self-made man," the idea that someone got somewhere all on their own. Marcus knew he was a product of so many mentors, influencers, advisors and teachers. Debt is the operative word in that title—he owed them so much.

When we talked to Arnold Schwarzenegger on a recent episode of the Daily Stoic podcast, he talked about this very idea (in fact, he references how inspired he was by Meditations in the final chapter of his fantastic new book Be Useful). Because on the surface Arnold Schwarzenegger’s remarkable life story is a classic example of that idea of the “self-made man.” Born and raised in a small village in Austria, seemingly on his own sheer will and determination, Arnold achieved extraordinary success in the worlds of bodybuilding, acting, business and politics, ultimately becoming a global icon.

P.S. “I have always learned more from my failures and therefore I was never afraid of failure,” Arnold Schwarzenegger said while on the Daily Stoic podcast. The ultimate example in the power of hard work and perseverance, Arnold shared his wisdom in being useful while you still can, how to transform your liabilities into assets, and tips to best nurture both your mind and body. This episode is full of nuggets you can directly apply to your life so be sure to check it out. And for more of Arnold’s uniquely earnest, blunt, and potent insight, pick up his new book Be Useful: Seven Tools For Life, available over at the Painted Porch!

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And in today's excerpt from The Daily Stoic Journal, Ryan examines the Stoic idea that expensive things cost more to us than their dollar value by reflecting on a recent situation in his life.

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This discussion between Ryan Holiday and Robert Greene took place in September of 2023 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Ryan and Robert talk about a range of topics from artificial intelligence, the perils of ego, success and failure, the power of self control, and key Stoic reminders like Memento Mori and Amor Fati.

If you want to be a part of a talk similar to this, Ryan Holiday is going on tour to Australia in July. Ryan Holiday Live in Australia will be in Sydney and Melbourne. Tickets are now available for purchase.

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Ryan speaks with author Morgan Housel in the first of a two-part conversation to discuss his near death experience as a teenager, the ephemeral and potentially toxic nature of success, his latest book Same As Ever, and more. 

Morgan Housel is the New York Times Bestselling author of The Psychology of Money and Same As Ever. His books have sold over 4.5 million copies and have been translated into more than 50 languages. He is a two-time winner of the Best in Business Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, and winner of the New York Times Sidney Award. In 2022, MarketWatch named him one of the 50 most influential people in markets. 

IG and Twitter: @MorganHousel

Grab a signed copy of Same as Ever and The Psychology of Money from The Painted Porch!\

If you want to check out the Q&A with Ryan and Morgan, go to dailystoic.com/wealthy. 

If you want to listen to Ryan and Morgan’s first discussion from 2022 click here.

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It was anxiety inducing and scary, but there was also a stillness in it. Because you were forced, against your will, to truly practice Stoicism. Not just in the sense that you had to persist and act despite that fear—because people and things were counting on you—but also because it was so clear what was in your control and what wasn’t. You came face to face with undeniable reality, overwhelming events and all you could do is focus on your response. You had to practice what Epictetus called ‘the art of acquiescence’—ditching all those plans, accepting all the costs, the hits to your portfolio, the lost time, the inescapable human frailty and mortality we all wish to deny.

And within this, you also had to do and be good, for yourself, for your family, for your community, because your individual decisions had clear and unavoidable consequences for other people.

It was a moment made for Stoicism, a moment when stillness was the key, as it is for all crises. And right now, the ebook for Stillness is the Key is on sale for $1.99! Grab it today, for you or someone else, if you haven’t already.

The good news is you survived the moment, obviously, or you wouldn’t be reading this, but now the world has ‘gone back to normal,’ whatever that means. Things are busy and noisy again. Life is moving fast again. How much of that stillness, how much of that Stoicism, has drifted away as well? That’s the real question.

Because Stoicism is not just for the crises, but also for the every day life. It’s for right now, too. It’s today that you need to be focused on what’s in your control, it’s today that you need to practice acceptance, practice memento mori. It’s today that you need to think about your community. It’s today that you need to find the stillness even as the world is spinning faster than ever.

