The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

Most Replayed Moment: Make 2026 Your Best Year Yet! 5 Daily Practices For Health And Happiness

January 2, 2026

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  • The core themes of living a good life, derived from reading widely across philosophies, boil down to focusing energy only on what is within one's control. 
  • Five daily Stoic practices for peace, purpose, and resilience include focusing on what's controllable, incorporating water/walking, doing something difficult physically, contributing to the common good, and practicing *memento mori* (remembering mortality). 
  • Stoicism is not about suppressing emotion but understanding its cause, processing it, and choosing not to be a slave to the resulting inclination to act. 

Segments

Wisdom in Reading
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(00:00:03)
  • Key Takeaway: Reading is the primary method for living multiple lives and accessing accumulated human wisdom.
  • Summary: Reading allows one to absorb the wisdom of millions of people who have achieved groundbreaking or terrible things. This accumulated wisdom, found in books, often reveals similar core themes across different philosophies. These themes tend to converge, similar to the ends of a horseshoe, encompassing Eastern and Western thought.
Stoic Practice 1: Control
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(00:00:51)
  • Key Takeaway: The foundational Stoic practice is separating all events into two categories: what is up to you and what is not up to you.
  • Summary: Epictetus taught that separating things into controllable and uncontrollable categories is life’s first job. Spending energy emoting about or worrying over things outside one’s control is a massive waste of personal resources. This is likened to wasting half a car’s power on wheels that are not touching the ground.
Stoic Practice 2: Water and Walks
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(00:02:07)
  • Key Takeaway: Long walks and immersion in water provide peace, inspiration, and stillness because humans evolved traversing long distances.
  • Summary: There is magic in water and long walks, as few problems are made worse by taking one. Humans evolved traveling long distances, and the rhythm of movement forces presence and thought. The sound of water is also noted as universally calming across religious traditions.
Stoic Practice 3: Do Something Hard
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(00:04:02)
  • Key Takeaway: Challenging oneself physically every day is an essential skill for building resilience against whatever life presents.
  • Summary: This practice involves doing something physically difficult daily, ranging from minor dietary choices to intense exercise like sprinting or cycling. The walk is for mental health, but this third ritual is specifically for physical health and building the capacity to handle struggle. Ancient traditions, like the Romans training in wrestling, viewed physical challenge as necessary for a strong mind and body.
Stoic Practice 4: Common Good
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(00:05:08)
  • Key Takeaway: Meaning in life is derived from servicing others and contributing to the common good, leaving the world better than you found it.
  • Summary: Marcus Aurelius frequently emphasized the common good, stating humans are put here for other people. The meaning of life is found in positive contribution and legacy, not in wealth or records broken. Service to the collective is framed as an obligation of being human.
Stoic Practice 5: Memento Mori
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(00:08:29)
  • Key Takeaway: The practice of memento mori—remembering one’s mortality—creates urgency and perspective necessary to avoid wasting life through procrastination.
  • Summary: Death is the one prophecy that never fails, and accepting this fact provides essential perspective. People often procrastinate because they believe they have forever, a delusion reinforced by modern longevity. Living with the awareness that one could die at any moment determines how time is spent.
Struggles with Stoicism
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(00:11:45)
  • Key Takeaway: The greatest struggle in Stoicism is not suppressing emotion, but processing feelings to avoid becoming a slave to them.
  • Summary: Stoicism is often misunderstood as being emotionless; however, the practice involves identifying the cause of ‘big feelings’ and assessing if the resulting inclination to act is wise. Regrettable actions, like losing one’s temper, often stem from acting immediately on frustration. The goal is to understand the emotion without letting it dictate behavior.
Preferred Indifference
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(00:16:40)
  • Key Takeaway: Stoics practice ‘preferred indifference,’ meaning one can desire favorable circumstances (like good weather) without needing them to function or be happy.
  • Summary: Two things can be true: one can thrive in any situation, and simultaneously prefer certain conditions. It is better to be rich than poor, or for the weather to be nice, but these are not essential for virtue. The key is to know what is nice to have but never need it, exemplified by the coach who is a ‘dress for the weather guy.’
Final Wisdom on Mortality
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(00:18:32)
  • Key Takeaway: The ultimate benefit derived from the death of loved ones is the reminder that our own time is finite, urging us to use the time we have left well.
  • Summary: Referencing Marcus Aurelius, the final act of life is to assess if one did a good job with the time allotted. The loss of loved ones serves as a powerful, living reminder that none of us get forever. The gift of tomorrow should never be taken for granted.