Original source details coming soon.
Ten stoic habits to build and drop in 2025
Executive overview
Most people know what they need to change but delay action indefinitely. Epictetus reduced all of stoic philosophy to two words: persist and resist — keep doing the right things, stop doing the wrong ones.
The habits below are drawn from Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, and Ryan Holiday's own practice. Each is small, concrete, and actionable at the start of a new year.
Small, consistent action compounds; perfection is not the goal — returning to the rhythm is.
The ten habits
- Think small. Commit to a page a day, not "reading more." Start with the smallest possible unit and build from there. Zeno: wellbeing is realised by small steps.
- Discard anxiety. Marcus Aurelius didn't "escape" anxiety — he discarded it. Anxiety is internal; it doesn't solve problems, it just prolongs suffering.
- Build a routine. Habits need a structure to live in. Fix your wake time, protect your mornings, tackle the most important creative work first. Seneca: life without design is erratic.
- Give yourself an order and stop. Eisenhower quit a four-pack-a-day, 40-year smoking habit cold turkey because his doctor said his life depended on it. Epictetus: no man is free who is not master of himself.
- Eliminate what wastes your time. Screen time data shows where time actually goes. Cut news overconsumption and doom scrolling. Epictetus: to improve, you must be willing to not know about some things.
- Do something uncomfortable deliberately. Seneca started every new year by throwing himself into the freezing Tiber River — a deliberate act of self-command.
- Choose your peer group carefully. You become the average of who you spend time with. If you dwell with a lame man, you learn to limp.
- Stop fearing change. Marcus Aurelius: everything good and bad in life comes from change. Fighting or resenting change consumes energy while changing nothing.
- Say no to the inessential. Marcus Aurelius: most of what we do is not essential. Every yes is a no to something else. Eliminating the inessential creates space for a full, emphatic yes to what matters.
- Get back up. You will fall short. What matters is returning to the rhythm — not streaks or perfection, but coming back home to the practice.
More like this — when you're ready for early access.
Join the waitlist for a personal account and content recommendations based on what you're working on.
No spam. Unsubscribe at any time.
You're on the list. We'll be in touch before launch.