Epictetus reminds us, "You possess strengths you might not realize you have." This is why we first created the New Year New You challenge five years ago. But this year isn't the same challenge as years past. This is 21 days of brand-new challenges—presented one per day, built around the best, most timeless wisdom in Stoic philosophy—designed to help you tap in to strengths you might not realize you have.
To that end, the great Stoic Epictetus has the perfect question for us: "How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?" How much time are we going to let escape us? Hopefully not much longer. The main thing is that we stop expecting this to simply happen. In one of the best passages in Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, Marcus tells himself to stop hoping and "be his own savior while he can."
In a recent video on the Daily Stoic YouTube Channel, Ryan Holiday shares Stoic advice for how to actually be happier in 2024. Seneca says that "a good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness." If we truly want to be happier in the new year, we need to focus on developing our own virtue and character, and not linger on other people's opinions:
"Marcus Aurelius says that ambition is tying your well-being to what other people say and do…But sanity, he says, is tying it to your own actions. You have to have the internal compass that says to yourself 'I'm doing good work,' 'what I'm doing matters,' 'this is the right thing,' 'this is success.' You have to define that for yourself. You can't let other people do it — because then you've handed your happiness, your wealth, everything over to somebody else."
In a recent episode of The Daily Stoic Podcast, Ryan speaks with clinical psychologist Dr. Becky Kennedy about her book Good Inside, the concept of "emotional vaccination," how memories are embedded in our bodily reactions, the distinction between regulating and suppressing emotions, and the gap between good identity and bad behavior:
"I was left with was this singular thought: kids are good inside. Adults, I believe, are too. People are good inside. And then I started to build up from there. And I realized, there's a gap. There's a literal gap between good identity and bad behavior. In all of our most frustrated moments—with our kids and our spouses and our colleagues and ourselves—there's no space between those two things; we don't recognize that gap. And when you're able to separate those things and say, 'wait,' to me this is a key phrase, 'I have a good kid who's having a hard time,' then we start to see their behavior as a sign of their struggle and as a sign of their needs and as a sign of the skills they need to build instead of as a sign of who they are."
As Marcus Aurelius says, sanity is tying your ambition to your internal compass, to creating your own definition of success. That's what The New Year New You challenge is all about…
This isn't abstract theory, but a series of immediate exercises and methods you can begin right now to form your own internal compass and determine your unique path to success in 2024.
These 21 all-new challenges—delivered one per day, right into your inbox—will help you:
✓ Learn to stop procrastinating and avoiding the change you truly desire ✓ Build new habits that form a strong foundation for change ✓ Abandon the harmful habits that are dragging you down ✓ Strengthen your character, becoming a more virtuous version of yourself
And above all: You will uncover your hidden strengths and capabilities.
There's just TWO DAYS left before the challenge officially begins. Stop delaying and start making your own way. Head over to dailystoic.com/challenge and sign up NOW!
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