The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living

Since its beginnings in ancient Greece, Stoic philosophy has gained avid followers from different walks of life. However, today Stoicism is generally unpopular and poorly understood. Holiday’s goal is to “restore Stoicism to its rightful place as a tool in the pursuit of self-mastery, perseverance, and wisdom” (1). Holiday argues that Stoic perspectives are particularly helpful in military professions, pointing to several historical and modern military leaders who have embraced Stoic philosophy in their work.

Founded in ancient Greece, Stoicism teaches that virtue encompasses four traits: courage, self-control, wisdom, and justice, and that only by becoming virtuous can people be happy. Stoicism also claims that people’s perceptions of the world can cause them deep trouble and unhappiness, and it emphasizes that people should focus on their reason and agency while responding to events outside of their control. As originally developed in Ancient Greece, Stoicism was a “comprehensive philosophy” (3), which included physics, cosmology, and other disciplines. However, Roman Stoics changed the philosophy by refocusing it on ethics and logic. They developed practical questions about how to live the best life and attempted to come up with “actionable” answers (4). Ultimately, this led Roman Stoics to establish three Stoic disciplines: the discipline of will, the discipline of action, and the discipline of perception.

Holiday claims that Stoic advice still feels “shockingly modern” (5) in spite of its ancient roots. He hopes that turning Stoic teachings into daily devotionals makes them more accessible to readers, since Stoicism is meant to be lived.

Epictetus argued in his Discourses (108 AD) that people should take time to identify what they can and cannot control and focus their energies on the matters they can influence with their own choices. This is reflected in the three main principles of Stoicism: manage your perceptions, take action to benefit others and yourself, and “willingly accept” (12) the events that unfold around you. Stoicism teaches that education and self-knowledge are paths to freedom and happiness, so Holiday urges readers to be intentional about their pursuit of education.

Another important principle is to identify who or what is wasting one’s time, even if that means saying no to certain invitations or opportunities. Holiday warns readers against being guided by others’ wishes or their own emotions, since this can create an overly busy life with little time for purposeful pursuits. Instead, he urges setting clear intentions about goals by planning them to the end. This helps people avoid “chaotic and dysfunctional lives” (13). It is also crucial to be vigilant about seemingly trivial “addictions” and “harmless habits” (16) that can waste time and undermine self-control. He advises readers to consider whether what they do out of “rote memory or routine” is really the right approach (24)—performing pointless tasks or enduring harmful emotions by habit is not only a waste of time, but makes people less free. Another Stoic exercise is to think about potentially overwhelming events in a very matter-of-fact, almost clinical way: Holiday recommends considering the vastness of the universe to put one’s problems into perspective.

While no one can control external events, it is possible to manage opinions and responses. Holiday advises readers to direct any controlling tendencies inward rather than outward. The unpredictable nature of the world can be alarming, but Stoics aim to feel stable and steady by interpreting events using reason. Stoics do not try to run away from stressful environments or situations but cultivate inner peace by relinquishing the things they cannot change. Holiday advises readers to avoid seeing events as negative, insisting that events “require our participation, context, and categorization in order to be ‘bad’” (64). Instead, a Stoic solution to coping with life’s unpredictability is to take the time to plan goals and actions.

Holiday advises readers to remember that making choices is the basis of human freedom; however, no one can control every aspect of their lives. Even when we feel very invested in our communities or family members, they are not within our control. Holiday argues that the only thing that is within anyone’s control is their own mind, and the choices it produces. This is why people who can remain calm and unaffected by events outside of their “circle of control” have achieved a kind of “invincibility” (44). Conversely, reacting fearfully can make bad situations worse; Holiday identifies the combination of “power, fear, and mania” as “deadly” (47). While it can be motivating, anger ultimately harms emotional health, especially when weaponized against others. Instead, readers should first be neutral in the face of negative information in order to think before acting—people must train their minds to respond with their reason and intelligence, and not their baser instincts.

