The Daily Stoic - This Is The Only Thing You Get to Choose | There Is Philosophy In Everything

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

Fortune behaves as she pleases, the Stoics said.  📘 Grab a copy of The Daily Stoic here: https://store.dailystoic.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. After everything that's happened in the last few years, we're tired. After everything that's happened in your life, after everything that's gone wrong the last couple weeks, you think to yourself, I can't handle one more thing going wrong. Certainly, Marcus Aurelius would have related to that sentiment. floods and plagues and wars, a troubled son, personal health issues. Haven't I given enough? We have Marks Reelis say in a recent Daily Stoic video. The thing is life doesn't care, has no time for your questions,

it pays no mind to your limits. I don't think I'm up for this, the novelist John Gregory Dunn said to his wife as they left the hospital after rushing to check on their daughter, who had just been admitted. He was down about his career, who wasn't feeling great about his own health, health. He was sick about his only child. He was worried it would be a long and hard road ahead for them. Joan Didion, his steely stoic wife, responded with something we can imagine Marcus Aurelius reminding himself of in meditations. You don't get a choice, she says. Fortune behaves as she pleases,

the Stoic said. Life disposes. It decides. The only thing we get a choice in is how we respond. Today's sponsor is Chime, the fee-free banking app changing the way people bank. Chime isn't just another banking app. They unlock smarter banking for everyday people with products like MyPay, giving you access to up to $500 of your paycheck anytime. You can help you get paid two days early with their direct deposit. There's no overdraft fees, minimum balance fees, or monthly fees, and plus Chime makes your everyday spending work harder

by delivering real rewards and financial progress. And they just launched the Chime card. It's a cashback card that helps you build credit with your own money. And this is the kind of thing I wish was around when I was younger. It seems like a great way to build credit, which is intimidating, but as you know, very, very important. Chime is not just smarter banking. It's the most rewarding way to bank. Join the millions who are already banking free for free.

And it takes just a few minutes to sign up. You head over to chime.com slash stoic. That's chime.com. That's chime.com. slash stoic. Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Bank credit card and my pay line of credit

provided by the Bank or Bank N.A or Stride Bank N.A. My pay eligibility requirements apply and credit limit ranges $20 to $500. Option. Option.com slash fees info. Advertised annual percent and yield with Chime Plus status only.

Otherwise, 1.00% APY applies. No min balance required. Chime card on time payment history may have a positive impact on your credit score. Results may vary. See chime.com for details and applicable terms. If you're selling online or out of a storefront full time or a side hustle,

you know it's a challenge. People got to find you. You got to wait for them to walk in. Well, today's sponsor, WhatNot, flips that. On WhatNot, you go live and sell directly to people in real time. They see what you got. They ask questions and they buy. And you know what?

They keep coming back. What Not is the largest dedicated live shopping platform, whether it's beauty, collectibles, electronics, luxury fashion, even cookies. Sellers are building real thriving businesses on What Not. What Not buyers spend more than an hour a day on the app and they're not just browsing, they're bidding and buying and coming back. so you can go live show off your projects and turn that into real income. People selling on What Not sell 10 times more than on other major marketplaces.

And that's because you're not just listing products. You're building real connections with buyers. For a limited time, What Not will match your first $150 sold in the first month. You just got to visit Whatnot.com slash sell to start selling. W-H-A-T-N-O-T-com slash sell. What-N-O-C-C-S-S sell. Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic podcast.

There is philosophy and everything. This is the March 24th entry in the Daily Stoic, 366 meditations and wisdom, perseverance in the art of living. Holding the hardcover here, but maybe you like audiobooks. You want to listen to the audiobook. You can grab the leather band edition in the Daily Stoic store. You can grab an e-book if you want. But today's quote is from Epictetus' discourses. We had our streak of many marks realist entries in a row,

and now I think we're on an equally long Epictetus streak. Epictetus says, eat like a human being, drink like a human being. Dress up, marry, have children, get politically active, suffer abuse, bear with a headstrong brother, father, son, neighbor, or companions. Show us these things so that we can see that you truly have learned from the philosophers. That's Epictetus's discourse. Versus 321. Plutarch, a Roman biographer as well as an admirer of the Stoics, although not always he had his disagreements. He didn't begin his study of the greats of Roman literature until late in

life. But as he recounts in his biography of Demosthenes, he was surprised at how quickly it all came at him. He wrote, it wasn't so much the words that brought me into a full understanding of events as that somehow I had a personal experience of the events that allowed me to follow closely the meaning of the words. This is what Epictetus means about the study of philosophy. Study, yes, but go live your life as well. It's the only way that you actually understand what any of it means. And more importantly, it's only from your actions and choices over time that it will be possible to see whether you took any of the teachings to heart. Be aware of that today when you're going to work, going on a date, deciding whom to vote for, calling her parents in

the evening waving to your neighbor as you walked to your door, tipping the delivery man, saying goodnight to someone you love. All of that is philosophy. All of it is experience that brings meaning to the words. You know, there's another quote from Plutarch. He was talking about Socrates, and he said, you know, Socrates didn't teach as he sat down at his desk and lectured his students. He taught in how he lived his life, how he served in the army, how he walked through the marketplace, how he talked to his wife, how he talked to his children. He taught his students, he said, as he drank the hemlock and died. Socrates wasn't talking about his philosophy.

He was, as Epictida said, embodying his philosophy. They didn't talk about it. He was about it, right? Don't talk about it, be about it. But what I like from this, what I think is important that we realize with the Stoics, is that the philosophers weren't these kind of, you know, abstract, theoretical people. The Stoics were living their lives. They were engaged in the world.

They weren't philosophers writing their works. They were philosophers in how they raised their kids, how they dealt with being tired from a long dusty day of travel. They were philosophers in disputes, philosophers when they were sick, philosophers visiting their family over the holidays, right? philosophy was something you applied to life, but not in the big, magnificent, heroic moments, but the regular, the ordinary, the simply human moments. And that this is what really tests us. This is what really challenges us. But this is also the opportunity.

You know, when Mark's realist says, the obstacle is the way, he isn't actually talking about major crises. He's talking about obnoxious people who are getting our way. There's another great quote. I'm forgetting who said it. Something like anyone can be great in a crisis. It takes power and strength and fortitude to be resilient and philosophical in the ordinary everydayness of life.

That's the challenge. That's why I call it the daily stoic, something you apply every day in big situations and little ones alike, ordinary and extraordinary as a family member, as a friend, as a spouse, as a parent, as an academic, as a mechanic, as emperor, as a slave. That's what Stoicism is really about. And I think it's a worthy reminder. I think it's such a wonderful, cool thing to think of that idea from Epictetus, making its way to Marcus Aurelius and then him having to put it in practice. How different all their lives were. Anyways, that's my Stoic message for today. I'll leave you there and talk to you all very soon.

Hey, it's Ryan. Thank you for listening to the Daily Stoic 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.