26 Stoic Rules to Survive an Uncertain 2026

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Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Sundays, we take a deeper dive into these ancient topics with excerpts from the Stoic texts, audiobooks that we like here or recommend here at Daily Stoic. and other long form wisdom that you can chew on on this relaxing weekend. We hope this helps shape your understanding of this philosophy and most importantly, that you're able to apply it to your actual life. Thank you for listening.

The one thing we can say for certain about the year ahead is that it is uncertain. We don't know what's going to happen. But one thing you can count on in the year ahead is yourself. Things are going to be unnerving and overwhelming. confusing but if you have a set of guidelines if you have a set of values if you have

what they call panic rules, things that you do when things feel like they're falling apart. That's going to help you. You want to be able to count on yourself in 2026. So here are 26 stoic rules. stoic guidelines to help you in the uncertain year ahead. And if you follow them and if you live by them, I can guarantee you will have a great year regardless of what's happening in the world around you. Number one, don't have an opinion about me.

everything this is what Marcus Aurelius says remember we always have the power to have no opinion we are going to be flooded with the latest breaking news with hot takes with trends with everyone's opinions it's way too much to manage and while some things you should have an opinion about some things you don't need to have an opinion about things are not asking to be judged by you marx really says

leave them alone leave other people to their own opinions leave their arguing alone don't chase every trend don't chase every latest outrage focus your attention where it matters focus your attention on what's important. Leave the rest alone. This is the essential task in life, Epictetus says. Some things are up to us. Some things are not up to us. Focus your attention on what is up to you. That's the core of stoic philosophy. Yeah, the world is chaotic. It doesn't make sense.

it's overwhelming you don't control everything that happens you don't control all that you don't control what other people do and say but you control how you respond to those things you control your mind you control your values you control your actions

you control what you do about it. Number three, you need to cut out everything that isn't essential. This comes to us from Mark Sturrilis as well. He says, we should ask ourselves at every moment, is this thing essential? And he says, if it isn't, we should get rid of it. And by the way, much of what-

we do is not essential. It's not important. It's not helping us. It doesn't matter. It's an obligation we inherited. It's a glittering distraction that caught our attention. It's something that doesn't move the needle. And he says, when you get rid of the inessential,

you get this double benefit. He says, because then you can do the essential things better. So going into the year, you want to stop wasting your energy, wasting your time, wasting your mental bandwidth. You only have so much energy. You only have so much time. Focus it on the essential.

Look, the morning is calm. quiet less has happened less is asked of you and most people sleep through this golden wonderful time the morning is the most important time of the day i'm not saying it's easy to get up early one of the fascinating passages in meditation meditations as Mark's really arguing with himself about why he should get up early. He says, you were not put here to huddle under the covers and stay warm. The morning is a sacred, special, wonderful time. Wake up, get

after it. You were not meant to huddle under the covers and be warm. Take this quiet time. Don't get sucked into your phone right away. Use it. And if you're getting up early, then number five bookends very nicely.

with that at the end of the day take some time to reflect on the time just passed through journaling this is basically what stoicism is i would say stoicism and journaling are inseparable practices and given how crazy given how frustrating given how overwhelming the year is likely to be where and how are you going to be processing that where and how are you going to be holding yourself accountable seneca says we should basically interrogate ourselves

at the end of the day he said he waited for his wife to go to sleep and he would sit down and sit with the pages of a journal and look at what he did well look at what he didn't do so well he said let nothing pass you by put it up for review. The evening review is the perfect way to wind down the day. Go to sleep. and wake up and do better tomorrow. Stop giving your time away. It's crazy the Stoics say that we are protective of our property.

and of our money and then we're frivolous with our time the one thing you can't recover the one thing they're not making any more of life isn't short seneca says a year is a long time the problem we just waste it we waste it on inessential things we waste it getting distracted and upset by things that have nothing to do with us that we can't control time is precious act

accordingly. You only have so many hours in a day. You only have so many hours in a year. How are you going to spend them? And how are you going to spend them on things that matter? Always be challenging yourself. The Stokes would say life is uncomfortable.

So get used to being uncomfortable. Seneca would set aside a certain number of days throughout the year where he would survive on very little food or sleep on the ground. He would try to rough it, basically. And he said the point of this was to get up close and...

comfortable with conditions that you can then say to yourself this is what i was afraid of most of the time we're trying to make life easier and smoother and it's a good instinct i guess but the problem then is that this makes us afraid of losing that comfort and if we can actively challenge ourselves, get outside our comfort zone, get familiar with other states of living and being that other people are petrified of, it makes us freer.

because then we can be more courageous. We understand we can handle whatever happens and we're toughening ourselves up as we go. And that's always a good thing. You should do something for the common good every single day, right? The world is dark. Bad things are going to be happening in.

