My Year With Stoicism

When entering the year 2026 I decided to focus my studies on Stoic philosophy. I’ve debated with myself on if I should dedicate more years of study to it, but I’ll let the year play out before making that decision. I did several of the courses from The Daily Stoic while also digging into what the Daily Stoic Book Club was reading for the month. While I got to reread Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, I also got to read about Plato’s philosophical experiment in Syracuse and the misadventures of Adora Hazard in Go Gentle. I think right now I should take time to reflect on how I got here and look at where I’m going.

 

I got into philosophy during the Covid-19 pandemic as I, along with millions of others, entered an existential crisis. I often use Spotify, and the first philosophy podcast I subscribed to was The Nietzsche Podcast by Essential Salts. Looking into what was available on the platform was what led me to The Daily Stoic, with Ryan Holiday uploading new content every day. This is how I was introduced to Stoic philosophy, a school of thought from Ancient Greece and The Roman Republic. I listened to the podcast every day and bought both The Daily Stoic and The Daily Dad books by Holiday.

 

After a turbulent 2024 I decided to jump into doing The Daily Stoic’s New Year, New You challenge, which I rather enjoyed. They also put out a course celebrating Marcus Aurelius’ 1,904^th birthday, with videos and articles on the Roman emperor. It was after reading Meditations for the first time that I decided that I’d buy a membership to Daily Stoic Life, and that’s when I found myself entering the manosphere. While I didn’t know what I was getting into, I recognized the type of operation having seen what the Tate Brothers were pulling. There are some women who are members, but the demographics strongly leans male.

 

What is the point of Daily Stoic life? I don’t find it a better social media site to use than something you could get for free like Facebook or Discord. And what are we paying for? As consumers of their products we get to talk to Ryan Holiday every other month it seems when he does a like Q & A on Zoom. Ultimately, I feel the worth of the product boils down to if you enjoy doing these courses or challenges. I thought it was funny before finishing this article I was nearly done with Go Gentle, and Adora Hazard is praised for pointing our that the Stoics were “the original gangsters of self-help.”

 

I found myself getting frustrated by the hustle culture pushed by The Daily Stoic, as the Habits For Success course had me waking up at 4:30 am in the morning while keeping a checklist to mark off tasks for the day. Inspired by Benjamin Franklin, who I read kept track of what virtues he broke, dedicated a notebook to doing the same thing. The experiment told me that I feel like I’m not industrious or prudent enough, and I kept at it longer than Franklin was able to. I was given tools to maximize the productivity of my time, while becoming frazzled with everything that I had put on my plate.

 

The problem for me is that Stoic philosophy inspired me to consider considering what’s in my control and what’s not before I reacted to something. I’m attending AA meetings, and the serenity prayer used by them was inspired by Stoic philosopher Epictetus. As part of the New Year, New You Challenge I made my word for the year courage, and I made the effort to do new and fun things because I made that decision for this year. I do also get to work on balancing my life to do more with it, and that includes self-overcoming.

 

My issue is right now I’m training to do many things at a time, from being an elected official to someone who can help prevent diabetes. With as many things I must focus on, I find the tools from The Daily Stoic helpful, but Holiday makes the point as well that we need to take time to relax. It hurts me when The Green Party or The Kotzebue Chess Club suffer because I can’t give them the attention they need. Do I keep wearing and putting on new hats as they come or should focus on becoming an expert in something?

 

I don’t want just to talk about the hustle culture in The Daily Stoic, as the philosophy has helped me become more grateful and giving. I decided to pick up a hobby for fun while making sure I walk my dog Malik every day. I think it’s fun to discuss the free will issue, but how are we meant to live a good life? Stoic philosophy is used for self-help as the entire school of thought was founded after Zeno wrecked his ship and lost everything. His bounce back was to discover that the incident put him on an amazing journey.

 

Ryan Holiday tattooed the phrase “Amor Fati” on his arm, which means love of fate. Nineteenth century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche popularized the term, and he’s someone whose books are in my backlog while I buy new ones to read along with whatever book club I’m in. There are other schools of thought out there, and I’ve been interested in exploring why we are the way we are. I appreciate the idea that we have a duty we get to fulfill, but we also need to know why we’re doing things Epictetus to know what it is we need to achieve.

An Open Government Starts With Accessible Meetings

In last week’s council meeting for The City of Kotzebue we passed one sole resolution, 26-39, for the election workers who will be working the polls. We also got correspondence from citizens interested in joining Parks & Recreation Advisory Council, and another one I’d like to get into on the difficulty people have had listening to broadcasts of our meetings. Considering how deep we’re in the election season this is a great topic to dig into, as the democratic process is on everyone’s mind. But we need to remember that democracy is more than going to your polling place on election day and casting your vote.

