Transcript of Most Replayed Moment: Make 2026 Your Best Year Yet! 5 Daily Practices For Health And Happiness

You've read so much. You write so much. You have the wisdom of someone who has lived many, many lives.

That's what reading is, by the way. You know what I mean? Reading is maybe the only way that you can live multiple lives. You think about the millions of people who have done crazy things, ground-breaking things, terrible things. You think of all that wisdom. It's all there in books, and it's $10. Sometimes it's a dollar.

Isn't it funny how similar the wisdom is, though?

Yeah, I think the more you read, you come up with some themes. It boils down Eastern and Western philosophy, like a horseshoe. They come together towards the ends.

What are those themes? What are the themes of living a good life that I must know?

First would be, let's say, you focus on what's in your control, what's up to you.

Okay. What does that mean in practical in day-to-day life? So someone cuts me off in traffic.

Somebody doesn't like something that you did, the weather. How much of your energy are you spending, emoting about, complaining about, worrying about things that are not up to you.

Is there any particular examples from stoicism where...

Well, Epiketis is like, that's our first job in life, is to separate things into two categories. Is this up to me or is this not up to me? And it's a resource allocation issue. If you are focusing your energy, even half of it on stuff that's not up to you, that's half your energy that's not being focused on the stuff you can make a difference on. It'd be like putting 50% of the power of your car on the wheels that aren't touching the ground. You want to put it where it's going to get traction. That's a key thing in life. Is this up to you or not? Number two, there's something magical about water, and there's something magical about long walks. This is where we find a lot of peace, find a lot of inspiration, find a lot of calmness and stillness. I'm not saying that taking a walk will solve all of your problems. I'm just saying that there's very few problems that are made worse by taking a walk. Same goes for jumping in the swimming pool or the ocean.

What is it about those two things that you believe?

Look, I think we evolved traveling very long distances I mean, some of the oldest evidence of human beings in America are a set of footprints of a mother carrying and setting down, carrying and setting down a child 20,000 years ago in what is now White Sands, New Mexico. That's just what we've been doing for as long as there are food people. There's something about the rhythm of it, the movement of it that slows us down, forces us to think, makes us very present. It's just magic. I think there's a reason that every religious tradition or Zen garden has a water fountain or something. There's just something about the sound of water.

It's so true. All of my best ideas either come, usually in the gym or in the shower. I mean, I don't do a lot of walking because I got it. But in the gym, in the shower, I seem to get my epiphany moments. Yes.

Taking a break from what you're doing to go do one of those things often unlocks a lot of stuff.

Okay. You have that as a ritual every day? Every day, yeah. Every single day?

Yeah. I try to take a walk every day.

What else rituals in your life? The daily rituals?

I would add as a third one, as a ritual, I'd say, do something hard every day. Do something physically difficult every day. The art of challenging oneself and pushing those limits and boundaries. That is a essential practice and skill that will help you whatever life has in store for you.

Is that the third one on this list of five?

Yeah, I'll make that the third.

Okay, love that one. Do something difficult every day, and that ranges from as small as not eating the cheeseburger to as big as running a marathon.

Yeah. I mean, not eating the cheeseburger, I wouldn't go, Hey, I really challenged myself today. I didn't eat garbage. I would say it's like, here's the positive thing that I did. I lifted heavy rocks. I did some sprinting. I went for a bike ride. I I went for a run. I took a spin class, whatever it is. The walk doesn't count. The walk is for the mental health. Then you got to do something for the physical health. Okay, so four. I think we have to put something here about we are made for each other. The idea of meaning comes from servicing or contributing to the common good. Mark Surilis talks about the common good maybe 40, 50 times in meditations. He says, We're put here for other people. Our job is to help others, to leave this place better than you… Leave this place better than you found it, to me, that's the meaning of life right there. What is the positive contribution? What is the legacy you're leaving? Not how much money did you make? What records did you break? But what is the contribution you are making to the collective? That's meaning and purpose and, quite frankly, your obligation as a human being.

Service. Service. Then the fifth one. The fifth one is-I wanted to just pause there.

I forgot to ask you for an example on the third one from stoicism.

Of doing something hard? Yeah. I mean, the Greeks trained in wrestling. The gymnasia was the central part of the Roman life. You'd go and you'd train.