2026 things you don't like are going to happen in 2026 if you want to make sure you don't live in a dark screwed up awful world well one thing you can do is not be dark and awful you can do good things right stoicism is not just about self-improvement it's a

philosophy around helping others and improving the world. Mark Soros talks about the idea of the common good something like 80 times in meditations. He says actually the fruit of a good life is good character and acts for the common good. So what is the good you're going to do?

And if you can set a rule that you always try to do good, you'll have a good year. Number nine, silence distractions. Here at the beginning of the year, get a TV out of your bedroom, get the phone out of your bedroom, delete apps from your phone. Limit the inputs. We are needlessly bombarded by way too much noise, way too many things competing for our attention. And you got to learn how to shut this out.

concentrating like a roman doing it as if this thing in front of you matters being philosophical is the ability to go deep it's the ability to lock in the ability to tune out and you're gonna need this in a crazy year 10

Pause before you react. Athena Doris, an ancient Stoic who lived in the time of augustus he's an advisor to the future young emperor back when his name was octavian and he tells octavian that one of the keys to being a successful leader is that before he reacts to anything before he does anything out of anger he should count all 24 letters of the alphabet. There are only being 24 letters in the alphabet then. The idea is pause and reflect.

You can have the emotion. You can have the feeling. You can be triggered. But what matters is whether you take the action on it or not. Pause. and reflect i actually carry a coin in my pocket that reminds me of this very idea it's awesome one of the things we do when we pause and reflect we have to put every impression and emotion and opinion to the test right this is what stoicism is saying

I'm having this feeling, I'm having this thought. Is it true? Is it important? Is it in line with the values I have with the person? i want to be epictetus talked about how a philosopher should be able to take every impression opinion bit of information it gets and test it the way a money changer checks for counterfeit currency he said they can bang it on the table and tell in an

instant if the metal is diluted or not. The idea is you're gonna have emotions, you're gonna have strong opinions, you're gonna think things and wanna do things in 2026. But do you have the ability to go, hey, is my assumption here correct?

Is my information correct? Is this what I want to do? Is this who I want to be? You want to put all this stuff to the test. The Stoics were not emotionless. They just tried not to... do things out of emotion and that is a critical difference if you want to have a rich 2026 reduce your desires epictetus says that if you wish for things to be as they are you will have them And so if you can reduce your needs, if you can reduce your baseline, if you can reduce your expectations

you'll have a rich and prosperous 2026. If this year or any year is dependent on you achieving or getting things at a certain level, then your success is going to be dependent on things going a certain way. And that's a vulnerable place to be.

bigger house a bigger car if you need more followers more attention right you're going to be on a treadmill this year and that's what Seneca means when he said it's not the person who has little that's poor it's the person who wants more the most avoidable form of poverty is wanting more than you have the idea is being able to be grateful to appreciate to be good with what you've got that's the recipe for a great year number 13 just that you do the right thing The rest doesn't matter.

That's Marcus Aurelius writing to himself in meditations. The stoic virtue of justice has nothing to do with whether things are legal or not. It doesn't matter if people are watching or not. It doesn't matter if you can get away with it. What they cared about is, is it the right thing?

thing to do you have to have your code you have to have your values you have to have your ethics and you stick by them and by the way in a world where it seems like everything is upside down when when bad people are getting ahead when horrible things are happening and no one's being held accountable

One way you can get your bearings, one way you can make things right again is by focusing on doing the right thing. Again, not expecting a reward, not expecting a parade, not expecting recognition, but saying, hey, I do what's right.

that's what's in my control that's the kind of person i want to be that's the kind of world i want to live in the rest of the stoics say doesn't matter i mean of course it does matter and this is why we have a legal system and all of that they're just saying that's not as up to you and so what you should focus on is the part of it that's up to you which is the standard of behavior you set and keep for yourself number 14.

practice acceptance. Look, there's going to be stuff that happens in 2026 that you don't like, that you didn't want. And I don't just mean like out in the world. I just mean like that's life, right?

there's going to be travel delays the stock market's going to go up and down people are going to say things you don't like like stuff's just going to happen nobody gets their way and so what stoicism is isn't is an understanding that we have to accept this that's very different than resignation right you accept

that this happened and you focus on your response your attitude what you're going to do about it this is what they mean when they say the obstacle is the way you want to treat what happens as an opportunity but to first do that you have to accept what it is and what it represents You have to accept the things it closed and you have to accept the things that it opened for you. That's the form of acceptance you're going to need to practice in the year ahead.

