Hello, .
Over the past few weeks, some of you have told me you’d like to join The Stoa, but the price is beyond what you can manage right now. Then, when I stopped posting the daily Stoic workbooks as I was busy with my next project, some of you began asking for them again.
I missed them too. I find it useful to have something each day that makes me examine how I’m living- what I’m avoiding, which assumptions are limiting me, and what I could handle better.
It’s easy to spend years wanting things to change while carrying the same habits and beliefs into everything we attempt. They say madness is doing the same things and expecting your life to change. We postpone an ambition because we’re afraid of failing. We abandon something worthwhile when progress becomes uncomfortable. We work toward a better life, then struggle to enjoy it because we’ve already moved the conditions for being satisfied.
These patterns cost us time, opportunities, and the pleasure of being alive. Addressing them can open up possibilities we’ve spent years talking ourselves out of.
I want us to become happier, more at peace with ourselves, and more powerful in our ability to direct our lives. To trust our judgment, follow through on worthwhile ambitions, handle setbacks with courage, cultivate wholesome relationships, and enjoy what we’ve worked to build.
That’s why I’m introducing Stoicism Together, a dedicated group included in your paid subscription, of whatever tier, to The Stoic Manual or our other group The Stoa.
It’s a place for people from all over the world who share a similar outlook on life and want to put this philosophy into practice. We’ll work on the internal hindrances that keep us from living fully through a rigorous daily practice designed to fit into a just few minutes of your day.
Each day, I’ll share a Stoic passage, a short explanation of what it means and why it matters, and up to three questions to help you apply it to your life because we’re serious philosophers; we don’t stop at theory.
Here’s a taste of what to expect,
November 1 · 2026 — The proper place of recreation
Cicero, On Duties 1.103–104
The passage
There is a certain sort of amusement and wit that is free and courteous, suited to a well-bred person; another is coarse, insolent, shameful and indecent. We should use play and joking as we use sleep and other kinds of rest: when we have sufficiently performed the serious business of life. Even in recreation there must be moderation. Let us take care that pleasure does not lead us into some kind of disgrace.
Why this matters
Temperance concerns the wise use of pleasure, including recreation. Enjoyment has a proper place because the mind and our relationships need restoration. Yet diversion can become a way of evading decisions or obligations. Ask whether leisure leaves you better able to meet life, whether you can stop when you intend to, and whether the pleasure you choose is proportionate to what it costs.
Questions for reflection
How does your leisure affect the person you become afterward? Think about the last weekend or evening you spent largely on entertainment. Did it restore your capacity for attention, affection, and work, or leave you more restless and reluctant to return to your responsibilities?
Which pleasures do you call necessary rest because you dislike what would happen if you stopped? Consider a screen, a social routine, or an expensive habit you repeatedly extend beyond your intention. Are you recovering from effort, escaping an unresolved concern, or avoiding the discomfort of having unstructured time?
What would proportionate recreation look like today, given your actual obligations and energy? Identify a pleasure worth keeping and a boundary you’ve repeatedly ignored. What would you have to give up to honour that boundary without treating enjoyment itself as a vice?
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The practice asks you, in the manner Socrates used to effect change in his disciples, to be honest about how you’re living and what needs to change. We’ll examine the beliefs, thoughts and habits behind these patterns, question the excuses that protect them, identify what you can do differently, and do it.
The aim is to give you something useful to act on that day. A decision you’ve been postponing. A responsibility you need to accept. An unnecessary demand you can release. Something worth attempting before another year passes while stagnant.
Over time, we’ll work toward greater sovereignty: the ability to choose your actions deliberately, persist through difficulty, and pursue a life you have good reason to value.
And we’ll have people to practice with. You can share what you’re working through, ask a question, or learn from someone who has faced a similar difficulty. I’ll be practicing alongside you and participating regularly. I want us to get to know each other, keep each other accountable, return to conversations about what we’ve tried, and help each other recognize possibilities we might have missed alone.
You can also work through the questions privately. There’s no obligation to share, and you won’t need to catch up on missed workbooks. Begin with today’s passage and carry what’s useful into your day.
Stoicism Together is included at no extra cost for existing paid subscribers. If you’re currently reading for free, you can join by upgrading which also gives you access to TSM’s paid essays and archive. Lifetime (pay once) subscribers are included too.
The Stoa continues separately as our structured year-long program with its own curriculum and group mentorship.
I’m sharing something I’ve always used myself- a daily opportunity to examine what’s holding me back, act with greater courage and wisdom, and make fuller use of the life I have. I’d like you to join me if you want to get the most out of the philosophy.
Upgrade your subscription and join Stoicism Together.
P.S- Upgrade on web for a lower adjusted price.
Already a paid subscriber? Click here to join.
Below are reviews from The Stoa members (our year-long mentorship program) who have benefitted from my guidance over the past month,
Upgrade your subscription and join Stoicism Together.
P.S- Upgrade on web for a lower adjusted price.
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Years of wanting things to change while carrying the same habits and beliefs into everything we attempt: I know those years, and I think a daily examination is the right place to start. I'd push on one thing. Habits are the easier half, because I can catch a habit by the evening. Beliefs are harder, and the ones that cost me most never looked like beliefs at all. I wrote about this recently. A belief you chose feels like a belief. A belief that arrived before the question feels like reality you accept by default. One of mine was whether the life I watched my managers living was one I wanted, back when I was twenty-three and assumed the answer was obvious. Your question about the pleasures we call necessary rest gets close to this, because the word "rest" has already answered before you look. I call questions like that one first questions… asking yourself what others have already answered for you. A passage can point at a first question, and the asking still has to come out of my own life.