One of those base instincts is to feel anxious about the future; Stoics argue that people easily upset themselves by imagining the worst about what is to come. Marcus Aurelius warned that people’s minds are easily shaped by the kinds of thoughts they frequently have; Holiday advises readers to be aware of their thoughts before they become reactive patterns. On the other hand, waiting to feel happiness in the future only after certain accomplishments simply wastes the present moment. In contrast, Epictetus taught the importance of paying attention, which Holiday calls a “critical resource” (123), especially now that there are so many possible distractions.

Holiday reminds readers to use reasoned choices against corrupting influences, such as bad food, gossip, sensationalized media, and more. Stoics advocate for daily “ritualized reflection” (29) to continually evaluate one’s choices. To guide this reflection, it is useful to keep a daily journal to track progress. Another way for people to measure progress is to compare their actions to those of an ideal figure, or to imagine a role model guiding them. People should reflect honestly on their weaknesses as well as their strengths to understand their true capabilities and act on them wisely.

Good choices should help people build a stable path through life, which in turn will give them a sense of peace. According to Marcus Aurelius, people should not try to escape life’s pressures by going on vacation, but rather by learning to experience stillness or relaxation by being “well-ordered” and “at ease” in their everyday life (91). Another source of joy is to appreciate the beauty and magic in nature and the everyday. Seneca argued that wealthy people are not happier than others, and often do not derive much happiness from their material possessions. As such, it is better for people to manage their cravings for luxury and to feel content with a simple life, freeing themselves from having to serve greed. Epictetus argued that people cannot acquire freedom by getting what they want, but only by eliminating their desire for more. In his Moral Letters (65 AD), Seneca wrote that greed and ambition “put the soul in a straitjacket” (93). Holiday builds on this thought by pointing to the 2008 financial crisis, which he attributes to financier greed; he advises readers to consider how greed informs their actions, claiming that accepting money for labor “makes you a servant to the people who have it” (130).

Epictetus observed that people should be as protective of their minds as they are of their bodies, both from external influences and also internal instincts. One example of external and internal damage is feeling frustration or jealousy. While it is easy to conceive of these emotions as being completely caused by external events or people, Holiday claims that they are actually “willingly generated” (88) in the mind, reiterating that people are capable of learning to “accept and love what’s happening around us” (89). While Stoics never want adverse events, such as illness or war, to happen, they want to face such things in a prepared and virtuous way. This is why people should also slow down to think before reacting; Stoics recognize how quickly the mind can create first impressions and how it can lock into valuing knee-jerk reactions; avoiding this means identifying one’s biases and acknowledging that one will never understand or know everything: “If there is one core teaching at the heart of this philosophy, it’s that we’re not as smart and as wise as we’d like to think we are. If we ever do want to become wise, it comes from the questioning and from humility” (109). This humility extends to being able to change one’s mind after learning new information.

Stoicism values patience and selflessness; Epictetus compares life to a banquet where everyone should wait their turn and only take what they need. Holiday argues that the Stoics understand that “indulging every whim” (60) may feel pleasurable at first, but rarely yields good results in the long term. People should not allow their yearning for certain things, even constructive pursuits such as education or travel, to control their thoughts and create fears or disappointments. Instead of striving to “have it all” (69)—a successful career, happy family, and free time—people must focus their attention on learning to not want too much. According to the Stoics, conflicting desires fuel discontent, and people should use reason and action to resolve their inner conflicts and make decisive and reasonable decisions. We should connect with others with similar self-deprecation; Holiday warns against performative and “self-absorbed” storytelling about one’s past, just as Epictetus advised to “avoid talking excessively about your accomplishments and dangers” (76). Holiday quotes Marcus Aurelius’s instructions to not “overdress your thought in fine language” (115) to persuade readers to communicate with the goal of understanding, not impressing.

Holiday reiterates that people should develop internal discipline—what he calls “character”—to resist worldly influences that will make them less happy and less free in the long term: “Character is a powerful defense in a world that would love to be able to seduce you, buy you, tempt you, and change you” (132). The author connects having good character to serving “the common good” (121).