In the following video reviews you'll learn powerful Stoic practices that will help you steady your mind and find the serenity, self-knowledge, and resilience you need to live well. 

The Daily Stoic Animated Summary

By One Percent Better

Key Takeaways

Lesson 1: What is Stoicism?

The philosophy asserts that virtue (4 cardinal virtues: self-control, courage, justice & wisdom) is happiness and it is our perception of things, rather than things themselves that cause most of our trouble. 

That we don’t control and cannot rely on external events, only ourselves and our responses.

Stoicism teaches that we can’t control or rely on anything outside what Epictetus called our “reasoned choice”- our ability to use reason to choose how we categorize, respond, and reorient ourselves to external events. 

Stoicism has just a few central teachings. 

• It sets out to remind us of how unpredictable the world can be.
• How brief our moment of life is.
• How to be steadfast, and strong, and in control of yourself.
• That the source of our dissatisfaction lies in our impulsive dependency on our reflexive senses rather than logic.

Stoicism doesn’t concern itself with complicated theories about the world, but with helping us overcome destructive emotions and act on what can be acted upon. It’s built for action, not endless debate.

We suffer not from the events in our lives, but from our judgment of them.

Lesson 2: Direct Your Efforts

Plan all the way to the end, begin with the end in mind. 

By having no direction, and so you are driven into failure or worse into madness by the oblivion of directionlessness. 

You’ll feel better choosing anything rather than lying in your bed and letting bad thoughts well around in your head. 

Lesson 3: Know Thyself

Each night, Stoics would often reflect on themselves. Often asking questions like who am I? What’s important to me? What do I like?

Everyone is different. Knowing what makes you happy or sad or your strengths and weaknesses will allow you to live a better life. 

Lesson 4: Change Your Expectations

Expect things to not go the way you plan and accept it for what it is. By wanting nothing, we can have everything. 

"No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don't have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have."

Lesson 5: Expect the Unexpected

You might lose your job, get kicked out of home or lose a friend. Life happens.

These are things you can’t control, but you can control your opinion, choice, and desire. 

The Stoic realizes that reacting negatively is pointless. Is complaining and frolicking about it really going to solve anything?

Lesson 6: Nothing is Inherently Good or Bad

If someone sends you an angry email, but you never see it, did it actually happen? It requires your participation in order for it to be bad. 

It’s our reaction that decides what’s good or bad. How you choose to perceive it. 

Lesson 7: Dealing with Haters

The Stoic does two things when they encounter hate. Is this opinion inside my control? If there is a chance for influence, they take it. If not, they accept the person as they are and don’t hate back. 

Lesson 8: Your actual needs are small

We don’t need as much as we think.

Lesson 9: Don't Get Mad

We would rather feel bitter keeping something to ourselves instead of risking the awkward conversation that might actually make this world a better place. 

"If the person will listen, you will have cured them without using anger. No drama nor unseemly show required."

Lesson 10: Complaining is Futile

Complaining accomplishes nothing, expect puts yourself and others in a negative state of mind. Complain less. appreciate more. 

Lesson 11: Attachments are the Enemy

According to Anthony DeMello, there is only one thing that causes unhappiness and the name of that thing is attachments.

Attachments to a certain lifestyle, person, place or thing.

All of these are outside of our control. We must adapt or die. 

Lesson 12: Life is Long as Long as You Know How to Use it

Is life really short? It’s not that our life is short, it’s that we don’t make good use of it.

Complaining, working a shitty job, and settling for less makes a short life.

A long life is one in which you develop yourself, be kind and do what you love on a daily basis.

Lesson 13: The Big 3

Stoicism in a nutshell.

1. Control your perceptions

2. Direct your actions properly

3. Accept what’s outside your control

"all you need are these: certainty of judgment in the present moment; action for good in the present moment; and an attitude of gratitude in the present moment for anything that comes your way."

Video Review by The Productivity Game

Key Takeaways

"The single most important practice in Stoic philosophy is differentiating between what we can change and what we can't."

Starting your day with some Stoic philosophy could be like enjoying a hot cup of coffee if cough is your thing.

The right Stoic idea can provide clarity and ready your mind for the challenges ahead.

Ancient Stoics like Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus found that meditating on Stoic ideas allowed them to reduce the struggle of daily life.

• Aurelius used Stoic philosophy to produce the headache of running a massive Roman Empire.
• Epictetus relied on stoic philosophy to endure life as a slave and go on to become a highly regarded teacher in Rome.