Good luck!

Grab a Stillness Key for 50% off by using code STILLNESSISTHEKEY at check out.

*A note on the audio for this episode: an issue with Chad's live mic resulted in the discrepancy in audio quality that you hear. We apologize for the inconvenience.

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People are out of their minds and always have been. You get the sense in Seneca’s writings that Rome drove him crazy. You see the same in Epictetus’ writings, perhaps more so. Both men looked at what was happening in Nero’s court and were baffled. People were currying favor with Nero’s cobbler to try to get ahead in the world. People were bankrupting themselves to impress people they didn’t even like. And things were no different by Marcus Aurelius’ time, that’s for sure.

But for as long as there have been these wack jobs out there, the Stoic response has been the same: Tuning it out. It’s saying to yourself: I ain’t got time for that, ain’t got time to argue, ain’t got time to change you, ain’t got time to even try to understand. That’s what Marcus is effectively opening Meditations with! He’s saying, look people today are going to be remarkably dumb but I can’t let them implicate me in their ugliness. I can’t get bogged down in it. I can’t try to reform them. I just need to do my job. Things are not asking to be judged by you, Marcus says later in Meditations, leave them alone.

Life is very short. Too short for silly arguments, too short for beating your head against the wall, too short to try to understand things that don’t matter, that are not asking to be understood by you. Leave them alone. Focus on what you have to do. Don’t get implicated in ugliness.

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We wrote an email over at Daily Dad (please subscribe if you haven’t!) recently which notes Robert F. Kennedy’s troubled childhood in the troubled Kennedy household. His family mourned the loss of his older brother. They put their hopes in his brother John. They fretted about his sister. His father thought that Bobby had little potential, that he wasn’t everything a young Kennedy should be, so the boy, as one Kennedy aide observed, was “overlooked.”

That was unfair. It must have been painful. Yet Kennedy’s biographer, Evan Thomas, would write that this turned out to be a gift, arguing that he “had been saved by neglect.” Because it meant Bobby didn’t have to deal with all the pressure. It let him develop at his own pace. It also allowed him to develop a conscience and an ability to empathize that most of the rest of the family lacked.

When we look at the life of Marcus Aurelius (if you want a biography try Lives of the Stoics or How To Think Like a Roman Emperor), we can see a similar pattern. His early days as a boy were defined by loss. His father, Verus, died when he was just three.

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).

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On today’s weekend episode of the Daily Stoic podcast, Ryan reads a chapter from his book Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors The Brave. This excerpt comes from one of Ryan's favorite chapters Preparation Makes You Brave. This chapter is about practice, training, and doing the thing over and over again.

Grab a signed copy of Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors The Brave 

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Ryan speaks with Mick Mulroy in the first of a two-part conversation about the simplicity of Stoicism but the difficulties people have in practicing the philosophy. They also discuss Marcus Aurelius’ character and the traits we seek for in modern leaders, and more. 

Mick Mulroy is the Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, Middle East Institute senior fellow, retired CIA Paramilitary Operations Officer and U.S Marine. After leaving the Pentagon, he co-founded the Lobo Institute, became a Special Advisor to the United Nations, an ABC News National Security Analyst, and the co-president of End Child Soldiering. Mulroy’s post-service efforts focus on educating people on global conflicts, combating extremism, and the philosophy of Stoicism.

Click here to learn more about Lobo Institute, End Child Soldiering, Third Option Foundation, Aurelius Foundation, and the Plato's Academy Centre.

X: @MickMulroy

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It’s easy for academics and critics to dismiss the Stoics as depressing or dark. They’re not wrong, exactly, because it’s true: There are some dark and depressing passages in Meditations. Seneca is not always cheerful. Both writers seem to dwell on death, they paint life as something that can be painful and tragic, they speak of Fortune as something not to be trusted—that the ground beneath your feet can shift in a moment, shattering everything around you.

