You Must Read To Lead | 10 Stoic Strategies To Deal With Anxiety

0:00Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. You must read to lead. Not all the Stoics were leaders, but all of them were readers. And the ones who were leaders, while they were the biggest readers of them all. Marcus Relius opens meditations by thanking the teacher who taught him to read attentively, and who loaned him the copy of Epic Teedis that shaped the rest of his life. Cepio Ameliannis, one of Rome's great generals and a patron of Stoicism, was said to be constantly engaged in the pursuit of arms or his studies. He was either training his body by exposing it to dangers, or his mind by learning. Literally in the final moments of his life, Cato took another pass at reading Plato.

1:01As President, Theodore Roosevelt was always squeezing in time to read in. Later, out of office, he took a copy of Epic Teedis with him on his perilous journey down the river of doubt. Stockdale talked about how deployed in the South China Sea, when he was not flying, he was in his bunk, reading Epic Teedis and Marcus Relius and the other ancients. These were men of action and lifelong learners, reading deeply and thoughtfully gave them all what they needed to succeed, the knowledge to be great leaders, the virtue to be good people, the will to survive. In English and history classes, reading often meant memorizing names and dates and places, who, what, when, and where? Which less so how? Or why? Or what it meant? You learned to extract what the teacher needed you to remember, not what the author wanted you to know, not the moral and philosophical lessons, the books and the events were meant

2:02to teach. If you want to be a better leader, you're going to have to become a better reader. How? Well, that is what we designed to read to lead all about. We're doing a five week deep dive here with Daily Stoke into becoming better readers. I'm going to walk you through my system that I've used, not just to write my books, but the practice that I've used in my life. How to find books that are worth your time, how to work through ones above your level, how to keep what matters, how to turn what you read into action, as Seneca said, how to turn the words into works. And since we've made this class many, many years ago, people have loved it. One person wrote in to say it was the best online learning investment they have ever made. And they said that on day one, if you want the beginnings of a real library and a foundation for lifelong learning, I'd love to have you join us.

3:03I'm going to be doing a Q&A about my reading strategies as well. And if you join by September 30th, you can get 20% off all the books that we recommend in the course of the class. It's going to be awesome. As we said, not all readers lead, but the ones who do have to be graded at it. And you can join us and read to lead at dailystoeic.com slash read to lead. I'll see you in there. If you've ever talked to your bank or a cell phone company or insurance or whatever, you know, customer service where you're talking to robots and you get an endless loop, oh, it's not fun for you and either customers. It's also not great for the company, right? They know they're not serving their customers well. When a person has to intervene, that person is dealing with someone who's mad at them. It's a whole system that I think is due for a rethink. And that's where 11 agents come in. 11 agents is a platform for AI voice and chat agents that can actually listen, understand

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6:12of interest. Client experiences will vary. Wealthfront brokerage is not a bank and the base APY is as of January 30th, 2026 in subject to change. For more information, please see the episode description. Remember what the Stokes say that the whole world is a temple of the gods. Look at that sunset, these beach. Look at this life. It hit me at some point during the craziness of the pandemic that I was an anxious person. I knew I used to get anxious about specific things, a flight, an important meeting, getting up on stage in front of people. But when all that went away, like everyone else, you're stuck in your house and you realize you're still anxious. Of course, you're anxious about what's happening in the world, but you're just generally anxious. The anxiety is in you. You may not think of the Stokes as anxious people, partly because the reputation of the

7:15Stokes is that they're invulnerable, that they're invincible, that they have no emotions. But we know that Marcus really has struggled with anxiety because if he didn't, he wouldn't have written so many reminders to himself about how to deal with it. I'm Ryan Holiday. I've written out 12 books about Stoke Philosophy, which has sold more than 5 million copies over 30 languages that spoke to everyone from the NBA to the NFL, sitting senators and special forces operators. And I myself deal with anxiety, like any normal person. So in today's episode, I want to talk about a bunch of tried and tested strategies for reducing, addressing, alleviating, hopefully eliminating anxiety in your life. I know they've worked for me. It's definitely an ongoing battle as it was for Marcus to really, as it was for Seneca, but these strategies work. And so here in today's episode are some stillic strategies for reducing anxiety. I hope you like them. Little things are not small. George Washington's favorite expression was, many mickles make a muckle.

8:17I think Xenos said it better. He said, well, being is realized by small steps, but it's no small thing. Mark's really says, we assemble our life action by action step by step. No one can stop you from that. So today, as you get discouraged, as you look at this goal, it's way, way off in the distance. Don't focus on that. Focus on the immediate task in front of you. Concentrate like a Roman as Mark's really says, do this thing in front of you as if it's the only thing that matters is if it's the last thing that you're doing in your life. And that adds up. It's no small thing. Many mickles make a muckle as Washington said, stuff adds up. That's how you get there. One step at a time, one day at a time, one action at a time, one insight at a time. Just go now. Mark's really says, just remember, you're lucky to be alive, to be alive in this moment. Even if things are crazy and insane and awful in the world, they're also wonderful because you're getting to experience them and to take that for granted, to be bitter or jaded

9:19or cynical about that. It's to waste this gift you've been given. And there's a reason they call it the present. It is a gift. And look, even if this is not the most wonderful time to be alive, it's the only time in which you are alive. So we focus on what we control, which is our perceptions, our opinion about things, without we control, not win and where we are. We try to make the most of it. We try to accept it. We try to be grateful for it. And that's how we find happiness now in this present moment, no matter what's happening in the world. One of my favorite quotes from Marcus Realiz, he says, you know, you don't have to have an opinion about that. And I just think about that all the time. I don't have to have an opinion about this. I can just let it be. I can ignore it. I can realize it doesn't pertain to me, or I can just see it as it is. I don't need to say that it's good or bad, fair or unfair. It just is, I'm going to look at it as an objective piece of information. It doesn't need me projecting my thoughts or beliefs or perceptions on it.

