The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living Hardcover – October 18, 2016

I grew up with my mom’s daily meditation book on an end table in our living room. The spine was broken, pages browned, a tasseled bookmark showed the date as reliably as my iPhone. She still reads it every day.

"The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Daily Living" is the meditation book my son will remember, the one I'll read every day. It's now on my end table with a red ribbon marking the season.

The Daily Stoic isn’t simply a book to make me think, it’s an action guide, a “prescription for handling ourselves and our actions in the world.” The great Stoics remind me never to be satisfied with learning--I must always be doing. In order to lead a successful life, I must practice cutting through distractions and desires to get to things that matter.

That’s the only way to become a better human being. That’s the call to action I’m getting from this book--you will, too.

In "The Daily Stoic," Stephen Hanselman and Ryan Holiday have curated works by the great Stoic philosophers--Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, weaving in modern thinkers and situations I can use immediately. Each month has a specific theme such as clarity, right action, duty, awareness, and problem solving. Lessons build on prior themes, creating an easy-to-use teaching tool out of philosophers that can often be overwhelming.

I love this book for its excellent translations and applicable life lessons. Each meditation has just enough to challenge me and help me feel I can put the thoughts into action today.

Ryan Holiday is a best-selling author (“Trust Me I’m Lying,” “Ego is the Enemy,” “The Obstacle is the Way”) and a blogger. He brands himself as someone focused on life, dealing with idiots, how to be self-critical and self-aware, humility, philosophy, reading and strategy.

I became aware of Holliday when I read and reviewed his thoughtful and helpful book “The Obstacle is the Way.” It is a book about stoicism, the ancient Greek philosophy and its principles, which has sold more than 100,000 copies and has been translated into 17 languages. Stoicism is an ancient Hellenistic philosophic school founded in Athens that promoted the daily management of self. It teaches 1) that virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge, and 2) that the wise live in harmony with the divine Reason (also identified with Fate and Providence) that governs nature. These principles are indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune and to pleasure and pain.

Some will be familiar to readers, others will not:

o Seize life and take advantage of it.
o If you seek tranquility, do less.
o It can ruin your life only if it ruined your character. Otherwise, it cannot harm you – inside or out.
o Do what we can, endure and bear what we must.
o None of what we do lasts, no matter how clever or brilliant.
o So if we throw out other people’s recognition, what is left for us to prize?

Stoics include Marcus Aurelius, Cicero, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Viktor Frankle, Ruben Carter, Ulysses S Grant, Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon, Churchill, Steve Jobs, Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll, Cub’s Manager Joe Maddon, and thousands more.

“Stoicism as a philosophy is really about the mental game,” Holiday says. “It is not a set of ethics or principles. It is a collection of spiritual exercises designed to help people through the difficulty of life by managing emotion; specifically, non-helpful emotion.”

In “Daily Stoic,” Holiday provides 366 daily meditations on wisdom, perseverance, and the art of living. He provides a year of quotations and life lessons drawn from the three great Stoic sages -Seneca the Younger, Epictetus (a freed slave) and Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The meditations are organized under three primary topics (similar to those in “The Obstacle is…”) “The Discipline of Perception,” “The Discipline of Action,” and the “Discipline of Will.” Each topic is further divided into monthly themes: “Clarity,” “Passions and Emotions,” “Awareness,” “Unbiased Thought,” “Right Action,” “Problem Solving,” “Duty”“Pragmatism,” “Fortitude and Resilience,” “Virtue and Kindness,” “Acceptance,” and “Meditations on Mortality.”

Paul Tillich noted that Stoicism is “the only real alternative to Christianity in the Western world.” It came to many of the same conclusions about how to think and live. Both are characterized by:

 An emphasis on hardship.
 A sense of man’s depravity and a constant self-examination
 An inner freedom from the world.
 An aversion to excess.

The goal of Stoicism is to attain inner peace. The meditations of the “Daily Stoic” can be a help in overcoming adversity, practicing self-control, being conscious of our impulses, realizing how short life is and making the most of it. The principles within Stoicism are, perhaps, the most relevant and practical sets of rules for those who choose to embrace the obstacles of life. They are the tools that are immediately practical to our current endeavors.

Thought-provoking, soul-searching exercises are included with each daily meditation. “The Daily Stoic” is an excellent way to begin or end each day.

I love everything about this book.
I've been a fan of Ryan's writing for quite a while, and consider him a mentor through the written word at this point.
What's great about this format is the daily format. I start off my entire day with a few minutes of wisdom from the Stoic masters, and it literally helps me have a better day. I'm more mindful, focused, and thoughtful. I'm more of a Stoic.
I bought this on the Kindle and hardback--and I definitely appreciate the hardback version more. It's obviously designed for day-to-day reading, and has a very handy ribbon/bookmark attached to it. I also love taking notes as I'm reading, and write down an intention that I have for the day based on the writing.
This is a brilliant book, and I'm grateful to Ryan and Stephen for taking the time to write this and bless my life. Well, well worth the money...and I plan on buying many more copies to give to friends, as well (I've only given away one to this point).