The Daily Stoic Podcast

BONUS | 3 Practices to Improve Your Life In a Week
Date: February 26, 2026
Host: Daily Stoic (Ryan Holiday)

Episode Overview

This bonus episode of The Daily Stoic centers on practical Stoic-inspired routines that can meaningfully enhance your sense of happiness, control, and intentionality in just one week. The guest (Speaker C, a clinician and author) shares his own morning practices, the profound impact of intention in daily routines, and three concise journaling questions designed to shift focus from external chaos to internal stability and purpose. The discussion draws from personal experience, clinical insight, and research in both psychology and the wisdom of Stoicism.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Power of Core Happiness vs. "Junk Happiness"

• Core Happiness Ingredients: Alignment, contentment, and control are identified as the pillars of genuine, lasting happiness.

  “Core happiness, as opposed to junk happiness, the happiness that I think we're all really looking for... those three ingredients that I mentioned, alignment, contentment, and control. I think they're all important. They're all equally important to me. But that control, one, I think is really, really important, particularly in the world in which we live today.” – C (01:22)

• Sense of Control:
  Speaker C emphasizes the psychological distinction between controlling the world (impossible) and cultivating an internal sense of control, especially through daily, intentional actions.

  “When I say control, I'm talking about a sense of control. I'm not talking about controlling the external world, which is fundamentally, in so many ways, uncontrollable... giving yourself a sense of control each day through your actions is a very powerful way to ground yourself and insulate you.” – C (02:13)

Rituals for Groundedness and Intentionality

• Simple Morning Rituals:
  Even a five-minute practice, like brewing coffee and doing a short workout, can instill structure and calm, especially while traveling.

  “In the five minutes that it brews, I do a little strength workout in my pajamas... it actually is very helpful because it's a grounding practice that helps me feel, oh, I've got a sense of control over my day.” – C (03:01)

• Journaling as a Foundation:
  Speaker C introduces three reflective morning questions that act as focal points for daily intention, drawing from gratitude research and experience with patients.

The Three Transformative Journaling Questions

1. What is one thing I deeply appreciate about my life?

   • Bridges negativity bias with intentional gratitude, focusing attention on positivity from the start of the day.
   • A counterpoint to the default of feeding one's mind with negative information first thing in the morning (e.g., news, social media).

   “If you infuse your brain with negativity first thing in the morning. Is it any wonder that half an hour later, you're a bit negative about the world, You're a bit reactive with your children or your partner?” – C (04:07)

2. What is the most important thing I have to do today?

   • Helps prioritize amidst overwhelming to-do lists, overcoming the myth of "productivity" as clearing everything rather than focusing on what truly matters.
   • Inspired by the concept that "priority" was only ever singular in its original English usage.

   “That question just cuts through all the noise and goes, what is the most important thing I have to do today?” – C (07:09)

   • Provides real-life examples—sometimes the priority is work; other days, it's relationships or being present for family.

   “On the Wednesday... I put down at 4pm when the children walk through the door from school. The most important thing I have to do today is make sure my laptop is shut and my phone's in a different room so I can be fully present with what they have to tell me.” – C (08:23)

   • The guest challenges listeners to try this practice for a week and experience a tangible difference.

   “If there's nothing else you take from this conversation, but just answer that one question each day and you then act on what you write down. It is inconceivable to me that your life will not feel different in seven days.” – C (09:20)

3. Which quality do I want to showcase to the world today?

   • Promotes self-directed behavior and avoids being stuck in habitual patterns.
   • Encourages intentional embodiment of virtues like compassion, especially in moments of potential reactivity.

   “If I spend a minute going, what quality do I want to showcase to the world today? Okay, like today, when I wrote it in my journal, it was compassion... it makes it a little bit more likely that I'm not going to react.” – C (10:13)

Clinical Observations and Regret at Life’s End

• Learning from Regrets of the Dying:
  Drawing from Bronnie Ware’s research and personal clinical experience, the guest observes that people often regret not prioritizing what truly matters—highlighting the importance of answering the second journaling question daily before it’s too late.

  “At the end of people's lives, they all say the same things. I wish I'd worked less. I wish I spent more time with my friends and family. I wish I'd lived my life and not the life that other people expected of me.” – C (06:19)

• Stress & Health:
  Chronic stress, often fueled by endless to-do lists, can precipitate health issues. Being intentional with what matters daily is a protective action.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You do have a morning routine, even if you think you don't. The question is, are you intentional about it?” – C (03:58)
• “Most of what we do each day is just repetition. We're repeating our past behaviors, our past thought patterns, and we can change that with intentionality.” – C (10:01)
• “Your brain is hardwired at the end of the day: Oh, God, I didn't get that done. I didn't get that done... You need to take action each day in some way to insulate yourself against that. There are always going to be things that you don't do, but you identify the one thing, you do it. And it means you start to change your relationship with yourself because you start to feel like, yeah, I'm a winner.” – C (09:44)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:07] – Introduction to the three-question journaling routine
• [03:01] – Example of a grounding ritual while traveling
• [04:07] – The science of gratitude vs. morning negativity/negativity bias
• [05:35] – How daily intentions shape actions and prevent regret
• [06:19] – Insights from Bronnie Ware: Regrets of the dying
• [07:09] – Historical context of "priority" and focusing attention
• [08:23] – Practical application of the "most important thing" question for relationships
• [10:13] – Embodying virtues and shifting patterns through intentionality

Final Thoughts

The episode delivers an accessible, Stoic-inspired toolkit: a morning ritual of three journaling questions that reframe each day’s approach to happiness, priority, and virtue. Speaker C’s clinical insights and relatable examples make the case that, with even brief daily intention, anyone can dramatically shift their outlook within a single week—grounding themselves in core Stoic virtues and inhabiting life more fully and purposefully.