What were they aiming at when they were training? What were the means?

A strong mind and a strong body, to not be flabby and lazy.

Not to fight each other or anything, but to-No, but there's something about combat sports that I think is very primal and probably good for you.

Just something about the challenge of Of pushing oneself, not living this sedentary lifestyle. I think that's whether you're talking about Zen Buddhist practicing martial arts or you're talking about the Romans practicing wrestling, I think the philosophical tradition, it's wrong to think of philosophers as soft.

I always wonder if there's something innate in human beings that we're designed to need struggle. Because if you think about we're in a big building here and with all this stuff that humans came up with and the cameras that our ancestors just struggled forward to create all this stuff. So is it conceivable that they left something in me that says, You two shall struggle forward.

Yeah, you are an heir to people who crossed oceans, fought in wars, braved the elements, lived through poverty and depressions, sacrificed, struggled. They did all that. You have that in you. You have that in you. We all do.

Here we are ordering candy on my phone.

By a robot. Going, The air conditioning isn't at the exact temperature that I wanted it to be.

Number five?

Number five, across all religious and philosophical traditions, there is some version of the practice of memento mori, remember, you are mortal, that life is short. Talk about top of the list of things that you don't control, right? Death. It's death. The acceptance and the submission to that fact, the awareness, the urgency, the perspective that that gives you is one of the most essential philosophical practices there is. Why do we procrastinate? Why do we not prioritize our health? Why do we not do the stuff that we know we should do? It's because we think we have forever. We think we're invincible. It's only in light of a pandemic call from the doctor, a loved one suddenly going, that we get these brief moments of clarity. Oh, Wait, shit. No, you can go at any moment. Mark Sirela says, You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think. Now, if he's saying that in a time where He buried six children, six children, that's how deadly and unforgiving the ancient world was. He was even then having to remind himself, Hey, don't procrastinate. Don't think you have forever. Don't take life for granted.

Here, when the average lifespan is so much longer, inconceivably long compared to the ancients, where you might never see someone die in your whole life until you are in a hospital bed. We live in even more of a bubble. We are even more sheltered. We are even more detached from the reality of of our mortality. As they say, death is the only prophecy that never fails. People think about, Well, what would I do if I found out that I had cancer? If you got a terminal diagnosis from a doctor, you go, What changes would I make? But the reality is you do have a terminal diagnosis. The second you were born, that doctor knew with 100% certainty that you would die. You just didn't know when. It could be eight years from now. It could be eight decades from now. We don't know. But to live in ignorance or in rejection of that fact is to set yourself up, I think, more often than not, to waste your life. And so some practice of, Hey, time is ticking by now in this very moment. How am I spending it?

There's a sound Timer behind me. Oh, there is. That's just there.

Oh, yeah, that's beautiful.

It serves to remind me of that very, very fate. Of all these things, Ryan, what is the stoic wisdom that you continually struggle with the most?

I think people think that stoicism is about the suppression of emotion. That's what the word stoic means to people, right? Emotionless, robotic, super human, et cetera. I don't think that's it at all. I don't think that's possible. If you're stuffing the emotions down, if you're pretending they don't exist, they do exist, and they will eventually reveal themselves. You've just deferred it, maybe with some interest attached. For me, when I'm feeling something, when I'm having big feelings, as we say to my kids, you're having big feelings. Well, why are you having those feelings? What is the cause of those feelings? What does your body feel like? The practice of going, I'm feeling this. I'm feeling this because I'm feeling as a result of that an inclination to do, and then go, But is that a good idea? Is that what I want to do? I've never lost my temper and then afterwards been like, I'm so glad I did that. I always regret it. Always. I've never forced my kids to do something out of frustration and then been Yeah, that was definitely the right call. Afterwards, I'm like, We had so much more time than I was under the impression we did.

You know what I mean? It's like getting this big fight to leave the house, and then we get there, and then we're waiting in the car five minutes to go in or whatever. Or you're so stressed about missing the flight, and then you get there or you don't get there. And neither one of those things is a matter of life and death. I think for me, seeing stoicism as the practice of understanding the emotion, processing the emotion, and then not being a slave to that emotion is the practice of stoicism that I think I struggle with. But I think when you read the private thoughts of the stoics, you see that they were also struggling with. People are frustrating. Things annoying. Things go sideways. But then how you deal with that, that's what matters.