10:22It is. You don't have to have an opinion about this. The key to tranquility in peace, Marcus Realiz says is when you stop caring what other people say, what other people think, what other people are doing, he says, the tranquility that comes when you care about only what you do and say, the tranquility that comes when you stop caring what they say or think or do only what you do. A stoic is not someone who stuffs their emotions down. That's not it at all. The stoic's process their emotions. This is why they journaled. Socrates went around asking these questions. This is why Senaica would write these letters to his friend, Lucilius. We even have some of Marcus Realiz's letters that survive. The stoics were not stuffing their emotions down pretending they don't have them. They were exploring them that the stoics talk about taking an emotion when it hits you

11:23and putting it up to the test, observing it, meditating on it, processing it, getting to the bottom of it. If you just ignore your emotions, if you just conquer them, to me it's like putting it on a credit card. Sure, you're not having to pay for it now, but eventually it's going to come do and the interest is going to make it even more expensive. So don't shut your emotions down. Deal with them, process them, explore them, get through them, don't be ruled by them. In ignoring them, you are guaranteeing that later it's going to be an even bigger deal and you're going to be even more powerless over that emotion. So work on your emotions. Do not fall into this trap that the stoics suppress their emotions. They domesticate them as the seem to let's says, but first that requires facing them and exploring them and coming to terms with them. Sennaka points out that we suffer more in imagination than in reality, meaning that all the things we're anxious about, the things we worry about, the things we spend a lot of time hoping won't happen. Most of them never do happen.

12:25There's that great twain quote where he talks about how he's suffered through many things in life and how many of them have never actually happened. Because that's what he means in our mind, we're torturing ourselves. We're worried that this could happen and that could happen. We're worried about this possibility or that possibility. But the reality is, now is now. You don't control whether that will happen or not. What you do control is now. You of course control how prepared you are for the adversity of the future, the uncertainty of the future. But what you mainly control is the present moment. Take advantage of the present moment. Don't give up the present moment because you're really worried and off thinking about what could and almost certainly will not happen in the future. No one can harm you, at least according to the Stoics. They can hurt you, they can say cruel things, they can attack you, they can cut you, they can make you bleed. But to the Stoics, harm was a choice. You decide to see yourself as harmed by it. Remember Eleanor Roosevelt, no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

13:26We choose to feel harmed. You are hurt the moment you believe yourself to be epiphyticet. Mark really says, don't want to be harmed, don't choose to feel harmed. We control our emotions, we control our opinions, we control the story we tell ourselves about what happened. And that's why the Stoics said you are complicit when you feel harmed. You choose to see it that way. I do this one thing every single day and you can see I'm a little sweaty right now. I just went on a long walk with my kids, this is the property there. We just went on this long walk around our property. He talked, we threw sticks, we told stories, we were just outside. There's this great expression from Nietzsche, he says, only ideas had when walking have any worth. And I think that's right, even Seneca talks about how the mind must be given over to wander and walks. He says, feels that are not allowed to rest will not bear plants. And he even says that, you know, the mind will break like an anvil if not rested. And so this is really important for me.

14:27Walking is physical activity is it is exercised, but it's really about letting my mind rest. I leave my phone at home, I leave my thoughts at home, I leave my work at home, and I just go outside and I walk. And I don't even consider it exercise. It's exercise for my mind. It's time I spend with my family, it's time I spend on my property, it's time I spend outdoors, it's time I spend practicing gratitude and appreciation. This is a thing I do every day without fail, whether it's in a parking lot or on a beautiful beach somewhere, I go outside and take a walk and so should you. People ask me, what is the best way to start journaling? And the best way to start journaling is to start journaling. Look, there's a bunch of different ones you can do. I like the one line of day journal. This is just like a Mosquina. This is a gratitude journal that I like. This is the daily still of journal. But it doesn't really matter. Journal on your phone, journal on a scrap of paper on the back of your to-do list. It doesn't matter. But the idea is that you journal every single day, just do it. Just get started.

15:28The best time to have started journaling is a long time ago. The second best time is right now. So if you want to start journaling, start journaling. Epic Titus tells us that every situation has two handles. He says there's the handle that will bear weight and the handle that won't. He says you could look at it as your brother has wronged you, he screwed you over, he's hurt you. I say I only have one brother. This is my brother. I'm going to forgive this person. I'm going to be patient. I'm going to be better. We are going to be better for having gone through this. So this idea that every situation you can choose to see it as the way that disempowers you, that makes you the victim, or you can choose to see it as the opportunity for growth, as the thing that will make you better, as the thing that will make you stronger for having to wrestle with. So I just love this idea. And it comes from a person who's not speaking about this idly like you and I are so privileged compared to Epic Titus who's born a slave in Rome, he's been 30 years in slavery. But he doesn't see this as a huge disadvantage. He sees it as a learning experience, as a fate that he's struggling with that's making

16:30him stronger. He says you've been paired with a tough opponent and this is what's making you a limbic class material. That's Epic Titus seeing the right handle in his own situation. So whatever you experience today, think about this. This has two handles. Which one am I going to pick? The one that bear weight that will make me better? The one that won't bear weight that will make me worse.