Ryan speaks with Tim Urban about his new book What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies, why everyone who wants to improve at something should aim to do it slowly, what it really means to “trust the process,” why they like writing so much, and more. Tim Urban is a writer, illustrator, blogger, and entrepreneur. He earned his A.B. from Harvard University, graduating cum laude with a major in Government. Since starting his long-form, stick figure-illustrated blog Wait But Why in 2013, he has become one of the most popular writers and thinkers on the internet. His articles have been regularly republished on sites like Quartz, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Time, Business Insider and Gizmodo, and his 2016 TED Talk: Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator has been viewed over 50 million times on YouTube alone. Wait But Why regularly receives over 1.5 million unique visitors per month on average, and his blog is read by over 300,000 email subscribers. His work, which covers a wide range of topics, including technology, human behavior, self-improvement, and more, can be found at waitbutwhy.com and on Twitter @waitbutwhy and Instagram @timurban.  ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When you think of Stoicism, you don’t usually think of words like “rich” or “wealthy.” But you should. Before he founded Stoicism, Zeno was a wealthy and successful merchant from a family of wealthy and successful merchants. Seneca was so wealthy that when he called in some of his loans to the Roman colony in Britain, it crashed their economy and sparked a rebellion. Marcus Aurelius was born with ordinary bloodlines but–in part because of his serious study of philosophy–he became the richest and most powerful man in the Roman Empire. The point is most—not all, but most—of the Stoics, ancient or modern, built some kind of wealth. --- And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt reading, Ryan discusses how the Stoics handled the opinions of others, and why getting comfortable with being judged by others will help you maintain a healthy mindset. 💵 Visit dailystoic.com/wealth to sign up for The Wealthy Stoic wealth management course 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Maybe you said some stuff you regret. Maybe the stress of the business has made you a nightmare of a boss lately. Maybe you’ve not been the parent you want to be. Maybe you’ve not been the spouse you’ve promised to be. Maybe you’ve relapsed on some bad or destructive habits. Maybe, but hopefully not, you’ve been heading in the direction of Elon Musk and gotten yourself in a kind of downward spiral of negative attention and impulsive decisions. And now, staring at the consequences of this–invariably your own unhappiness and quite possibly disrepute–you’re wondering if all is lost. --- And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions from the audience during a Stoicism 101 seminar. The topics that he covers include focusing on your own work instead of someone else's, whether or not the concepts of Premeditatio Malorum and the Black Swan are in conflict, avoiding feeling a sense of superiority when studying and improving your Stoicism. ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with David von Drehle about his new book The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man, what he learned from one of the oldest people in the world, how being a Stoic shaped Charlie’s boundless optimism, and more. David von Drehle is an author and deputy opinion editor and columnist at The Washington Post whose work focuses on national affairs and politics. Prior to joining The Post in 2017, David worked at Time magazine, where he wrote more than 60 cover stories as editor-at-large, including high profile pieces on the 2008 Person of the Year (Barack Obama), Glenn Beck, and the deaths of Michael Jackson and Osama Bin-Laden. He started his career in journalism at the age of 17 as a sports writer for The Denver Post. David is also the author of five books, including the award-winning bestseller “Triangle: The Fire That Changed America.” ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You clean and then it gets dirty. You do the dishes and then five minutes later, the sink is full again. You made it through your inbox in the morning and by the time late afternoon strikes, you’re already digging yourself out again. Literally before you’ve even finished putting the dog’s toys away, they’re splayed out across the floor. Just as you put the finishing touches on that big project, another is dropped on your plate. You finally organize your kids’ clothes and now they’ve grown out of them. This can drive you nuts. Or you can learn to love it. ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Seneca tried to teach it to Nero but Nero couldn’t grasp it. To be fair, most leaders, most powerful people, most governments and civilizations struggle with it. In fact, up until Seneca sat down to write De Clementia there wasn’t even a word for what we have, ever since, called clemency. Clemency, as Seneca explains it, is basically how a powerful person treats a person they have power over–particularly when the less powerful person has done wrong. --- And in today's Daily Stoic video excerpt, Ryan shares some of the most strongest examples that Cato The Younger set for living like a Stoic. 📺 You can watch the video at The Daily Stoic YouTube channel. 📜 Check out the Daily Stoic Leadership Challenge at dailystoic.com/leadershipchallenge. ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There’s a story of Musonius Rufus paying a thousand sesterces to a charlatan posing as a philosopher. When an observer stepped in to say that the man was a liar unworthy of the payment, Musonius replied, “money is exactly what he deserves.” It’s always revealing to look closely at those who seem to prize financial success above all else. The writer Anne Lamott jokes in Bird by Bird, “Ever wonder what God thinks of money? Just look at the people he gives it to.” Marcus Aurelius writes in Meditations, “Robbers, perverts, killers, and tyrants—gather for your inspection their so-called pleasures!” --- And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt reading, Ryan meditates on the unique aspects of Stoic joy, and why it should be practiced every day. 💵 Visit dailystoic.com/wealth to sign up for The Wealthy Stoic wealth management course 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In today's audiobook excerpt, Ryan cracks open his best-selling book Stillness Is The Key to read the chapter titled “Just Start Journaling,” which covers why you should start your journaling practice. 📔 Visit the Painted Porch to order a copy of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Renee Mauborgne about her new book Beyond Disruption: Innovate and Achieve Growth without Displacing Industries, Companies, or Jobs, the strategies that have helped both of be find success in their careers, why we are all blue oceans, the philosophy behind positive disruption, the deep level of dedication that it takes to “make it” in anything, and more. Renee Mauborgne is an economist, business theorist and author. She is a professor of strategy at INSEAD, a business school based in France, and the co-director of the Fontainebleau-based INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute. In 2005, she co-authored with W. Chan Kim the hugely successful business book Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, and its 2017 follow-up Blue Ocean Shift. Beyond Competing. Both works focus on developing a unique brand and product in order to become the “only” rather than competing to become the “best.” You can find Renee and Blue Ocean Strategy’s work at their website: blueoceanstrategy.com, and on Instagram and Twitter @blueoceanstrtgy. ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It’s interesting how infrequently money comes up in Meditations. Here was a guy who had incredible wealth, whose predecessors obsessed over it and found it to be a source of both pleasure and conflict, and yet in his private meditations, it hardly comes up at all. In his actions, we see Marcus was conscious of money, but primarily as a means to an end not as an end to itself. He was more interested in what it could do for other people. He declined gifts and inheritances. He gave liberally to the poor. He sold off palace furnishings at Rome’s lowest point. But perhaps these attitudes are related. --- And in today's excerpt reading from The Daily Stoic, Ryan discusses the vital importance of actually training yourself for something rather than simply knowing about it, especially with philosophical ideas. ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Change is a constant in life, and embracing it is key to living a fulfilling and meaningful existence. The Stoics recognized this fact and encouraged us to be adaptable and flexible, no matter what life throws our way. It can be tempting to resist or fear the unknown. However, the Stoics taught that change is not something to be feared, but rather, it is an opportunity for growth and self-improvement. Marcus Aurelius wrote, "The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it." By focusing on our thoughts and our perspective, we can choose to see change as a positive and embrace it with open arms. --- And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions after a Stoicism seminar at the Andrews Air Force Base. Topics covered include how Stoicism applies to parenting, as well as whether any of the Cardinal Virtues is more important than the others. ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Ty Seidule about his book Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause, Henry Flipper and the less-told story of the aftermath of the Civil War and slavery in America, the importance of choosing carefully who to commemorate, how to grapple with challenging family history, and more. Ty Seidule is a retired United States Army brigadier general, the former head of the history department at the United States Military Academy, the first professor emeritus of history at West Point, and the inaugural Joshua Chamberlain Fellow at Hamilton College. He has published numerous books, articles, and videos on military history including the award-winning West Point History of the Civil War. Ty graduated from Washington and Lee University and holds a PhD from the Ohio State University. Ty’s work can be found on his website: tyseidule.com. 📚 For more reading on the Civil War, check out Bruce Catton’s classics. ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Warren Buffett, whose net worth is north of $100 billion, lives in the same house he bought in 1958 for $31,500. The NFL lineman turned mathematician John Urschel is worth millions but manages to live on $25,000 a year. Well past signing a $94 million dollar contract, the NBA star Kawhi Leonard drove the 1997 Chevy Tahoe he had since he was a teenager. Cato, who came from a wealthy and powerful family, walked around bareheaded and barefooted and generally abstained from unnecessary luxuries. He could have afforded to do otherwise, he chose not to. “Nothing is cheap,” his great-grandfather had famously said, “if it is superfluous.” Some might say these men were just cheap, but that’s too simple and too unfair. 💵 Visit dailystoic.com/wealth to sign up for The Wealthy Stoic. ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Life is frustrating. You’re waiting for people to get back to you. You’re waiting for approval on stuff. You’re waiting for things to ship. You’re dealing with bureaucracy. You’re depending on teammates. You’re dealing with the fallout of decisions that weren’t your call, rules you don’t agree with. It’s interesting though how often we complain or chafe against these constraints…yet when the ball actually is in our court, we’re slow. We’re indecisive. We don’t do our best. More than strange, it’s wasteful madness. The Stoics say over and over again that there is stuff in our control and stuff outside our control. --- And in today's Daily Stoic video excerpt, Ryan presents six Stoic concepts for living a fulfilling life that Robert Greene has gathered from his decades of observing, studying, and writing about people and power. 📺 You can watch the full video on the Daily Stoic YouTube channel. ✉️ Get parenting wisdom inspired by the Stoics every day for free at https://dailydad.com ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It doesn’t matter how old you are, it looms before you. Not death–although that’s always there–but the future itself. The future when you’re not going to be so young anymore, when you’re not going to want to be hustling entry level jobs anymore, or doing this or that kind of work anymore. When you’re going to have things you want to do–a house you want to buy, kids to send to college, trips you want to go on, a potential retirement. Look, at some point, you’re going to have to get it together. You know this. --- And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt reading, Ryan examines why the Stoics believed it was so valuable to regularly remind yourself of the unique blessings that fill your life. 💵 Visit dailystoic.com/wealth to sign up for The Wealthy Stoic. ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In today's audiobook reading, Ryan presents the biography of the great Greco-Phoenician Stoic philosopher Chrysippus. Written by the prolific biographer of the Greek philosophers Diogenes Laertius, this text covers Chrysippus’s early life, how he used his natural talents for dialectics and writing, stories of his teaching career, and more. ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Frank Shamrock about his memoir Uncaged: My Life as a Champion MMA Fighter, the convergence between the Stoic virtues and the tenets of the Warrior Code, managing his ego when he was considered the greatest fighter on the planet, how his rough upbringing shaped his unconventional life, the mutual respect that they have for each other’s work, and more. Frank Shamrock is a former professional mixed martial artist and a pioneer of the sport. He was the first to hold the UFC Middleweight Championship and retired a four-time defending undefeated champion ranked the No. 1 Pound-for-Pound fighter in the world. He was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 1990s by the Wrestling Observer, "Best Full Contact Fighter" by Black Belt magazine (1998), and three time "Fighter of the Year" by Full Contact Fighter Magazine. Frank spent much of his young life in the foster care system, often enduring abuse and neglect, until he was officially adopted and mentored by his father figure Bob Shamrock at the age of 21. Since his retirement from MMA in 2010, Frank has worked as a coach, color commentator, actor, writer, and motivational speaker. His work can be found on his website: frankshamrock.com. 📚 To read more on the philosophy and mindset of MMA, check out Sam Sheridan’s books 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In those first moments you’re awake, how do you decide to start this fresh day? By reaching for the phone, for social media? We fill the sunlight hours with meetings, spending them all indoors. We wait until after school, after a long stint at the office, to try to spend quality time at home. We pick up a book for a few minutes before we close our eyes to sleep, already tired, already fried. It’s insane. Both Seneca and Marcus Aurelius lamented at the quickness with which ambitious professionals will promise up all their time to the most trivial of work pursuits. --- And in today's reading from The Daily Stoic, Ryan discusses why kindness is invincible only when it is sincere. 📺 You can watch and listen to the video of Ryan's interview with Anthony Everett at youtube.com/@dailystoicpodcast ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Even when he was president, Jimmy Carter tried to carve out space for reflection and study. Just a few days after being sworn in, he was already asking his aides to push his meetings back. “I need more time alone early each morning,” he wrote to his team. He wanted an hour of reading and thinking and prayer. The Stoics protected this time too. --- And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions from the audience at the conclusion of a Stoicism 101 seminar, covering topics including how we can use anger as a tool, how and why to read points of view that we don't agree with, how to balance appreciating what you have with striving to achieve something else, and more. ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Gretchen Rubin about her new book Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World, how our reality is composed entirely of our perceptions, her striving to better accept herself while still expecting more from herself, the wisdom that can be found with reading and re-reading great books, her former boss Sandra Day O’Connor, and more. Gretchen Rubin is an author, blogger, podcaster, and speaker whose work focuses on happiness, habits, and human nature. She has written ten books, including the best-selling and widely influential Better Than Before, Happier at Home, and The Happiness Project, and her writings have sold more than two million print and online copies worldwide in over thirty languages. Gretchen’s podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, on which she and her sister Elizabeth Craft discuss happiness and good habits, has been downloaded over 220 million times. All this and more can be found on her website: gretchenrubin.com. ✉️ 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 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.