The Daily Stoic contains 366 stoic meditations that will help ready your mind every day for a year.

This video shows several Stoic ideas and five essential Stoic meditations that you can reflect to manage stress, minimize distractions and be more productive.

5 Essential Stoic Meditations

Lesson 1: The one thing I control is my mind.

I don’t control my body. My body can be damaged in a car crash or confined to a bed after being exposed to a virus.

I don’t control others. I can influence and incentivize others to do what I want them to do, but I ultimately have no control over what people do or don’t do.

I don’t control my day. If I get an emergency phone call from my wife, my plans get scrapped.

The only thing I control is my mind. More specifically I control how I reason and how I respond to events.

Realizing that I only control my mind is empowering because regardless of how out of control life seems, I know that I control what I think and what I focus on.

I can choose to be curious when others are afraid and I can choose to see opportunities when others see threats.

Knowing I only control my mind is liberating because if I use sound reasoning I’ve done everything in my power and can simply let whatever happens, happen.

Remind yourself the only thing you control is your mind, your reasoning and your response to events

See what effect that Stoic idea has on your attitude during the day.

Lesson 2: I can do three things.

When you encounter a stressful situation, you can do three things: alter your perspective, take right action or endure.

The first thing you can do to combat alter your perspective.

By seeing your situation from another point of view, you can avoid getting bogged down by distracting emotions and retain your ability to think clearly.

The ancient Stoics often adopted a comic’s perspective to lighten their mood and sharpen their mind.

Try adopting a comic’s perspective the next time you encounter a setback and look for something humorous about your situation that you could tell a friend at a party next week.

The second thing you can do to combat a stressful situation is to take right action.

Avoiding, delaying and blaming others are actions, but they aren’t right actions. 

Right action improves your situation and gets you closer to your goal.

Taking right action does not mean taking the perfect action. It simply means doing something small to get the ball rolling in the right direction.

The third thing you can do to combat a stressful situation is to endure.

The biggest obstacle to happiness is the expectation that we should always be happy.

Sometimes the best course of action is to endure a period of discomfort and wait for the storm to pass.

Identify one problem you expect to face and simulate altering your perspective, taking right action, and enduring.

Lesson 3: Sweat the small stuff.

Imagine every small and seemingly insignificant decision you make today is repeated every day until you die.

If in a moment of weakness today you stop by a fast food restaurant to get a burger and fries, you must now eat a burger and fries every day until you die. 

If you procrastinate for an hour today, you must procrastinate for an hour every day for the rest of your life.

Imagine in 20 years what you could have done with the thousands of hours you’ve wasted and how much sooner you could have achieved financial freedom.

This thought experiment is a bit extreme, but it’s helpful because your success in life is the accumulation of small and seemingly insignificant daily choices.

Be aware of the small choices you’re making every day and ask yourself: am I making the easy choice or the right choice?

"Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life."

Lesson 4: Desire wisely.

If you want a big home and a nice car, you’ll need to give up some freedom to attain and maintain those things.

"The more things we desire and the more we have to do to earn and attain those achievements, the less we actually enjoy our lives and the less free we are."

What we desire attaches strings to our mind and guides our movements like a puppet master.

If we could somehow desire nothing we would be invincible because nothing would pull at our minds and no person could leverage our desires to get us to do something.

But the objective is not to drop our desires. Desire is part of life and necessary to achieve success.

The objective is simply to limit desires so that we can retain our sense of freedom.

The ideal goal is to have one big desire at a time. 

One thing that you will allow to dictate your emotions and thoughts for part of the day, this way you can maximize your success and your happiness.

Ask yourself: what one desire is worth giving up some freedom to attain today?

Lesson 5: Take delight in simple things.

“Barley porridge, or a crust of barley bread, and water do not make a very cheerful diet, but nothing gives one keener pleasure than having the ability to derive pleasure even from that.”

Seneca learned to take delight in his ability to find a light in simple things.

If Seneca could find pleasure in simple things 2000 years ago surely we can do it today.

You can take delight in so many ways these days:

• waking up in a temperature-controlled room and having a comforter made of soft fabric
• hot water that comes out of a shower head seconds after turning the handle

If a 15th century peasant arrived in modern times she would constantly be amazed at what she sees, what she tastes, and what she experiences.

Adopt the perspective of a 15th century peasant and go through your day in a sense of awe of everything you see, taste, and experience so that you leave little room for negative emotion to ruin your day.