But what’s unfair about this criticism, insensitive even, is that it totally ignores the context and the experience of these men—of all the Stoics. Marcus Aurelius buried six of his children. Six! Seneca lost a child and was exiled to a distant island on trumped up charges all at once. Can you imagine what that must have been like for them?

“Grief from the loss of a child is not a process,” a mother is quoted as saying in the fascinating book Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe which examines the opioid crisis. “It’s a lifelong weight upon one’s soul.” Marcus Aurelius and Seneca bore that weight—of course it shaped what they wrote and thought. There was an exchange between Marcus and his teacher Fronto about how he felt “suffering anguish” in his bones from the loss of Fronto’s grandchild. When we interviewed the philosopher and translator Martha Nussbaum on the Daily Stoic podcast, she spoke quite movingly about the loss of her own daughter. She pointed out that Cicero, a philosopher who wrote extensively on the Stoics and buried his daughter Tullia, was transformed by grief. It changed him. How could it not have?

One book on this topic we’ve recommended over the years has been Death Be Not Proud by John Gunter, who was similarly trying to make sense of the short but inspiring life of his son Johnny. Paul Kalanithi’s book When Breath Becomes Air is also worth reading. And Seneca’s writings on death have been collected in an interesting edition called How To Die.

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We talked about this recently, but ruling the world is not great. The evidence bears this out. In Lives of the Stoics, we tell the story of a haunting meeting between Posidonius and Marius, when Marius, during his seventh consulship of Rome, was on his deathbed. Marius was powerful but pathetic, his success having destroyed his soul, stripping him of happiness and the possibility of peace. Marcus Aurelius would have known this story. In Meditations he takes pains to remind himself that the cost of becoming Alexander the Great is not worth it—that few survive it.

Power and wealth, they change a person. Command is lonely and isolating, disorienting and corrosive. These are not environments conducive to virtue. They are not fantasies…they are nightmares.

We are lucky that destiny has not made us sovereigns, even in modern times (just ask King Charles what his childhood was like). But we are still ambitious, still have dreams of extreme wealth and power and influence. As if it actually serves the people who get it well—as if it doesn’t rip their families apart, doesn’t consume their every waking moment with dread or busyness.

Marcus Aurelius would have given anything to have had a life even half as normal as yours, half as stressful, burdensome, corrupting as his. You are so lucky…and yet here you are, dreaming of things that would ruin it.

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In today's Daily Stoic excerpt, Ryan reminds us that not all things are asking to be judged you, to let whatever is not in our favor become irrelevant. This kind of selective discipline is what the stoics practiced. They practiced having the ability of having absolutely no thought about it.

You can grab the leatherbound edition of The Daily Stoic here.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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As one of history’s most important biographers and essayists, Plutarch studied deeply the traits of great Greek and Roman leaders to identify just what it is that made them great. In today’s audiobook reading, Ryan shares an excerpt from How to Be a Leader: An Ancient Guide to Wise Leadership, in which Plutarch clearly and succinctly lays out his thoughts on the subject, as well as his advice to anyone striving to become a leader. This book is part of the fantastic Princeton University Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series, which you can find at The Painted Porch.

💪 Visit store.dailystoic.com/pages/leadership to sign up for in the Daily Stoic Leadership Challenge before September 25th.

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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.

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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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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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On this episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan talks with successful hospitality entrepreneur and bestselling author Chip Conley on boutique hotels and stimulating the 5 senses, the importance of reflection, understanding what the ego is telling you but not identifying with it, the most powerful idea from the Stoics, along with his New York Times bestselling book Learning to Love Midlife: 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better with Age.

Chip Conley is on a mission to reframe our relationship with aging. As the founder of MEA, the world's first midlife wisdom school with regenerative communities, Conley is disrupting both the idea of higher education and senior living. He has both a BA and MBA from Stanford University and an Honorary PhD in Psychology from Saybrook University. He’s been a TED speaker at the prestigious annual conference multiple times.

☎️ X and IG: @ChipConley

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