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Don't suffer more than you have to. As I said, bad things are gonna happen. The problem is the anxiety and the fear that we have about the potential of that happening. Seneca says that he who suffers before it is necessary suffers. more than is necessary. And he says, the reality is a lot of us suffer more in our minds than we do in reality. The dread, the torture, the anxiety. What if this? What if that? What if this? What if that? That's not stoicism. You want to be prepared.

you want to be trained to handle the various contingencies that might come up you want to make sure you're not torturing yourself in advance what's going to happen is what's going to happen what matters is are you the kind of person Who can roll with the punches? Are you the kind of person who doesn't lose their cool? Are you the person that focuses on what you're gonna do about it?

emoting about the problem fretting about the problem worrying about the problem talking to people about the problem none of that does anything about the problem so don't suffer more than you have to this year number 16. talk less listen more xeno says we have two ears and one mouth for a reason let's try to orient our outputs and our inputs around that ratio this year when you open your mouth you stop

So let's focus on learning. Let's focus on hearing. Let's focus on connection. Let's focus on chattering. less and this goes back to that idea of cutting out the inessential most of these things don't need you to talk about them most of these things are not asking for your opinion talk less listen more 17. let's focus on progress not perfection like of course we're going to want things to go well we want to hold ourselves to our standards we want to make sure everything's going the right way

But also this perfectionism is often just a dressed up version of procrastination. Churchill actually said a great way to spell perfectionism was paralysis. Just get after it this year. Get moving. you don't need a perfect complete solution to every problem you need to make progress this is one of my rules like just a couple crappy pages a day as a writer as long as i'm making a contribution as long as i'm getting better as long as i'm moving forward

I'm happy with that. I'm going to celebrate that as a win. I'm not going to expect perfection because perfection is impossible, especially in a flawed world that we don't control. And this is actually something the Stoics talk about. They say we don't despair of a pursuit because perfection is impossible. No, we want to get better. We want to improve. And by the way, that's how you do get to some impressive place. The Stoic said that well-being is realized by small steps.

but it's no small thing little contributions day to day refine as you go that ends up somewhere much more impressive than the paralysis that perfectionism can induce in us number 18 be strict with yourself but tolerant with others it's good to have high standards it's good to know what's important it's good to know what works it's good to know how things should be done but we have to remember the virtue here is self-discipline we don't get to be a tyrant we don't get to be a strict

taskmaster. Mark Ceruleus writes this in meditations. He says, remember, tolerant with others, strict with yourself. You control you. You don't control other people. You don't get to go around being disappointed in them because they didn't live up to your standards, especially if they never signed up.

for your standards in the first place. They don't have the advantages you have. They don't have the training you have. They didn't ask to be bullied or judged by you. So let's be... appreciative let's be understanding let's celebrate other people for what they are and what they're capable of let's leave the strictness and the standards for ourselves number 19 stop complaining this year complaining doesn't make

to make situations better. That's not what people who change things do. In Meditation's Mark Cirillo says, never be overheard complaining, not even. to yourself traffic is annoying but yelling in your car isn't changing anything yeah that thing that somebody said to you was rude or crappy but whining about it later letting it ruin your day that doesn't change anything

Complaining doesn't change things. Focusing on what you're going to do about them is a much better use of your energy. Don't be a downer. Don't be a whiner. Focus on what's up to you. That's what matters. Number 20, love everything.

that happens it's one thing to practice acceptance and we're going to have to do that in the year ahead it's another to see opportunities inside obstacles that's another thing we're going to have to do this year but this concept of amor fati which comes to us from nietzsche but is essentially stoicism

is the highest level. It's the idea of saying, hey, it's actually great that it happened. It's good that things are so screwed up. It's good that things are so frustrating and dysfunctional. This is the opportunity. This is the opportunity for me to do good. This is the opportunity for me to grow this is the opportunity for me to be heroic this is the opportunity for me to step up this is forming me shaping me this is exactly the way it's meant to be and i'm going to meet this moment

moment that's what loving everything that happens is about now that doesn't mean you love that the economy crashed doesn't mean you love that someone just robbed you doesn't mean you love that you got a cancer diagnosis that would be profoundly insensitive. The idea of amor fati is you love what it's going to do to you. You love how you are going to change in response to it. You love what this is going to teach you. You love what you are going to make of it.

what stoicism is that's the attitude we need to bring to the new year number 21 you have to detach your self-worth from outcomes as they say in the bhagavad gita you are entitled to the work you are not entitled

to the fruits of the work most of the outcomes are not in our control when i write a book i control what i put into it i control the writing i control that work i don't control once i put it out what people say about it how it sells i don't control any of that stuff i have to learn to love that part of it i have to learn to love sitting down and writing i have to learn that success is doing that that that's my job that that's the part to

As Marx really says in meditations, it's insane to tie your well-being to things outside your control, to let other people say whether you succeeded. He says, happiness and tranquility is tying your success. to what's in your control, to the reaching of your standards, to the effort that you put in, to what you learned, what you take out of the process. That's what we have to focus on. Focus on the process in 2026.

