We Are Training For This

0:00Three, four times a day, I reach over and I grab my wife's phone and I check something. Not social media. I check the Shopify app. Because Shopify is how I see how the Painted Porch and the Daily Stoic are doing. We've been using Shopify for almost 10 years now. It's great. And we're not the only ones using it. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses and brands all over the world. They do 10 % of the e-commerce in the U.S., from household names to Gymshark and Allbirds to little brands just getting started and little things in between, like Daily Stoic. Everything is all in one place, making your life easier and your business operations smoother.

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1:16Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a Stoic-inspired meditation designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life. Each one of these episodes is based on the 2 ,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women to help you learn from them, to follow in their example, And to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom. For more, visit dailystoic.com.

2:07Ryan Holiday: We are training for this. It's good that you train. It's good that you lift heavy stuff. It's good that you run. It's good that you expose yourself to cold and heat. There are health benefits to all of this, and it's good to go after them. There are mental benefits, too, which is why the Stoics were so active, boxing and wrestling and riding and running. We treat the body rigorously, Seneca said, so that it is not disobedient to the mind. But ultimately, the reason to challenge yourself is for the challenging situations of life. You take care of your body, Socrates said, so it can be of service to your country or to a stranger.

2:50Ryan Holiday: You train yourself to deal with stress and fatigue and discomfort because life is full of stress and discomfort. It demands endurance and tolerance. We're not spending time in the gym so that we can look like a Greek statue. We're spending time in the gym so we can be like the Greeks, party and resilient, capable and strong and confident. As we said recently, this philosophy, this training is about preparing you for historical moments like the one we're in right now. It's for the moments when you want to quit. It's for the moments when you have to pitch in, when you have to do something hard, when you have to endure the unexpected.

3:31Ryan Holiday: When we develop the discipline to prepare our minds and bodies for hardship, we have the discipline to see hard times through to the end. As I said in Discipline is Destiny, by being a little hard on ourselves, it makes it harder for others to be hard on us. It makes it harder for moments like these to be so hard to get through. Epictetus said that we want to work and prepare so that when life inevitably tests us, we can say to ourselves earnestly and accurately, this is what I trained for. And this is why I do the Daily Stoic New Year New You Challenge. We're kicking one off on January 1st, as we do each and every year.

4:14Ryan Holiday: It's a training ground for the year ahead. I want to spend the first 21 days of the year toughening myself up, getting myself out of my comfort zone, getting ready for what lies ahead. It's 21 daily challenges built around the best and most timeless wisdom in stoic philosophy. The idea is they'll help you increase your capacity and your confidence for the year ahead. It's 21 reps at being uncomfortable, 21 reps at doing what you maybe don't feel like doing, 21 reps at dealing with challenges. Life's going to test us in 2026. That is a given, right? Right. We're going to need you in 2026. That is also a given.

4:57Ryan Holiday: And we want you to be able to say that you're prepared, that this is what you trained for, that you can handle this. Right. And I would love to have you join us in the Daily Stoic New Year, New Year Challenge. You can sign up right now at dailystoic.com slash challenge. And remember, if you join Daily Stoic Life, you get this challenge and all our challenges for free. You can click that on the landing page there to dailystoic.com challenge. And I will see you on January 1st.