Overview of Use This As Practice | 3 Stoic Exercises For Your Best Month Yet
This Daily Stoic episode (host Ryan Holiday, narrated by Katie McGurl) offers three practical Stoic exercises to reset habits, build resilience, and make the coming month your best yet. It emphasizes using ordinary setbacks (illness, bad weeks, distraction) as daily practice in endurance and character, and translates classic Stoic teachings from Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca into simple, repeatable habits.
Key takeaways
- Treat discomfort and setbacks as practice: pain and inconvenience are opportunities to strengthen character, not reasons to despair.
- Build momentum through small, consistent actions (the “chain” method): success and habit-change are won day-by-day.
- Focus on the present task — how you handle small things reveals how you’ll handle larger ones.
- Daily reflection (Seneca-style questions) accelerates improvement and keeps habits honest.
The three Stoic exercises
1) Use discomfort as practice (reframe pain)
- Core idea: When you’re ill, frustrated, or uncomfortable, consciously treat it as training for future adversity rather than catastrophe.
- Sources: Marcus Aurelius — don’t let pain degrade your reason; Epicurus — pain is limited, don’t magnify it.
- Practical use: When sick or stressed, remind yourself symptoms are temporary and use the situation to practice patience, clarity, and self-control.
2) The chain method (build/stop habits by tracking streaks)
- Core idea: Mark each day you succeed (or avoid a bad habit). Keep the chain unbroken — momentum reduces friction.
- Source analogy: Jerry Seinfeld’s calendar method; Epictetus recommending counting days without anger.
- Practical use: Pick one habit to start or one habit to stop. Track daily. Aim for persistence (30 days as a milestone). Use the streak to discourage breaking momentum.
3) Present-moment excellence + nightly reflection
- Core idea A — Present focus: “How you do anything is how you do everything.” Treat current tasks as important and do them well.
- Core idea B — Reflective practice: End each day (and periodically each month/quarter/year) asking: What bad habit did I curb? How am I better? Were my actions just? How can I improve?
- Source: Seneca’s nightly self-questioning.
- Practical use: Apply full attention to today’s responsibilities; use nightly journaling to course-correct and reinforce progress.
Notable quotes / insights
- Marcus Aurelius: “I am awakening to the work of a human being. Why, then, am I annoyed that I am going to do what I’m made for…to be coddled or to exert yourself?”
- Epictetus: “If you don’t wish to be a hothead, don’t feed your habit…count the days you haven’t been angry.”
- Stoic maxim used in episode: “How you do anything is how you do everything.”
- Epicurus’ practical counsel: pain is not unbearable or unending if you keep its limits in mind and don’t magnify it.
Practical action plan (recommended to start this week)
- Morning ritual: On waking, say aloud (or write): “I am awakening to the work of a human being.” Get up and begin one intentional action toward your purpose.
- Choose one habit to build or break: create a visible daily tracker (calendar, app, wall chart). Mark each successful day; protect the chain.
- Present-focus exercise: for five minutes each hour, pause and ask, “What is the thing in front of me? Am I doing it well?”
- Nightly 5-minute reflection: answer Seneca-style questions (What did I improve? Where did I fail? How can I be better tomorrow?)
- Do a monthly/quarterly review: summarize streaks, failures, and changes to adjust goals.
Additional notes & resources mentioned
- Hosts/promotions: Episode mentions the Daily Stoic Spring Forward Challenge (discount code DSPOD20) and sponsors: Tonal (home strength system, promo code TDS) and Momentus supplements (promo code daily stoic). These are ancillary to the Stoic teachings but aimed at helping physical habits and recovery.
- Historical figures referenced: Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, Epicurus — used as practical anchors for each exercise.
Final thought
Small, consistent practices—reframing pain, protecting chains, focusing on the present, and reflecting nightly—compound quickly. Use minor setbacks as rehearsal for bigger tests and make steady, observable progress rather than waiting for dramatic change.