What Is Regret? “Two elements must therefore be rooted out once for all, – the fear of future suffering, and the recollection of past suffering; since the latter no longer concerns me, and the former concerns me not yet.” – Seneca, from Letters from a Stoic After a long day at work and terrible traffic, you finally make it home. The stress has taken its toll, and you’re exhausted, bored, and frustrated with the day’s events all at once. You walk into your kitchen to find a heaping pile of dishes–something you asked your spouse to take care of this morning! Yet, they’re relaxing in front of th ..read more

“The real measure of our wealth is how much we’d be worth if we lost all our money.” – John Henry Jowett We’ve all heard stories of people encountering the world’s greatest riches, ending in either tragedy or triumph. Those of Annie, the struggling orphan whose charm ushered her into a life of privilege and wealth. Those of Cinderella, the mistreated servant whose resilience and character led her to wealth. Even those of King Midas, whose greed and desire for wealth left him tragically alone and impoverished.  But why do we read these stories? Why are we so devoted to these characters ..read more

“To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.” — Marcus Aurelius The question of why and how we are supposed to live has been contemplated for centuries.  Absurdist Albert Camus wrote that life is like the Sisyphean task of pushing a boulder up a mountain for all of eternity. Existence itself, in other words, is persevering. Camus writes, “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”  So, how do we persevere well? How do we persevere happily? Thankfully, we can look to the Stoics. The Stoics not only wrote about how ..read more

  Amazon Music •  Apple Podcasts •  Spotify • Overcast • Wondery   Ryan speaks with Alexander Ludwig about how studying Stoicism gave him the discipline to quit drinking, the power of surrendering to the moment, pursuing mastery of the crafts of acting and songwriting, the mindset he has maintained while navigating his career, and more.  Alexander Ludwig is a Canadian actor and country musician. He is most known for his starring and supporting roles in the History Channel series Vikings and the films Bad Boys for Life, Lone Survivor, The Hunger Games, and Race to Wit ..read more

Just over sixteen years ago, I bought Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations on Amazon. Amazon Prime didn’t exist then and to qualify for free shipping, I had to purchase a few other books at the same time. I was 19 years old. I didn’t know what Stoicism was. I didn’t know who Marcus Aurelius was (besides the old guy in Gladiator). I certainly didn’t know who Gregory Hays, the translator, was. I’m not even sure why I got that translation—it just came up first in the searches. But if I hadn’t ordered that book, if it hadn’t shown up at my college apartment a few days later, I’m not sure who I would have ..read more

The Daily Stoic Podcast  The Daily Stoic podcast is a weekly podcast hosted and recorded by bestselling author Ryan Holiday. Guests have included global pop star Camila Cabello, Academy-Award winning actor Matthew McConaughey, #1 New York Times bestselling author Tim Ferriss, three time Olympian Dominique Dawes, best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell, former NASCAR champion Danica Patrick, radio host Charlamagne Tha God, former Navy SEAL Jocko Willink, Congressman Dan Crenshaw, and dozens more.  Role This role will aid in the production of the Daily Stoic and Daily Dad podcasts. This w ..read more

Today it’s all about passion. Find your passion. Live passionately. Inspire the world with your passion. Passion, we tell ourselves, is the source of joy. The Stoics disagreed. In fact, they believed that passion(s) were what contributed to our misery. To the experts and gurus who assure us that passion—that unbridled enthusiasm, that willingness to pounce on what’s in front of us with the full measure of our zeal—is our most important asset, Seneca would ask, “how can such wavering and unstable persons possess any good that is fixed and lasting? So what should we pursue? Where ..read more

“We suffer more from imagination than from reality.” — Seneca The 21st century has been described as “The Age of Anxiety,” “The United States of Stress,” “The World of Worry.” The implication is that what we are experiencing—pandemics, terrorism, political and economic turmoil, existential angst, and let’s stop there—is unique, unprecedented, uncharted. News headlines, tweets, email and text sign-offs—you hear and see it everywhere: the world has never seen anything quite like this… hope you’re well during these unprecedented times… leaders facing unparalleled challenges… there’s no playbook ..read more

“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?” — Epictetus What do the goals we set, whether personal or professional, require? If we hope to accomplish our goals, we need the discipline to hold ourselves accountable. We need the self-control to stay focused only on the things within our control. And we need the endurance to persist through difficulty. As it happens, Stoicism is a philosophy based on self-discipline, self-control, and endurance. The Stoic Chrysippus, for instance, trained as a long-distance runner. Every day, as Diogenes Laertes recounts in Lives o ..read more

Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Overcast The post NFL Trainer Tareq Azim on Living Intentionally, Redefining Success, and Memento Mori appeared first on Daily Stoic ..read more