 

Democracy, as we know it, started in Ancient Greece, used as a tool by tyrants to take power over the city states. Robert’s Rules of Order, the guideline The City of Kotzebue uses for its council meetings, goes into the evolution of Democracy in this time period, going from deciding the victor through affirmation, or whichever side was the loudest, to taking a count of who stood where on an issue. A prominent Greek philosopher named Plato at the time said “Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.”

 

As long as I have served on the council it’s been difficult for people to hear what is being said in the meetings if you’re not physically there. We made a step to make our meetings at least ADA compliant, when we held them at The Youth Center that allows people to come with the wheelchair ramp. After a complaint though we moved the meetings back to City Hall, where you need to climb a set of stairs to attend. Our meetings will continue to be uncompliant with ADA standards as long as they are held at City Hall, as I don’t see anyone spending the million dollars to put in an elevator in the building.

 

Democracy is a tool and if we want our citizens to make good decisions they need to be informed. People should get to learn what their government is doing however they like to. An idea was brought up that the city council meetings can be streamed on YouTube or Facebook, and something like that should be done. If people want to listen to the meetings, they should be able to, while also getting to hear what is being said. While we do struggle while upgrading our technology, following procedures is sometimes all you need to do to make something happen, like being strict with Robert’s Rules of Order.

 

With this term with the council coming to an end, I feel disappointed that we took a step forward just to take one back, as my need for communication is not being fulfilled. But I will continue to work on expanding democracy in Northwest Alaska, as we will have more town hall events and gathering input from the people who live here in what direction they’d like to see this region go. Saying you’re an elected official just simply isn’t enough, especially when most voters don’t bother going to the polls. This tells me there’s a disconnect between the governed and the government, and this divide will not be healed until we figure out upcoming crisis we’re all in this together.

After the Flag Fell

Inspired by the Humility chapter of The Pursuit of Happiness by Jeffrey Rosen

I meet up with the ranks of my military Marching forward to vanquish our evil foe The men bravely clash with our adversary Tension builds as our advance becomes slow

The tide of the battle turns against me Enemy forces surrounding us all I panic looking for a way to flee Crying, I watch my flag on the clock fall

My opponent reaches out with their hand “Good game” they say before I flip the board The shame felt in loss they can’t understand I cover my eyes as tears of defeat poured Such an unmanly sight that I’ve become My opponent assures me I’m their chum

Perspective

Inspired by the Reasons For Hope chapter in Rebuild by Graham Boyd and Jack Reardon

Stuck in this dance with a gloomy monster

It mocks my existence imitating me

Matching me perfectly like an imposter

Studying with horror I want to be free

There is a ruckus in this dreadful world

My comrades have broken free from their bonds

Demons follow them as if they were hurled

I ran seeing how these terrors respond

We find a bright light stronger than anything

Entering it we find a vast expanse

Looking at this new fire gives me a sting

The specter so small I forget to glance

The universe is larger than I knew

No fear for my foe knowing what is true

Between Dionysus and Themis

Inspired by the Temperance chapter of The Pursuit of Happiness by Jeffrey Rosen

Dionysus offers me all that pleasures
Much wine and food that bring me to madness
I’m joyful that he gifts me these treasures
In the end though all I feel is sadness

In comes Themis to save me from despair
She teaches me that I desire bad things
That what fills gluttony runs like a hare
I learn to enjoy all that the world brings

Themis says to see her again to climb
Though it’s hard this is where I’m made happy
Everything of value is worth my time
Hades will meet me so I’ll be snappy

Before I ran away from the god of death
Now I find myself lucky out of breath

Quote of the day December 30, 2025

 "Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs." - Farrah Gray

Books I've read in 2025

Books I've read in 2025

The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday

A Century of Chess: Book I: 1900-1909 by Sam Kahn

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki

Robert's Rules of Order

Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith

Rebuild: the Economy, Leadership, and You by Graham Boyd and Jack Reardon

Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche

Star Trek Voyager Caretaker by L.A. Graf

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Star Trek Voyager The Murdered Sun by Christie Golden

Letters from a Stoic by Lucius Annaeus Seneca

The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

The World as Will and Representation, Vol. 1 by Arthur Schopenhauer

Star Trek Voyager The Escape by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Das Kapital Vol. 1 by Karl Marx

Right Thing, Right Now by Ryan Holiday

Breaking Through Power by Ralph Nader