Focus on what's up to you in 2026, not what other people say about you, not the results that come in in the year ahead. 22, take a book with you everywhere. you go the foundational story of stoicism is xeno learning from the oracle of delphi that the secret to wisdom

is to have conversations with the dead. That's what reading is. It's a superpower. It's a chance to talk to people who aren't here anymore. I'm talking to you about Mark Strelis and Seneca and Epictetus, some of the wisest people who ever lived as if they're still with us because they are still with me. I carry them. with me everywhere.

I engage with them on a daily basis. The year ahead is gonna be rough. It's gonna throw a lot at you. You wanna annex the wisdom from the past into your own life. That's what Seneca said, the study of philosophy allows you to do. Read less news in the year ahead. Focus less on what's happening in any given moment and talk to the dead instead. Talk to the wise people who have been through stuff like this before and learn what they have to teach us. 23, say no a lot.

this year. I think this is one of the hardest things to do in life, to say no to invitations, to requests, to obligations, to the stuff everyone else is doing, to say no to money. The problem is we don't understand that when we're saying yes, we are in fact saying no.

We're saying no to ourselves. We're saying no to our family. We're saying no to our work. We're saying no to our health. We're saying no to what we should actually be doing. For some reason, it's harder to be rude to this person who sends you an email asking you to do them a huge favor than it is to be rude to your seven-year-old who wants to play who wonders why you're not home when you're usually home say no

this year say no to the things that are inessential as marcus really reminds us so you can say yes to the things that are essential remember no is a complete sentence you don't have to explain don't be rude on purpose don't be a jerk but if it's not essential if it's not important if you know it's not what really moves the needle what you really need to be doing this year say no to it And that's gonna mean saying no a lot. Number 24, ask.

for help one of the big misconceptions about stoicism is that it's about creating invincible untouchable invulnerable superheroes you are not an island you are not in this alone you are not capable of doing this alone one of the most beautiful passages from mark surrealist has him saying that we are like soldiers storming a wall he says if you've fallen

and you have to ask a comrade for help so what right he's saying so what because that's actually the job of a soldier they are meant for each other they are meant to help each other when your friends ask you for help when they come to you with something they're struggling with or thinking about or whatever

it is you're never like get the fuck out of here no you're like thank you it means something to you and then for some reason we're reluctant to do that ourselves ask for help this year it will make you better it will connect you more to others it will make you capable of doing what you need to do this year Number 25, stop comparing yourselves to others. We are running our own race.

here you don't know other people's races you don't know when they started you don't know how far they're going you don't even know if they're telling the truth right most people are lying about their success you think instagram influencers actually live like these photos look Of course not. And yet, here we are.

being envious and insecure, asking ourselves, why am I not doing that? Are they doing better than me? Do you think it's good for business, for competitors to talk about how much trouble they're having? No, everyone is lying. Everyone is pretending. Everyone is painting a false picture.

Seneca said the key to a good life is to have a sense of the path that you're on. And he said to not be distracted by the paths that crisscross yours. And this is the important part. He said, especially from the footsteps of those. who are helplessly lost. Know where you're going, know the race you're running, run that race, ignore everything else around you. And number 26, this might seem a little morbid, but it is essential. Think about death.

every day. The stoic exercise here is memento mori, right? Remember you are mortal. You are not going to live forever. You do not have unlimited time. You don't control when or how you go. This isn't supposed to be depressing. It is a tool to create priority.

and meaning you could leave life right now marx really says in meditations let that determine what you do and say and think and this has been a tool for generations philosophers use it to create perspective and urgency and priority and clarity when you think about your life coming to a close, it tells you what's essential and what isn't. It turns down the volume on so much stuff. So do this practice and understand, as Seneca says.

that death isn't this thing that's going to come at us once but in fact we are dying every day we are dying every minute a year has just come to a close you'll never get that year back is gone forever we are dying every day we are dying every minute so we should live Live accordingly. And that's what this practice of memento mori reminds us to do. Life is short. We don't know how long we have. Let's live accordingly.