The Daily Stoic - You Can Choose Right Now | The Portable Retreat

Episode Date: March 20, 2026

Someone has to take control. That someone is you. LAST CHANCE 👉 The Spring Forward Challenge starts TODAY! Go to dailystoic.com/spring and enter code DSPOD20 at checkout to get 20% off the Spring Forward Challenge! Challenge yourself to spring forward and become the person you aspire to be. 🎙️ 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. You can choose right now. You could do it when things get warmer. You could do it when winter is officially over. You could do it when things calm down at work. You could do it after things get settled. You could wait for permission, for an excuse, for help. or you could do it now. You could stop putting off what you've been procrastinating. You could tackle what you know needs to be tackled. You could clean up what is screaming to be cleaned up. As the seasons change, as the clocks move forward, as new growth appears on the trees,

there is room for other forms of renewal. This is the time, the Stoics would say, right now is the time. Otherwise, we are, as Seneca said, the fool who is always getting ready. Epictetus, for his part, laid down a similar challenge. How much longer are you going to wait to demand the best for yourself? Everyone knows there are things that we need to reset, to improve, to be better at, to live better, to think better.

Many of us even know what to do. But maybe life has gotten in the way. and we haven't followed through. So that's the question. If we're not going to do it now, when are we going to do it? And I want to say that it's not too late. You can stop putting it off,

can stop waiting for things to happen. Someone has to take control. And that someone is you. Forget how the first three months of the year have gone. Forget the excuses you have made. Forget the compromises you have made. That's the lovely thing about, idea of springs renewal. It wipes clean the past. We have a chance to start fresh. And that's what

we're doing. Me and thousands of other stoics all over the world are doing the 2026 daily stoic spring forward challenge. It's 10 days of stoic inspired challenges designed to help you get serious about the things you have been putting off to refocus, to reconnect, to renew. After a crazy winter, I was crazy at my house. I'm sure it was crazy for you. I think we could all use an opportunity to get back on track. And maybe you even procrastinate it a little bit on signing up for the challenge. Well, this is your last chance. Sign up for it.

I'll see you in there. I'm doing the challenge right now as you are listening to this alongside a bunch of other stoics who got a jump on you. Stop putting it off. Let's do it. Ten stoic challenges to help you get serious to help you own the rest of 2026. And it's going to be awesome. We're going to be doing some live calls.

you get access to the community, you get the progress tracker, and a bunch of other awesome stuff. And just think about where you could be 10 months from now. If you got serious right now, spring forward with me and thousands of other Stoics all over the world doing the Daily Stoic Spring Forward Challenge. You can sign up right now at Daily Stoic.com slash spring, but this is your final, final, final chance. I'll see you in there. We've got an employee here at Daily Stoke. I won't say who because it's kind of private, but they've been using Monarch today. sponsor to track their progress as they try to pay off their student loan debts.

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I.S. Stoic today. That's duck. dot a private way to chat with AI from duck, duck go, where AI is always optional and private. Hey, it's Ryan. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic podcast. We're doing some riffing from the Daily Stoic journal this morning. I've got mine in my leather case. It says make time.

I got to make time to do that journaling. And when I don't, my psyche, my brain, my philosophy practice suffers. You can grab that at store. Dot Daily Stoic.com. Today's entry is about the portable retreat. It is in the future on vacation on our day off when we plan to get out of the nature that we think we'll find peace and release

from the crush of the everyday demands of life. But this never really seems to happen as often as we think, does it? And when we do get that peace, it's difficult to keep it once we're back in the fray. Well, for the Stoic all, this is madness. The true retreat is in the freedom of our. own mind and soul to consider the gifts we already have can be our refuge for all time

