The Daily Stoic - It’s So Hard To Find | Stop Looking For This

Episode Date: July 13, 2026

The ability to be content, to be grateful, to be happy? These are the real luxuries, if you think about it. 📚 The Daily Stoic Journal: 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on The Art of Living by Ryan Holiday🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE | Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you! Grab tickets here |  https://www.dailystoiclive.com/🎙️ AD-FREE | Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content: https://dailystoic.supercast.com/🎥 VIDEO EPISODES| Watch the video episodes on The Daily Stoic YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemailSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. Hey there, just a heads up. I'm going to be on tour this fall. You can see me in Australia, in New Zealand, in October, in August. I'm mixing my months up here, but in August, you can see me in Chicago, in Minneapolis, in Detroit. Then I'll be on the East Coast, sometime in November. and December. Anyways, grab tickets to that, dailystoiclive.com. I hope to see you there. It is so hard to find. You think it would be easy. After all, they have the time, they have the resources, they usually have the brain power and the education. And yet the writers of a satisfied mind, a song that's been covered by Bob Dylan and Jeff Buckley and Bonnie Verre, to name a few, are absolutely right. In fact, they sound like they're quoting Seneca when they sing, but little they know that it's so hard to find one rich man in ten with a satisfied mind? Why is this? Well, as the Stoics,

many of them fortunate and wealthy, knew very well, money brings anxiety in many forms. Fear you'll lose it, worry that someone else has more, insecurity that people are judging you, the stress of having so many choices, all the things to take care of. It's certainly a better problem than having too little, but having too much is still a problem and not one that automatically leads to peace or contentment. The ability to be content, to be grateful, to be at peace, these are real luxuries if you think about it, because they're so rare. Apparently nine out of ten rich people can't even afford them. Hey, it's Ryan. I'm on the road right now doing talks all over the country. I love traveling. I love going to new places. The thing I don't like about it though is I don't get to

sleep at home, which I like, not just because it's home, but because I have an eight sleep on my bed. I've had an eight sleep on my bed, I don't know, five years. I love it. My wife loves it. We love it because it cools the mattress. It heats the mattress. You can have different sides, cool at different temperatures. It's even how I wake up in the morning. Instead of an annoying alarm clock, or that, you know, horrible sound on your phone. It lightly buzzes you awake and then and then when you're up, you want to turn it off, you just tap the mattress. There's all sorts of awesome features in my eight sleep.

It was worth every penny. The point is, I love my eight sleep and the eight sleep keeps getting better. Eight sleep users report up to 32% better sleep and up to 34% better deep sleep. This is all stuff you love. You can use the code Daily Stoic at eightsleep.com slash daily stoic. Right now for up to five. $500 off. And this 4th of July sale ends on July 12. So don't wait. And if you have an HSA or an FSA, some 8Sleep stuff qualifies for that as well through TrueMed and qualified customers save about 30% on average.

Check your eligibility at trumed.com slash 8 sleep before you buy. TrueMed is for qualified customers. HSA and FSA tax savings may vary. We're traveling internationally this summer and some of those places like in Europe, you know, you can't just go dress like you're slobby American. You've got to dress up a little bit. Can't show their shoulders. Can't wear shorts. So I'm going to take some of the stuff I bought from Quince because it holds up well, looks good, it's fancy without being uncomfortable.

I'm going to try to pack clothes that are light, airing uncomfortable. I can use them in multiple settings. You've certainly seen me in some of these things. If you've ever watched the Daily store video or seen me talk live, I want something that looks good on stage, then I'm going to be. not going to sweat through. That's not going to get super wrinkled. Quince has got great t-shirts. They've got great light sweaters. And everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen so you're paying

for quality, not brand markup. And Quince goes way beyond clothing. They've got sofas and ceramic cookware, premium betting. It's the kind of brand you end up recommending to everyone for everything. Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com slash stoic for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns, now available in Canada, too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash stoic for free shipping and 365-day returns, quince.com slash stoic. Don't look for the third thing.

The Stoics teach us that doing well is its own reward. To do the right thing, to see someone helped by it, this is enough, to go around expecting thanks, what Marcus Aurelius describes is the third thing. That is to miss the point. It's being greedy. Keeping score not only misses the purposes of being good, it's foolish. It sets you up for disappointment. If you're going to do some accounting, look at it from the other direction. How many people have helped us? What do we owe them in return? Think about clearing some debts this week and consider forgetting any notion of others owing. You. This is from this week's entry in the Daily Stoak Journal, 365 days of writing and reflection on the art of living, together by myself and the wonderful Steve Hanselman. You can buy this anywhere, books are sold. I sell a bunch of signed copies. I personalize it. Usually write, prepare and reflect in the Daily Stoke store. You can buy that at store.com. Then we've got two quotes from Marcus to think about today. One person on doing well by others immediately accounts the expected favor in return. Another is not so quick, but still considers the person a debtor and knows the favor. A third kind of person acts as if not conscious of the deed, rather like a vine producing a cluster of grapes without making further demands, like a horse after its race, or a dog after its walk,

or a bee after making its honey. Such a person having done a good deed won't go shouting from rooftops, but simply moves on to the next deed, just like the vine produces another bunch of grapes in the right season. It's Marcus Surrealis's Meditaph. adaptations five, six. That's just a beautiful image. Like plants produce fruit. They don't even reap the benefits of that fruit. They just do it because that's their nature. That's their job. And then we have one more. When you've done well and another has benefited by it, why, like a fool's you look for the third thing on top? Credit for the good deed or favor in return. That's Marcus Reelis's Meditations, 773. Anytime Marcus is repeating himself in meditation, I think it's

illustrative. And I think he is doing what we all do, right? He did something good. Then he was disappointed that it either wasn't recognized or he was frustrated, that it was interpreted incorrectly, or like, imagine your Marxist you're trying not to be corrupted by power. You've seen what your horrible predecessors have done and you're being attacked for it. You know, he says that the rewards of being a leader is to do good things and earn a bad reputation. You still get attacked. if you're going through life looking for this third thing, and I do this all the time myself, if you're going through life looking for that third thing,

you're going to be disappointed all the time. And you're going to question why you were doing the good thing, because if you're doing it in this quid pro quo, one hand washes the other, you do a thing, they do a thing, you start to go, this is a sucker's payoff. Like, I'm doing the right thing, and I'm not getting anything for it.

I'm going to stop doing the right thing. No, the stoics want you to think, no, the right thing is your job. You do the right thing because it produces pleasure for you. You do the right thing because that's what you are put here on this planet to do. You do the right thing because it's the right thing. Don't look for the third thing. Do the right thing because it's the right thing.

That's this week's lesson. And as we said in the little meditations, forgive the debts that others owe you and be very diligent about paying your debts to all the people who have selflessly done good things for you in this world over the years. Hey, it's Ryan. Thank you for listening to the Daily Stoog podcast. I just wanted to say we so appreciate it.

We love serving you. It's amazing to us that over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in the couple years we've been doing it. It's an honor. Please spread the word, tell people about it, and this isn't to sell anything. I just wanted to say thank you.