And that's the control you have.

Yeah.

And it is a practice, isn't it? Because we all get frustrated with things. I get frustrated with so many things.

Yeah, because you have high standards, you have expectations. Wanting things to be a certain way, needing them to be a certain way, that's the root of so much of the tension and problems that we We have.

The question I ask is, why? Why do I need them to be a certain way?

Yeah, you don't. You go, I need everything to be a certain way, or I won't be able to do what I do. Then you're like, Wait, how fragile am I that I can't adjust, I can't adjust. I can't adapt. You know what I mean? It's because you can want it or request it or you think you should have it. That's what sets you up. But Epiketus' thing is he says, Don't want things to be a certain way. Want them to be the way that they are. That is the path to peace. I think about it. It's like, Hey, if I wake up and I go, I need the weather to be a certain way today, well, then there's a pretty big chance that I'm not going to be happy. I was talking to my friend. His name is Shaka Smart. He's the head basketball coach at Marquette. He lived in Texas. He was the head coach at Texas. He moved to Marquette where it's colder. I said, What's the weather shift like? I said something like, Are you more of a hot weather guy or a cold weather guy? He goes, I'm a dress for the weather guy.

I was like, That is stoicism right there, dress for the weather. I don't care what it is. I'm good. I'm good either way. I'll figure it out.

I love that. The conflict I have is the stoics must have understood the importance of detail and small things. Sure. So that's why. But at the same time, they also understand how that can quite easily rob you of that obsession to detail.

Yeah, or routine is important. This is the order I like to do things. This is when I'm at my best. But what if that routine becomes almost a religion, which becomes almost a fragility? That's the problem. Shit, fuck. What am I going to do? I need my special socks or whatever. I can't. No, I need 10 minutes before. And you're like, Okay, you're not diffusing a nuclear bomb here. You're going to be fine.

Two things can be true at the same time.

Yeah, it's better. Well, the Stoics say there's such a thing as preferred indifference. What does that mean? Basically, the Stoics were like, If it's in your control, great. If it's not in your control, it's not worth thinking about. But they said there's still some things it's better to have than not have. It's better to be rich than poor. It's better for it to be nice weather, not nice weather. The idea is you're going to be fine regardless. If you can go, I am good. I'm a dress for the weather guy. I can thrive in any and all situations. That's the first thing that has to be true. Then the second thing is to be true, which can be true is, but if you ask me what I want, here's the circumstances or situation that if it's in my power, that's what I'm going to choose. I don't need it. I can do great in any and all situations. But if you ask me, do I want it to be cold in here or warm in here? I'm going to tell you the temperature that I like because I know that if it gets too high, then I start to feel warm, and then I get distracted.

You can know what it's nice to have but not need it.

Of all the things that you've read about in stoic philosophy and wisdom, few were lying on your deathbed, and you had the entirety of the world as the audience. You could just say one thing that you believed would be of most benefit to that audience, to relieve them of their suffering the most, to leave them with one last statement from Ryan holiday, drawn from his readings of stoic wisdom and philosophy. What might be the insight, the last daily stoic?

What would I say? Short of last breath. We know Marcus Aurelius' last words. His last words in meditations are about, Hey, man, this is the play. It only got three acts. The curtain's coming down. Did you do a good job? He started talking to himself like that. It's pretty beautiful. Then in real life, as he's probably dying of the plague, his friends are all around him and they're weeping and crying. He goes, What are you crying about? Don't think about me. Think about you. Think about your life. Go try to do what you can with the time that you have left. Maybe I'd say something like that. Hey, the one benefit of people dying is the one way that they can go on living after they die. One way they can improve us and help us after they're gone is the reminder of the fact that they're not here, which will be true for you at some point. That's one of the things that the loss of people that we love can do for us. It's like, Hey, none of us get forever. The song ends at some point. And so what did you do?

What did you do with the time that you've got? And the fact that you get tomorrow, and I don't, is a gift that you should not take for granted.

What you just listened to was a most replayed moment from a previous episode. If you want to listen to that full episode, I've linked it down below. Check the description. Thank you.