if we take the time daily to do so. So good for you taking a little quiet time this morning or evening to listen to a podcast. It's not cramming you full of info, but it's a bit more philosophical. And then hopefully you've got the Daily Stoic journal out or the Daily Stoic. But we've got three quotes in this week's entry, one from Marcus, one from Epicetus, and another from Marcus. Marks Relius Meditations 4.3. He says, people seek retreats for themselves in the country by the sea or in the mountains. You are very much in the habit of yearning for those same things. But this is entirely the trait of a base person when you can at any moment find such a retreat in yourself. For nowhere can you find a more peaceful and less busy treat than inside your own soul, especially if on close inspection it is filled with ease, which I say is nothing more than being well ordered. Treat yourself often to this retreat and be renewed. Then Epictetus says, Remember, it is not only the desire for wealth and position that debases and subjugates us,

also the desire for peace and leisure and travel and learning. It doesn't matter what the external thing is. The value we place on it subjugates us to another, where our heart is set, there our impediment lies. And then Marcus Reilly says, Remember that your ruling reason becomes unconquerable when it rallies and relies on itself so that it won't do anything contrary to its own will, even if its position is irrational. How much more unconquerable if its judgments are careful and made rationally?

Therefore, the mind freed from passions is an impenetrable fortress, and a person has no more secure place of refuge for all time. That's Meditations 848. I'm thinking about this because I'm just doing a little recording here before I go to town. It's my kids' spring break. we're going to spend a week down at the beach. And I look forward to this and I enjoy it. And I sometimes weirdly get more done there, more present there.

You are a different person on vacation. But the Stokes would say why? Does it have to be that way? What does it say that your life is something that you feel the need to escape from? So one of the things that I try to do, I mean, I like going down there. That's one of the perks of working for myself. I don't have to be in one location. And sometimes a change of scenery is good for things.

But I ask myself, you know, what is it about my routine there that allows me to not feel so rushed in the morning? Spend more time with the kids sort of right at leisure. Why do I seem to have more time in the day? Why am I always available to catch the sunset? And what is stopping me from being able to do that at home? That's what Marcus is saying. He's like, look, the thing that's working here is you. Like, you're finding the retreat in yourself, that moment of stillness or whatever.

and that's available to you anywhere. He says that inside your own soul, there is peace and not so much busyness. I love taking my family. We would go to Big Bend a couple times a year, one of my favorite national parks. And, you know, what I love while we're there is looking up at this incredible sky. It's so little light pollution there. The stars just they feel like they pop right out of the black sky.

I remember we went, and then I was back a couple weeks later, and I had to go take the trash out or something. And I live out in the country. There's not a lot of light pollution where I live. And I sort of looked up for a second and I was like, this sky's almost as good as it is there. We drove eight hours to look at stars. And how many nights do I walk to take out the trash or get something my kids

forgot in the car and I don't take a minute to just step up and look, right? That's kind of what I'm thinking about here is so much of what we give ourselves on those retreats or those vacations or those time away, we could have inside ourselves any any time we choose, and indeed we deserve to do that. And I think about, you know, I read more, but I could read more here. I just, I throw my phone in the other room and I forget about it for a while. And I need to do that here. You need to do that here. Give herself a staycation. Give yourself a life that's a little bit closer to that vibe where you're a bit more philosophical. You're taking the time. You're retreating into your own self. You're finding the refuge that is,

there inside yourself. That's what it's all about to me. That's what I think the Stoics are reminding them. And look, Marcus Rulius had a country estate. Epicetus had a country estate. They all traveled. They all saw the world. They weren't saying you never do it. They're just saying don't do it as an escape. Don't do it. Fooling yourself that it's not something you could have now inside yourself at any moment. And in fact, you must do. It just takes a bit more discipline. It's not as easy as buying a plane ticket and planning a trip. So I hope whether it's close to your spring break here or not or what plans you have,

you take this lesson from the Stoics seriously because it's an important one. And it's one I'm struggling with and thinking about myself and I hope today's perspective was helpful. You can grab this cool cover we have for the Daily Stoak Journal at store.dailystoke.com.

If you don't have the Daily Stoke Journal, you can grab them as a package and I'll sign it. And it's cool. It says, make time on the front. And it's a reminder from Epic Titus. Every day and night, keep thoughts like this at hand,

write them, read them aloud, to talk to yourself and others about them. That's what I'm doing on this podcast. That's what you're doing by listening. I really appreciate the opportunity to do that. I'll talk to you all soon.