Book Review: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

 

Stoicism teaches us that there is no “bad” or “negative” events in life, just things. You can choose to cry and blame the world about it, or you can take it as a learning point and move on. Zeno was a wealthy merchant and lost everything at sea during a storm. Having founded Stoicism because of it, he proudly said “Now that I've suffered shipwreck, I'm on a good journey”.

The book holds a short reflective passage for you to read at the beginning of each day. You are to read one page a day and focus on the particular lesson. You are to pause and reflect and journal the moments of which you are proud of or wish you had practiced Stoicism more. However, it’s a book for your enjoyment, you can just read the whole thing in one go; that’s what I did.

Stoicism teaches you to be prepared for uncontrollable pain and adversity in your life and how to channel the negative emotions into a virtuous and positive action. However, Stoicism does not help to define the things you can and can’t control, and often it is easier to pretend that you do not have control of anything. A careless Stoic would accept the difficulties of life, without willing to change it. While practicing Stoicism, whether religious or not, it is prudent to keep the prayer of serenity in your heart at all times.